Lots of pundits seem to bothered by the lengthy and detailed application form prospective Obama administration employees will be subjected to. For example, John Kasich just said on Fox News Obama should withdraw this form because it was “beyond the pale”. Bob Beckel voiced similar concerns
Why would anyone take issue with a thorough application process?
1) It would be foolish for the incoming administration to not collect all the information it can on prospective employees. Chances are people are clamoring for a chance to be a part of the Obama administration for a number of reasons; that potentially puts the administration itself in a power position in terms of higher screening requirements. I cannot fathom how having more information on a given person is a negative from the standpoint of the employer.
2) Nobody from the administration has said what kind of answers would result in disqualification. At this point, all we know is they are seeking to obtain an enormous amount of historical information from each potential employee. It certainly is possible an employee could have “embarassing” information (in their mind) revealed that would not prevent them from obtaining the position applied for.
3) The Obama administration is the first to understand the type of electronic footprints left by all of us on the Internet, and thus they are requiring revelation of online aliases, blog postings, Facebook account information, etc.. Welcome to 2008; this shouldn’t surprise anyone.
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