One for the history books

Fox News Channel reported today that Barack Obama sent an advance draft of his Inaugural Address to historians David McCullough and Doris Kearns Goodwin.

Why did he do it? Is he already lobbying for a good review from the Judgment of History?

One thing we've learned about our new president, he doesn't procrastinate.

If President Obama seeks the enthusiastic approval of historians, he doesn't have to go to the trouble of flattering the best-selling among them.

All he has to do is repeal Executive Order 13233.

That's the one that set aside the Presidential Records Act of 1978 to allow the current president, and all the former ones, to block the legally required public release of White House records twelve years after the conclusion of an administration.

Former President George W. Bush signed Executive Order 13233 on November 1, 2001, halting the imminent release of the records of President Ronald Reagan and Vice President George Herbert Walker Bush.

Historians who had waited patiently to gain access to the records of the Reagan years complained bitterly, to no avail.

That's just one reason the president who left office today vowing that history will vindicate him should probably not hold his breath.

President Barack Obama can, with the stroke of a pen, restore the Presidential Records Act passed by the elected representatives of the people of the United States.

This will not guarantee that history ultimately will judge him kindly.

But it would be a very good start.

Copyright 2009

Update: Wow. He did it. On day one. "Executive Order 13233 of November 1, 2001, is revoked. BARACK OBAMA, THE WHITE HOUSE, January 21, 2009" Thanks, Mr. President.



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