The headline of this Associated Press article is a bit deceiving.
"Obama says Bush not solely to blame"
I expected it to focus on why Obama is cutting Bush some slack on a specific issue.
That's not what it's about.
The part about Bush not being solely to blame is almost a throw away line. Yes, it gets the reader's attention, but it tells little about the content of the article.
The report is actually about Barack Obama's plan to change politics and engage average Americans in government.
He believes the Internet is the key to change.
CEDAR FALLS, Iowa -- Not all the nation's ills can be blamed on President Bush, Democratic candidate Barack Obama said Wednesday as he called on Americans to change the nature of politics and institute more openness in government.
"Part of the problem here is not just George Bush and the White House," Obama told a crowd of hundreds gathered at a park in Cedar Falls. "We can't just change political parties and continue to do the same kind of things we've been doing. We can't just go about business as usual and think it's going to turn out differently."
Obama, a senator from Illinois, said average Americans must be brought back to the table when dealing with every issue, from health care to education to trade.
"We've got to make sure workers are represented, not just CEOs. We've got to make sure patients are represented and the nurses are represented, not just drug companies," he said.
To make the government more accountable, Obama said he would post all non-emergency bills online for five days before he signed them into law, allowing Americans a chance to weigh in on the legislation. In addition, he said he would post all meetings between lobbyists and government agencies online.
Obama said he would require Cabinet officials to speak to Americans via national broadband town-hall style meetings to discuss issues at their agencies. He also pledged to issue an executive order that information about the government's operations must be released to those seeking it unless it could harm a protected interest.
Obama cited his record of backing ethics and lobbying reforms, including co-authoring a bill that requires all government spending to be posted online — allowing anyone to do a simple Internet search and find that information. He said that during his time as a state lawmaker he helped to create hospital report cards so that patients could understand the quality of care offered at each hospital.
Some thoughts--
If the Internet is required to get Americans to participate and personally experience openness in government, Obama will need to make sure that all citizens have Internet access and ability.
Making the entire country computer literate is no small challenge.
Once one gets past that giant, potentially divisive hurdle, there are other goofy aspects of his plan to make government open to the masses.
A pledge to post all non-emergency bills online for five days before signing them is lame.
What does he want? Will there be meaningless, unscientific Internet polls for geeks and freaks to sway President Obama?
We already have a legislative process. Americans have senators and representatives to contact when they want to weigh in on bills and express their opinions.
Posting bills online is just a gimmick. It sounds like something Dennis Kucinich would have as the foundation for his campaign.
And the national town-hall meetings on the Web with cabinet officials aren't significantly different from current online discussions with government officials. Submit a question. Get an inadequate answer. Same old, same old.
For example, Sen. Russ Feingold, embarrassment from Wisconsin, has held online "listening sessions."
Utterly worthless. A complete waste of time.
Clearly, Obama is courting Internet users and trying to appear like a new breed of politician.
In the process, he may be alienating large segments of the population while not really offering his target demographic anything that would be significantly different from what's available now.
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