“For the first time in history, records of White House visitors will be made available to the public on an ongoing basis,” Obama said in a released statement on September 4, 2009. “We will achieve our goal of making this administration the most open and transparent administration in history not only by opening the doors of the White House to more Americans, but by shining a light on the business conducted inside. Americans have a right to know whose voices are being heard in the policymaking process.”
But reviews indicated the Obama team was releasing considerably less than they promised, and there were significant questions of whether the logs were even accurate. The Center for Public Integrity concluded, “the logs routinely omit or cloud key details about the identity of visitors, who they met with, the nature of the visit, and even includes the names of people who never showed up.”
There was another wrinkle: If a meeting with a lobbyist could turn into a political headache, Obama White House staff just met at a coffee shop down the street or in a conference room off the White House grounds.
[Remember this when Biden and his team insist that they kept no logs of visitors at Wilmington and Rehoboth. As Jim points out, Biden spends about 40% of his presidency in those locations. — Ed]
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