I see people here complain because Obama isn't "transparent" with the

[shraby]

things he does.
Can anyone imagine what would have happened if Obama had announced when he started the negotiations to normalize relations with Cuba that he had that in mind?
Oh, the rending of garments and tearing of hair that would have gone on. The faux news would have crucified him as well as many others including the republicans throughout the land.

edited to fix a word

[True Blue Door]

1. The logic of haters is that Obama only does anything good

as part of a broader conspiracy to do evil. There's no penetrating their circular reasoning. Hate justifies itself by any means necessary.

[think]

2. On Cuba negotiations? No. Most complaints in regards to transparency are about things like the TPP

No one expects every action by the president to be "transparent".

However, when a massive trade deal is being done and the majority of Democratic House congress members want greater transparency then there does appear to be a problem...

Senator Warren: If TPP Transparency Would Lead To Public Opposition, Then TPP Is Wrong
by Mike Masnick / Thu, Jun 13th 2013 10:37pm


"I have heard the argument that transparency would undermine the Administration's policy to complete the trade agreement because public opposition would be significant. If transparency would lead to widespread public opposition to a trade agreement, then that trade agreement should not be the policy of the United States. I believe in transparency and democracy and I think the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) should too."

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130613/12035523456/senator-warren-if-tpp-transparency-would-lead-to-public-opposition-then-policy-is-wrong.shtml

DeLauro, Miller Push For More Transparency, Congressional Consultation In Trade Negotiations

WASHINGTON, DC—Reps. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) and George Miller (D-CA) led a group of more than 130 House members today urging United States Trade Representative Ambassador Ron Kirk to include stronger congressional consultations and a more open and transparent process as the United States negotiates the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam, Canada and Mexico. The representatives stressed the need for Congress to have input in the laws they are responsible for writing, saying in part “the negotiations USTR is pursuing will create binding policies on future Congresses in numerous areas” including “labor, patent and copyright, land use, food, agriculture and product standards, natural resources, the environment, professional licensing, state-owned enterprises and government procurement policies, as well as financial, healthcare, energy, telecommunications and other service sector regulations.” Independent polls have consistently shown the public supports fair trade deals, across all incomes, occupations and political affiliations...

~Snip~

Full post:
http://delauro.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=997:delauro-miller-push-for-more-transparency-congressional-consultation-in-trade-negotiations&Itemid=21

[Ykcutnek]

3. He should keep doing what he's doing.

It's working for him and there's no good reason to change his methods.

This president is in legacy-building mode. People will just have to deal.

[Bluenorthwest]

4. And yet Obama's own words promised transparency and offered reasons for that objective

My Administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government. We will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration. Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government.

Government should be transparent. Transparency promotes accountability and provides information for citizens about what their Government is doing. Information maintained by the Federal Government is a national asset. My Administration will take appropriate action, consistent with law and policy, to disclose information rapidly in forms that the public can readily find and use. Executive departments and agencies should harness new technologies to put information about their operations and decisions online and readily available to the public. Executive departments and agencies should also solicit public feedback to identify information of greatest use to the public.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/TransparencyandOpenGovernment

People who claim to have certain standards should in fact live by them or expect to be called out for that contradictory behavior. That's how it works.

[MFrohike]

5. This is stupid

What if the negotiations had resulted in a war? Would you still be as smugly denouncing calls for transparency? I highly doubt it.

Everything has its time and place. Absolute transparency in government is more likely an ideal than a practical reality. That being said, it's utterly stupid to mock people who want transparency in government. Even worse, it's fundamentally undemocratic. Governments are instituted to serve the people, not the reverse. The servant has a fundamental duty to tell the actual sovereign what it's been doing.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

6. It looks like we won't find out what would happen if the people were informed.

Whenever the people are well informed, they can be trusted with their own government; that whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them to rights.

 Thomas Jefferson

[pampango]

7. The climate agreement with China was negotiated in secret. The Iranian negotiations are secret.

I would love for Woodrow Wilson's 14 points to have prevailed.

1. Open covenants of peace, openly arrived at, after which there shall be no private international understandings of any kind but diplomacy shall proceed always frankly and in the public view.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourteen_Points

Unfortunately, international negotiations most often occur in secret. Wilson's point has been largely ignored both at the time and since.

[shraby]

8. Nice sidestepping. Only a couple addressed the premise I made..that if he had

brought it out when he conceived and started to implement the negotiations, the airwaves would be filled with propaganda against the very idea.

[rhett o rick]

9. Maybe you don't understand how hard a democracy is. You are correct that it's much easier

for a leader to operate in secret. Obama knows how important transparency is in a democracy that's why he campaigned on it. But not that he is president, kiss your transparency goodbye.