A Little Bit of Everything: The “Transparency” of Obama

On the night of April 5, President Barack Obama had a rare “secret fundraiser” in the Tony Jefferson Hotel that was completely closed to the press, which 20 people paid $40,000 to attend. The information given by Charlie Spiering in a blog that follows the Oval Office, and what caught the attention of the journalist is that customarily, in these type of events, a member of the White House press pool is allowed to enter in the first part of the meeting, while the president gives his speech to his supporters. Spiering said that in December, Obama had another two of these cash-collecting meetings for his election campaign in Washington, D.C. One of these meetings was held in the St. Regis Hotel with Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick. One of the journalists who accompanies the presidential plane, Air Force One, inquired why it was closed to journalists, to which the White House Press Secretary, Jay Carney, replied: “Because, as you know, when the President doesn’t give an address, we don’t have the pool in.”

The other, in which the entrance to the meeting room was blocked by the Secret Service at the Jefferson Hotel, was on Dec. 7. They even ordered Matt Negrin, an ABC News reporter, to leave the hotel because he was socializing with the donors in the bar after the event, which each of the 20 people there paid $35,800 attend.

There is more gossip: Obama spoke personally with each one of the attendees and when the reporter Negrin pried, one of them only ran his finger over his lips as if it were a zipper and said, “No comment.”

The Republicans do not remain even a small step behind, also having their fundraising meetings behind doors closed to the press. We could cite that the Republican who seems closest to winning the candidacy, Mitt Romney himself, has more than enough money — so much so that more than a few signs in the protests of the outraged Americans brand him as the candidate of the 1 percent, referring to this minority portion of the country that accumulates 80 percent of the wealth. In reality, it is not fair that they say this to Romney, because this nickname can be shared by all of the other candidates vying for the Oval Office.

Supposedly, the “transparency” of the American democracy should provide that the citizens know which people fund their president and those aspiring to be one, as the logical refrain says, “the one who pays is in charge.” But this practice of secrecy and others of this style sometimes prevent people from knowing exactly how and who moves the strings of power in a so-called democratic country that corrupts itself more each time, in each election process.