How Is Obama Doing On Open Government?

An anonymous reader writes "OMB Watch today published an in-depth analysis of the Obama administration's progress on a wide-ranging set of open government recommendations. Key findings of the report include strong and consistent leadership from the White House on government openness and meaningful utilization of e-government and Web 2.0 technologies. But there has been no high-level effort to improve electronic records management and preservation, and the implementation of improved Freedom of Information Act policies has lagged."

Okay...

[MrEricSir]

Then where's the openness when it comes to Bradley Manning?

Is he open?

[DoofusOfDeath]

I'm not sure. Let me ask him whether or not the NSA ran a warrantless-wiretapping operation at AT&T, and whether or not the CIA ferried people to other countries for torture. Someone dedicated to openness would undoubtedly answer that question clearly and unambiguously, right?

Re:Well....he certainly talks a good game

[revscat]

Reality: Recent history seems to show that there are two things no President has the power to affect: the Pentagon and Wall Street. Presidents can only begin new actions. They cannot end or meaningfully decrease existing ones where boots are on the ground.

We'll see what happens with Libya. If it turns into a Serbian-style air campaign, then we will be in and out relatively quickly. But if the Marines or Army get involved, we will be there indefinitely.

Re:Well....he certainly talks a good game

[Wiarumas]

And then he got intel fit for a President and reversed his position. He must have good reason - ultimately I trust the man's judgment. I'm sure I would reverse my stance as well if I heard some compelling evidence to do so.

Re:Well....he certainly talks a good game

[atriusofbricia]

And then he got intel fit for a President and reversed his position. He must have good reason - ultimately I trust the man's judgment. I'm sure I would reverse my stance as well if I heard some compelling evidence to do so.

Or he's a stuffed shirt politician who could give any other politician a run for their money in the area of saying what is needed to get elected.

Even if he did start his campaign for President virtually 10 minutes after becoming one, he was a Senator on the Foreign Relations committee. Do you suppose that might have included access to some of that special President intel? hmmm?

Re:Well....he certainly talks a good game

[ArcherB]

There seem to be people that think the government is taking over everything and there are those that think the corporations are taking over. Sorry, but people that see the government "taking over" are delusional. There is plenty of evidence, on the other hand, that the corporations are at best APPROVING everything that is the government is doing (especially in congress) and at worst DICTATING everything that is happening. I find the threat of a country run solely at the whims of what the corporate elite want MUCH more frighting than some non-existent fear the the government is going to take over everything. (Oddly, the same people complaining about government getting involved in everything are for restricting access to abortions. Try to figure that one out...)

Sorry, but I don't believe that the majority of corporations like many things this government is doing. For example:
Higher healthcare premiums.
Higher minimum wage.
Higher corporate taxes.
Skewering companies that send employees and management to "seminars" at hot vacations spots (Vegas hates him)
Backing unions over corporations 100% of the time.
Backing laws like "employees must pay union dues, even if they don't belong to the union."
Backing laws like "union votes will be open so that those hairy guys from Jersey with gold chains and jogging clothes pushing for the union who know where you live will know exactly how you voted (gotta keep it fair, you know).
Taking over various corporations and firing management.
Bailing out the competition.
Setting strict guidelines for accepting bailout money (like you must higher more minorities or use "green" tech)
Forcing companies that don't want bailout money to take bail out money ...

Need I go on?

Re:Well....he certainly talks a good game

[demonlapin]

William Safire, before he was a New York Times columnist, worked as a speechwriter for Nixon. He wrote a book called Before the Fall [amazon.com] about the pre-Watergate Nixon White House, and it's a pretty interesting set of stories about the man. One particularly informative anecdote is the story of Nixon trying to tear down a "temporary" building that had been erected on Pennsylvania Ave during WW2 as an office building (for the Navy, IIRC), on the grounds that it was unnecessary and architecturally inappropriate for the setting. It took the full might of the Presidency two years to get it torn down - much of which was spent fighting not Congress, but the Federal bureaucracy.