National press gets a taste of crafty Obama

Carol Marin in the Chicago Sun-Times reports:

It's about how the Washington press corps has discovered to its dismay that Team Obama preaches transparency infinitely better than it practices it. It's something we in the Chicago press corps have known for a wearying long time and have tried to explain to our national brothers and sisters during the 2008 presidential campaign. But many of them were too besotted to listen.

Going back to early 2007, shortly after Barack Obama announced his run for the presidency, the fortress that was and still is his communications operation ferociously pushed back on all serious questions. And avoided Chicago media, who knew him best, like the plague.

Our inquiry then was about Obama's fund-raiser, Tony Rezko, who now resides in a federal lockup.

We wanted to know how much Rezko not only personally contributed to Obama, but how much he had raised from others; we wanted to know about Rezko's low-income, taxpayer-subsidized housing developments in Obama's state Senate district that became vacant slums once Rezko made his money and split, and we wanted to know the full details of Rezko's assistance in Obama's purchase of a Kenwood mansion.

If Obama was more open about his past, the rumors about him wouldn't have taken on a life of their own.