Expectations of Government

I thought this brief article about Obama and the media was interesting.

I was thinking the other day about what a transparent government would look like, feel like -- or even what is meant by 'a transparent government'. For example: Principles of This Government. What would be the result of having an unambiguous statement that says The United States Does Not Do XXXXX..... and then having it turn out that actually, we do do it - broadly, or once in a while, or by someone who decided to do it anyway, or by someone who was 'doing it on our behalf'. Would the broad, clear statements be believed any past that point? That suggests that the broad, clear statements might be better phrased with qualifications - The United States Does Not Do XXXXX Except When...- but then, would that mean that people would think they're just giving themselves an out for when they WANT to do it. That's the problem with unambiguous, even qualified unambiguous, statements. They're either flat-out true, or they're weasel-worded. Even flat-out true ones can be disregarded, as Bush showed. Damn principles.

So what about things we know are problems? For example: Health Care. (Ah, but does everyone think thats a problem? Most people? And most people, or 'most people whose opinion we care about'? Um. Okay, then: The Economy. Everything agrees, thats a problem. Hell, even John McCain agrees (or at least he did; lord knows what he thinks now). But lets say that the government says This is a problem, and here's what we're going to do. Well, unless its just pabulum - we're gonna do really neat stuff, you bet -- then they're taking the chance of just putting a target out there for special interests and lobbyists to take shots at. Unless they can simultaneously energise the people who care, so as to generate support, at the same time that they're energising the opposition to fight the specific actions -- well, the feeling might well be 'keep it at the pabulum level'. Which wouldn't be very transparent, to my mind.

Am I expecting too much?