Chicago-style politics at the White House

President Obama promised his administration would be the most open and transparent in history. Remember the way he promised his health care negotiations with Congress would be on C-SPAN? Or that legislation would be posted on the internet for a few days before he signed it?

We've discovered his promises aren't worth much. Even people on the left are unhappy that he's broken some campaign pledges, such as his promise to close the Guantanamo detention facility.

Now we're finding out about job offers made to primary challengers, hoping to keep them from defeating the Democratic Party's favored incumbents. The Obama administration is not what Candidate Obama promised it would be, and Calvin Woodward of Associated Press has something to say about it:

Barack Obama, being from Chicago, knows there are two basic ways to play foul in politics.

One is to break the law.

The other is to keep it legal, if shadily close to the line. It may not stink to high heaven, but it smells a little.

In the 2008 campaign and after, Obama said he'd tolerate neither as president, and he set the bar high.

How's he doing now?

Well, it's not all smelling like roses on the political front.