I shouldn't be superstitious, but I am, so I approach this Politico article with a poor attitude, as it looks forward to an Obama administration and doubts the feasibility of promises of open government. The article reflects the youth of the writer, in that there's no mention of Jimmy Carter and his pledges, some of which he carried out, few of which did much to improve government. For example, a law (the "Sunshine Act", maybe) required meetings of federal bodies, like the board of the Commodity Credit Corporation, be publicized in advance. That might have had a small impact on the decline of the CCC board process. (The CCC used to be a big part of the USDA mechanism, but it's now degenerated--I don't see any Federal Register notice of CCC meetings.)
(Whoops--I blamed Jimmy Carter for it, but the Sunshine Act was actually passed in 1976, probably part of the good government reaction to Nixon's abuses.)
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