Barack Obama promised a new era of government transparency. He even pledged a fully transparent congressional debate on health care reform, telling us repeatedly that the negotiations would be televised on C‑Span.
Now in power, he’s forgotten that tune. But of course, that’s not up to him. It’s up to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Last week, she laughed at such transparency.
But Clint Hendler of the Columbia Journalism Review has graded the president for what he — not Pelosi or Reid — can deliver on transparency. Regarding state secrets, Hendler gives Obama a “D.” With Freedom of Information Act requests the administration has done better: Mark it a “B.”
I’ve talked before about problems with the recovery.gov website. But what about data.gov? By the end of the month there should be some meat on that site’s database bones, but a lot more work will remain. Call it a “D‑plus.”
Hendler gives an “F” to the White House’s routine — and utterly opaque — practice of concocting off-the-record background briefings. An “A‑minus,” though, goes for White House visitor records … despite a refusal to issue lists of visitors in the administration’s first seven months. Further, the White House reserves its right to hold back this info at any time.
The president’s grades sure aren’t that of an overachiever. Maybe he needs a tutor.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
5 replies on “Grading the President”
If you think you can do any better than President Obama, maybe you need to run as President or forever hold your peace…
I think a bright 8th grader could do a better job than Obama. But only if home schooled, not propagandized by our public schools.
But grading Obama on achieving his goals, I’d give him an A. If he’d passed the health care fiasco in ’09, A+.
Many ridicule Obama as inept or incompetent. However, if his goal is to explode the deficit (we’ll never be able to pay this off; get real), his batting average is better than that of any baseball player ever.
However, he’s getting to be an embarrassment to the media, his not-so-silent partner in all of his shenanigans. They’re starting to look like the totally-biased stooges that they are.
They don’t mind being totally-biased stooges (they had no problems with this during the Clinton admin, either…until Bill’s johnson became a better story than the GOP, who still took their lumps), but they don’t want to look bad…or miss a really big story.
When the biased media totally ignored the revelation of the Global Warming hoax emails, this was self-defeating behavior. Now it’s increasingly Climate Change. Our gov’t is basically telling us, Hey, we don’t care if it gets hotter or colder, we STILL think we can control the weather with our god-like powers. But we’re taking the money, one way or the other.
This has been tried before, except the object was a really tall tower in Babylon (also known as Babel; the A‑rabs have another name for it) as a monument to their magnificent ability to build such a tower. Then God stepped in and put the word on ’em. Well, a bunch of words, actually… and in several different languages.
Barack Hussein Obama is neither God nor a god. He should listen to the wisdom of Dirty Harry: A man’s gotta know his limitations.
He probably won’t, so we’re screwed. Coming up: the sequel to Billy Ayers’ book (perhaps Obama will write it this time), Dreams of My Father. Working title: Debts of My Grandchildren.
He may have put forth a similar performance in school and that’s why he’s sealed all his education records.
What should one expect from a person who’s whole life has been all talk and little action?
“Maybe he needs a tutor.”
Why would he need a tutor? He has a telepromptor!
Regarding Jenny’s comment.
IN THIS COUNTRY, WE DO HAVE THE RIGHT TO CRITICIZE THE DICTATOR, I MEAN PRESIDENT/WANNABE DDICTATOR/G‑D
Perhaps, Jenny, you would be happier in North Korea, Iran, Cuba (warm weather there), Syria, Yemen or some other countries, where one cannot /would not, dare criticize the leader.