Why waiting for government to solve problems is a bad idea.

You remember them right?? The blue-ribbon panel to save the economy; the 16-member Presidential Economic Recovery Advisory Board chaired by Fed chief Paul Volker. Well, six weeks later and they have yet to hold a public meeting.

The Politico article also indicates that President HopeNChange may be having private discussions with board members. Which is all well and good except for the fact that the left excoriated the Bush administration for not having its energy task force meetings public and promised openness and transparency.

But comments from board members and Obama himself indicate that some members of the panel are meeting, in smaller gatherings that have not been announced or opened to the public. And that raises the question of whether an administration that prides itself on openness and transparency is in fact finding it more convenient to conduct public business in private.

Now, the administration finds itself in a Catch-22: It does not want to say that the president’s economic panel, announced amid much fanfare, is not meeting during the worst economic crisis in generations. But if it is meeting, where’s the announcement, the agenda, the minutes? In short, where’s the sunshine?

Obama is quickly discovering that governing is actually quite different from campaigning.