Let’s take him at his word. This time.
Compare these two. Speaking to a group of African-American
journalists,
he says:
What I would ask is that I am treated like other candidates in
terms of expectations and that people look at my entire
record.
But his staff is
“terrified” of people looking into his history:
Reporters who have covered Obama’s biography or his problems
with certain voter blocs have been challenged the most
aggressively. “They’re terrified of people poking around
Obama’s life,” one reporter says. “The whole Obama
narrative is built around this narrative that Obama and David
Axelrod built, and, like all stories, it’s not entirely true. So
they have to be protective of the crown jewels.” Another reporter
notes that, during the last year, Obama’s old friends and
Harvard classmates were requested not to talk to the press without
permission.
Somehow, I think that the
lack of transparency may continue regardless of what Obama says
about his record