Obama's Contradictions  

From Time Magazine's Man of the Year interview of Barack Obama:

"And outside of specific policy measures, two years from now, I want the American people to be able to say, "Government's not perfect; there are some things Obama does that get on my nerves. But you know what? I feel like the government's working for me. I feel like it's accountable. I feel like it's transparent. I feel that I am well informed about what government actions are being taken. I feel that this is a President and an Administration that admits when it makes mistakes and adapts itself to new information, that believes in making decisions based on facts and on science as opposed to what is politically expedient." Those are some of the intangibles that I hope people two years from now can claim."

We have our first example of Obama's "transparent" government in his reaction to the Blago case. "I had no contact with the Governor or his office," Obama said, "and so we were, I was not aware of what was happening."

As far as making decisions based on fact and science? Obama recently named John P. Holdren as his science advisor. This will be the person advising on the best use of technology to improve America, yet Holdren does not understand himself the way that technology can improve things like extraction of natural resources. This flaw alone could prove devastating for the American economy.

Obama also went back on his word about not employing lobbyists in the field for which they were lobbying he appointed Tom Vilsack as Secretary of Agriculture.

From 2000 to 2006, Vilsack, the former governor of Iowa, and his wife collected $42,782 in subsidies from the department he was tapped Wednesday to oversee.

Also, Vilsack is a partner at a lobbying law firm that trumpeted his advice to clients on agribusiness development and renewable energy – a job that appears to bump up against Obama’s promise to bar appointees from working on issues related to their employment for two years.

With all of Obama's backtracks, maybe it's a good thing he said he wanted to do things like bankrupt the coal industry during the campaign. At the rate he's going, we'll see a bailout for them instead.