Hope, Change, Transparency -- Honesty?

When President Barack Obama was running his campaign to become the next president of the United States, his platform was allegedly based on the concept of Hope, Change, and Transparency. Citizens of the United States looked forward to these necessary changes, not realizing that day may never come. Obviously, these concepts were put aside once Obama was installed in Washington DC.

Nonetheless, one would believe and expect that a man of Obama's abilities, caliber and education could understand the meaning of each of those words and fashioned his presidency based on the initiative each word projected in order to promote the very thing he claimed was needed. Hope, Change, and Transparency.

It certainly appears that Obama has done exactly the opposite by breaking many of his most important campaign promises he had previously made to the American people. Today, in a somewhat slippery manner, he instead uses wordcraft to circumvent initiating those promises by re-serving those selfsame (and as yet) unused ideas using different phrases all the while promoting them under the guise of a "new start". This was more than evident during the State of the Union address from President Obama.

Now he is inviting the Republicans to become a part of a bi-partisan effort to revive his "Obama Care" health care plan even though he was unable to get it passed the first time. The fact that he insists on keeping the same plan that the American people refused to consider in the first place instead of shelving it and starting over is beyond the comprehension of even those who may have originally agreed with him. Why would any president, including President Obama, continue to force an agenda that the American people have disregarded as too costly and ineffective?

Many believe this invitation is nothing more than minimally a trick and more likely a trap by Obama against the Republicans. As the President continues to respond to the questions involving starting the health care debate over from scratch with vague, unclear, and ambiguous answers, it is no wonder the Republicans are viewing the February 25 televised health care summit with misgivings and certainly with suspicious mistrust that they will actually be listened to. Besides, what will a summit such as this generate during the space of only half a day?

Will this so-called "summit" actually be a meeting geared to invoke bi-partisan leadership or is it merely a gladiator-type of arena specifically contrived "for show"? Perhaps he really is doing nothing more than trying to pre-empt continued bi-partisan upsets by staging such an event to convince the American people that he really is interested in what the nation wants, whether true or not. The problem is that President Obama promised "sunshine" on these events during his campaign but is just now getting around to actually doing so for the first time. Clearly, it may be a situation where he has decided to do the right thing, even when it is too little too late.

Amazingly, even after receiving a cool response regarding his invitation to join in with a now open, televised, and transparent debate, he still insists on doing business "as usual" in spite of how unwell he has managed his presidential goals so far. With the current record of non-accomplishment layered with lies already told by President Obama during the past year, why would the American people believe he is telling the truth today? Why anyone would put faith in a presidency that seems to ignore its own citizens while insisting "he" knows what is best for the rest of us is hard to comprehend. United States citizens do not appreciate lies by their elected leaders and especially by their own president.

Hope, Change, Transparency. Have those lofty conceptual ideals disappeared? Perhaps another and more important word that President Obama needs to consider during his second attempt at providing Hope, Change and Transparency is the one known as "Honesty". It is one word that does not need re-defining.

Sources:
GOP wary of pitfalls in Obama's health care summit, by Charles Babington, February 9 2010
Has Obama Kept Campaign Promises?, by Shelby Capacio, January 16 2010
President Obama Announces Bipartisan Health Reform Summit: "Put your ideas on the table", by Erica Sagrans, Feb 8 2010