The Job Application From Hell

I am certainly glad that I have no interest in applying for a job in the Obama administration based upon the reports of a seven page questionnaire being sent to those seeking high ranking positions. They clearly seek a no-drama administration to follow their campaign, but I’m not sure screening at this level is very realistic in this day and age. They are seeking copies of every blog post and comment, as well as all other electronic communication which could possible cause embarrassment. This pretty much prevents anyone who is active on line from complying fully, although I bet that those who are interested in such jobs are far less likely to leave as much of a trail on line as the average blog reader.

Just complying with all of this sounds overwhelming. Sure I could make a print out of all my blog posts and comments here, but what about other blogs I’ve written for? I couldn’t possibly come up with a complete listing of all blog comments I’ve ever written. I imagine most people will run Google searches to see what is actually still on line, but there are also sites such as Wayback Machine which archives web sites which are no longer available. I do not have copies of all email I have ever sent, and recipients may or may not have kept copies. Does anyone routinely keep copies of text messages and instant messages? How hard do applicants need to search the hard drive of any computer they have ever used to see what is archived?

Once these applications are turned in, who is really going to go through all the pages of print outs which some people might have. Will they also conduct their own searches to see what has been left out?

To a certain degree it becomes necessary to ask more focused questions as to whether there is anything embarrassing in an applicant’s back ground. There are limitations to this as applicants might not disclose everything, and might not consider things to be embarrassing. Thomas Eagleton didn’t consider a history of electroshock therapy to be embarrassing, but this required him to leave the McGovern ticket when exposed. This would be far less likely to be a problem today.

Maybe the easiest solution would be to leak the identities of those they are considering hiring to right wing bloggers. They will dig up anything embarrassing within hours, and then the transition team can decide who must be excluded from jobs.

The Media and Obama–Truth From Fox News

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHKzS5Zl6mY]

In the video above (via Alex Koppelman) a member of the news media debunks the claim that the liberal media was responsible for Obama winning the election. What makes it interesting is that this comes from Fox News.