INFORMATION OVERLOAD… The New York Times has gotten its ink-stained hands on the seven-page application form for high-level Obama Administration job seekers. (You can download the PDF at the NYT site.) The phrase “application form” is misleading. The document isn’t seven pages of questions and their corresponding answer fields. It’s seven straight pages of highly invasive questions/demands for information about the applicant’s past. No figurative stone is left unturned. Here’s a sample.
I wonder if the Obama folks leaked this intentionally, to demonstrate how committed they are to keeping conflicts of interests out of their White House and how adamant they are about avoiding drama (letting an appointee suck up news-space because of a nanny problem is definitely not the Obama Way). Alternatively, an applicant leaked this because he or she was aghast at how over-the-top it is. If that’s the case, it’s another teachable moment in a lesson Obama is quickly coming to learn: preventing leaks in a campaign is infinitely easier than preventing them in an administration.
