There is a 3 minute video with this article which you would be well advised to view. It is Obama speaking in crystal clear terms about his intention to televise the health care negotiations on C-Span. That is, the negotiations which are now directly ahead of us. There is no ambiguity, Obama made an absolutely clear promise to televise the negotiations on C-Span. He gave his reasons, and they are persuasive. This is no longer Obama's position, essentially his promise is null and void. Now what ? (http://realclearpolitics.blogs.time.com/) January 5th, 2010
_Obama's C-Span Problem_ (http://realclearpolitics.blogs.time.com/2010/01/05/obamas-c-span-problem/) Posted by Tom Bevan Brian Lamb has put President Obama on the spot. Lamb is the CEO of C-Span, and today he wrote a letter to the leaders of Congress asking them to allow cameras in the room for the final negotiations on the health care bill. Lamb _wrote_ (http://www.politico.com/static/PPM116_cspan.html) : President Obama, Senate and House leaders, many of your rank-and-file members, and the nation's editorial pages have all talked about the value of transparent discussions on reforming the nation's health care system. Now that the process moves to the critical stage of reconciliation between Chambers, we respectfully request that you allow the public full access, through television, to legislation that will affect the lives of every single American. Indeed, this was one of Obama's signature promises on the campaign trail: [ Here is where the video clip is inserted in the article ] It's hard to get more explicit than that. But that was then. Today, when asked for the 3rd time whether President Obama believes that the "standard" he set during the campaign for transparency on health care negotiations is being met by the current process (which now appears to include bypassing the formal conference process), White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs gave a flaccid but telling response. "I do not believe the American people have lacked for information on what's in these bills - the political and policy arguments around different people's positions - I think that's been well documented," _Gibbs said_ (http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2010/01/05/gibbs_public_has_not_lacked_for_in formation_on_health_care_bill.html) . With all due respect, the reporter did not ask Gibbs for his appraisal of what he thinks the public does and does not know about the health care bills. Rather, the question is very simple: will President Obama honor his campaign pledge and demand that the final health care negotiations are televised on C-Span? Judging from Gibbs' response, the answer is an obvious "no."
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