Obama Administration Pushing For Banks To Modify Millions Of Mortgages To Settle Foreclosure Claims

First a Nobel Peace Prize, and now this:

Obama Flaunts Openness Award


Obama’s only event at the White House that isn’t closed to the press today [Wednesday­, March 16, 2011] is a ceremony in which he’ll accept an award for being open to the press. 

According to his public schedule, Obama has four behind-clo­sed-doors meetings from 10 a.m. to 3:05 p.m.: his daily briefing, a talk with the USAID administra­tor, a session with senior advisers, and a huddle with his defense secretary. All of the meets are in the Oval Office, and all of them are “closed press,” the White House says. 

But at 2:55 p.m., Obama will emerge to “accept an award from a coalition of good government groups and transparen­cy advocates to recognize ‘his deep commitment to an open and transparen­t government­—of, by, and for the people’ in conjunctio­n with Sunshine Week,” the White House said in guidance to reporters.

And, importantl­y: “There will be a pool spray at the top.” 

The White House didn’t specify what Obama will say, if anything, when he accepts the award. But he probably won’t mention that his administra­tion acted on fewer requests for informatio­n last year even as it was asked for more, a tally documented by the AP.

And he also probably won’t talk about his aggressive effort to prosecute federal workers who leak informatio­n to shed light on wrongdoing. Or that despite his anti-lobby­ist rhetoric, his aides are meeting with lobbyists just outside the White House, allowing the administra­tion to keep the meetings off the books from public view. 

We wonder if he’ll even take a question from the press pool, a practice Obama seems to have grown to hate.

Read the Article at HuffingtonPost