Obama Meetings Means Something

“Better to illuminate than merely to shine, to deliver to others contemplated truths than merely to contemplate.” – St. Thomas Aquinas

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3 November 2009 No Comment

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By WC Windbag

Last weekend, in response to freedom of information requests from a variety of groups, the Obama Administration released White House visitor logs from January 20, 2009 to July 31, 2009 which included approximately 100 high profile names from George Soros to Brad Pitt. Initially, there was a bit of hay generated because the list of names included “Bill Ayres”, “John Edwards”, all “Jeremiah Wright”, but most turned out to be “false hits”, and were quickly corrected. This did not stop Keith Olbermann from going into a sort of orgasmic frenzy when naming four conservative Twitterers the worst people in the world for their reporting information that White House had provided.

No matter. With all the false hits removed, there are still plenty of interesting names. Although there are people from across the spectrum, there is definitely a pattern of left-leaning interest group leaders, celebrities, journalists, and business leaders. There is nothing wrong with this. Obama should be allowed to meet with whom he wants, and when he wants, although the American people have the right to judge him on the company he keeps.

Investors.com took a look at the list, and noticed Obama’s most frequent guest, and provided some thoughts…

The list reveals visits from activists, left-wing foundations, the feminist lobby, union bosses and noted anti-capitalists whose ideas would put the U.S. economy into the ground. The list also shows the White House had little exposure to policymakers on the frontlines of some of the most important decisions the president must make.

In the former category, there’s Service Employees International Union boss Andy Stern, who told the Wall Street Journal that if the power of persuasion didn’t work, then the persuasion of power would have to do. The records show Stern had 22 meetings, many face-to-face with the president, more than anyone else known so far. Stern might as well borrow a White House bedroom.

And that may be why the president has been so solicitous of union demands at the expense of the economy. As the jobless rate hits 9.8%, unions have managed to persuade the president to impose tire tariffs, violate the NAFTA treaty with Mexican truck restrictions, place protectionist “Buy American” limitations on federal contracts, and ice Colombian, Panamanian and Korean free trade treaties. Stern’s union has also harassed banks that took bailouts, making one wonder if a sort of Cuban or Venezuelan revolutionary mob activity against business has the White House imprimatur.

While Stern gets what he wants from the White House, the released visitors list shows no record of huddling with U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk, whose trade pacts could create 600,000 jobs if ratified, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Mr. Stern is a lefty, union guy, and Obama would be clueless if he did not meet with the man who helped get him to the White House. Union folks walked the street knocking on doors to get him elected. The unions were energized and turned out the votes for the Obama campaign, but the fact that Obama has met with Stern more than any other person does raise an eyebrow or two, considering what the union supports. Card check, single payer, anti-free trade… these are not broad American values.

Like I wrote above, Obama can meet with anyone he wants, but we the People get to decide whether or not he is using his time as our elected leader wisely.