The office of President-elect Barack Obama has sent out a stiff seven-page questionnaire to those seeking high-ranking posts in his administration. The application delves deeply into the activities of family members and one’s associations.
According to the New York Times, Obama “has elevated the vetting even beyond what might have been expected.”
The application includes 63 requests for personal and professional records and all associations including those of spouses and grown children.
The application even requests information about all electronic communications the applicant has ever made. Any embarrassing e-mail ever sent, must be disclosed. All blog posts and links to Facebook pages must be disclosed. Any screen names used on the Internet and all aliases must be disclosed.
Gun ownership by anyone in the family must be disclosed.
Information in a personal diary must be disclosed if it contains anything embarrassing or would present a conflict of interest. The NY Times goes on to say:
The NYT interviewed Michael Berman, a lawyer and lobbyist who worked in the transitions of Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter. Berman said after reviewing the Obama application:
“I am very happy I am not seeking a job in the federal government.”
An article in the
American Sentinel points out that now that Obama has been elected, apparently one’s associations are really important.
WTOP news summarized the most intrusive application ever devised by any incoming administration in an article entitled
Plan to tell all to Obama administration . The article suggests that applicants must “be ready to dig through all your old documents to find all of your resumes and biographical statements for the last decade.”
WTOP news has also provided a
