Obama Already Going Back On A Promise

Full disclosure---if you know me, you know this already---I voted for Barack Obama. I thought he was the best man for the job. That's because he is. But I am not going to spend the next four to eight years wearing blinders, either. When I see him doing something I don't like, I will call him on it.

On the campaign trail, Senator Obama said, "I am running to tell the lobbyists in Washington that their days of setting the agenda are over. They have not funded my campaign. They won't work in my White House." And rgarding their negative influence on politics: "That's what happens when lobbyists set the agenda and that's why they won't drown out your voices anymore when I am president of the United States of America."

Well...the New York Times has published a list of former lobbyists, or those who have close ties to lobbyists, who are working for Obama, either on his transition team, or who have accepted White House positions. What's the Obama camp's excuse? No previous administration has had stricter rules and regulations on who they hire (if you've seen their job application, which is available for perusal on the Obama website, change.gov, that's easy to believe). And of course, these folks aren't currently lobbyists, though some were lobbying as recently as this year.

Sorry, but that's not good enough. On the campaign trail, very recently, Barack Obama mocked John McCain's claims that he would show lobbyists the door. Obama said that, “after nearly three decades in Washington, John McCain can’t see or won’t acknowledge what’s obvious to all of us here today: that lobbyists aren’t just part of the system in Washington, they’re part of the problem.”

Hard to believe that Barack Obama has suddenly decided that lobbyists can instead be part of the solution. Maybe it's a simple matter of realizing that lobbyists are incredibly knowledgeable within the scope of their own special interests, and he can't pass on tapping into that knowledge. I am concerned, though, that he is playing with fire. Let's hope it's not the American people who get burned.