The First Briefing Book Was Anything but Brief

I spent all day Sunday glued to Barack's web site for a last review of the Citizens' Briefing Book. For nine hours I only moved from the screen when it was absolutely necessary, but even at that I could only cover four subjects in depth.

I don't envy the staff members and/or volunteers who are sifting through the public's thoughts. It will be pretty easy to eliminate comments posted in the wrong category: most of them belong in personal stories. My goodness, there were an awful lot of people who just wanted to whine rather than follow instructions and make a suggestion.

Then there were those whose ideas should have been in Economy rather than Health Care or in Veterans rather than Education. Perhaps a lot of writers figured it wouldn't hurt to put their complaint/suggestion in each and every category, just to be safe. And did anyone else notice a wee bit of commercial lobbying going on?

The majority of folks, however, figured out exactly what to do and obviously appreciated the opportunity to participate in the world's longest blog. There weren't many original ideas, but the Will of the People came through loud and clear.

It was also nice to see that very few contributors took it upon themselves to annoy the rest of us. It shouldn't be difficult for Obama's people to remove the one-line cry to end economic slavery that popped up on every page of every subject in the Briefing Book. If anyone finds out what that was all about, please leave a comment or send me a note at lacasellaumbria@yahoo.com.