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The New Office of Public Liaison in the Obama Administration
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by Karen Hatter | January 25, 2009 at 12:45 pm
824 views | 26 Recommendations | 11 comments
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We Are One Concert, 2009 Presidential Inauguration, 18 January, Washington, DC
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The Office of Public Liaison, full title, the Office of Public Liaison and Intergovernmental Affairs, meant to allow the average American citizen direct input into the Obama administration, is defined by the Department of State:
The Office of Public Liaison and Intergovernmental Affairs creates and coordinates opportunities for dialog between the Administration and the American public to improve public awareness of and involvement in the Department and its work. We also provide international outreach support services to state and local elected officials in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and all other inhabited U.S. territories.
This office is the central point of coordination for domestic speaking engagements, briefings, and conference programs in Washington, DC and around the country.
From Whitehouse.gov:
The Office of Public Liaison & Intergovernmental Affairs (OPL-IGA) is the front door to the White House through which everyone can participate and inform the work of the President.
OPL-IGA takes the Administration out of Washington and into communities across America, stimulating honest dialogue and ensuring that America's citizens and their elected officials have a government that works effectively for them and with them.
OPL-IGA will bring new voices to the table, build relationships with constituents and seeks to embody the essence of the President's movement for change through the meaningful engagement of citizens and their elected officials by the federal government.
Fellow Chicago lawyers and friends of President Obama, Valerie Jarrett and Michael Strautmanis, will act, respectively, as Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff of this new office.
Click here for a link to the Office of Public Liaison and Intergovernmental Affairs.
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Recommendations (26)
Blue Crush
Toronto, Canada
duo
Stone Mountain, Georgia, United States
Rhonda J Mangus
North Tonawanda, New York, United States
Jordan Yerman
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (11)
at 13:44 on January 25th, 2009
... and I doubt that the Office of Public Liaison will be directly in charge of dealing with spam comments on the White House Youtube channel.
at 17:43 on January 25th, 2009
Yeah, me either, Jordan.
at 13:55 on January 25th, 2009
M-M-M- Spaaaaaaaaaaammmmmmmmmm. Spammity Spam!
at 13:57 on January 25th, 2009
Hey you started it Jordan, with your Spamish ways......Seriously though, I think Obama will do just fine as President.
at 16:42 on January 25th, 2009
I find it to be nothing more than lip service. I have contacted Change.gov and sent information and feedback.....and absolutely nothing. I am still giving it time but still letting people know so far this looks like a cheap gimmick to keep people thinking they have a voice in government when clearly it seems impossible to administer.
Rev.
at 17:41 on January 25th, 2009
Rev. Djermano, I'm of the impression the office would be an agency for capturing what's on most people's minds, measuring what concerns most people.
I wouldn't think each and every suggestion, thought or comment would be responded to individually. As you say, that would seem impossible to administer.
One obvious result from this office may be statistics, easily complied from the questions or suggestions gathered at the agency, which could translate into shaping policy concerns, if the ideas were viable.
at 18:20 on January 25th, 2009
Good article, Karen. After President Obama's election, I received email notification that his administration was hiring people to help dialogue with the public as bloggers, etc. I applied, then got kicked off the Internet for days! My computer stalkers go crazy everytime I make any attempt to contact the Obama administration. That makes me feel very confident about President Obama and our new leadership in Washington.
Mary Neal
http://wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com
at 18:36 on January 25th, 2009
Definitely lip service.
at 19:04 on January 25th, 2009
I think it is too early for anyone to assess how this office will handle all the inquiries, comments, and of course, to screen out spammers as Jordan mentioned ...
at 12:11 on January 28th, 2009
Karen, if this office will be in charge of "capturing what's on people's minds and measuring what concerns most people" as you believe, then I hope that they are indeed the ones who will also be filtering spam. Whoever does that job has the capacity to filter out whatever responses from the public they seek to retain from the Office of Public Liaison. Censorship is alive and well in America.
A member of Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill, my online organization established to help decriminalize mental illness, posted contact information for President Obama. She posted the information, and I responded by telling all 170 members of AIMI to please use it to let President Obama know about our efforts to deliver 1.25 million mentally ill inmates out of COSTLY incarceration in America's prisons and into secure mental hospitals or released (if they did non-violent offenses). Those released should be under mandatory treatment and have subsistence needs met. Immediately after I posted that, I was locked out of my own group! Although I can still sign on at Care2, I am only able to view the group, like anyone in the world, but not comment on any posts.
See this link: http://www.care2.com/c2c/groups/disc.html?gpp=17280&pst=820690
I cannot access my Care2 Sharebook (blog) or Care2 emails, either. The censorship is not being done by the owners of the sites where I publish - Care2 probably knows nothing about it. Most of my emails that I send using Yahoo don't go past my kitchen ceiling. I always mix in my emails to the public some to close friends and family. That way, I call them and I know which ones were "trapped." Despite thousands of people reading my website about the secret arrest and wrongful death of my brother, Larry Neal, every month, I never get a single email from there, although I see in my email box Return eMail messages. My son is running into the same problems with his MySpace account - he can log on, but not answer emails.
Those who seek to control the flow of information and all communication have worked overtime containing information I send out to the public.
The powers that be have the Internet sewed up, and I hope that President Obama and his Office of Public Liaison know that and take steps to ensure that people who are trying to reach them are actually able to do so. When you communicate with President Obama's Public Liaison office (I will likely be blocked - not by the Office of Public Liaison, but by the same folks who blocked me from inputting any more data on my Change.org account), advise that they be careful to control spam themselves and not outsource that task. It would be a shame for our president to go to all this trouble to stay close to the people and know our concerns only to have the public's reactions that he should receive blocked by those in power of the Internet.
Mary Neal
http://wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com
at 10:50 on March 13th, 2009
I am referencing two contrasting opinion pieces that appeared in today's New York Times. Is it just my terrible bias or is one of them sane and sensible while the other reminds me of the trigger-happy days of the previous administration in Iraq? I supported Barack Obama in great measure because he opposed a 'stupid' war. I urge David Axelrod – whose opinion, I've read, holds some sway with the President – to look carefully at Mr. Gelb's arguments and ask "why not?" Then he and President Obama should talk seriously, with no generals present, about reholstering the guns and spreading whatever butter can be churned. Before the cow goes completely dry!
OPINION | March 13, 2009
Op-Ed Contributors: How to Surge the Taliban
By MAX BOOT, FREDERICK KAGAN and KIMBERLY KAGAN
If American forces leave Afghanistan, it will threaten our security and hand our most determined enemies an enormous propaganda victory - their biggest since 9/11.
OPINION | March 13, 2009
Op-Ed Contributor: How to Leave Afghanistan
By LESLIE H. GELB
Withdrawal from Afghanistan need not mean defeat for America and victory for terrorists, if the full range of American power is used effectively.