Lobbying the White House

The Washington Post has an interesting expose out today about the level of access lobbyists have to the White House, as revealed by the official visitor logs.  One visitor is even quoted as saying, “You need a lobbyist to get a meeting.”  This is not the new Washington the “Hope and Change” President sold the American people.

President Obama has a long history of bashing lobbyists publicly, while welcoming them in through the backdoor.  As a candidate, Obama promised to ban lobbyists from his administration, but quickly found a loophole by granting waivers to the lobbyists he wanted on his team.  He pledged to increase transparency by publishing White House visitor logs, but only did so after being sued.  His staff has also found a way to circumvent the logs by hosting meetings with lobbyists outside the White House at local coffee shops.  Obama bemoans the influence of big money and lobbying in elections, yet many of his top campaign bundlers are lobbyists.

While President Obama’s disingenuous rhetoric when it comes to lobbying reform deserves the attention of all Americans who expect honesty from their leaders, it should surprise no one.  On issue after issue, Obama is permitted by the media to make enormous promises that never have any chance of being realized.  Obama is an accessory to this activity because any responsible politician with a conscience should have the decency not to make these promises in the first place.  By now, we know Mr. Obama well enough to know that he can’t possibly believe his own words – he just knows it sounds good – and polls well.