Another Obama campaign promise apparently bites the dust.

This time transparency over health care reform negotiations never materialized.

These town hall meetings, and other special events do not qualify as negotiations.

David Lightman and Margaret Talev of McClatchy Newspapers report:

"The notion of televising negotiations behind a health care revamp was so central to Obama's campaign promises of change and openness, however, that it became part of his stump speech as he traveled the country in 2007 and 2008.

"He'd describe how televised deliberations would take place around a big table, with seats filled by doctors, nurses, insurers and other interested parties. As president, he'd joke, he'd get the biggest chair.

" "Not negotiating behind closed doors, but bringing all parties together and broadcasting those negotiations on C-SPAN,' Obama explained in a Democratic debate in Los Angeles in January 2008, in language similar to many of his campaign stops.

"However, the two biggest deals so far — industry agreements to cut drug and hospital costs — were reached in secret.

"C-SPAN, the cable public-policy network, did carry a White House Forum on Health Reform in early March in which the president spoke and participants fanned into working groups.

"That was a kickoff event, however, not a negotiation..."

Now the administration and its supporters' backpedaling begins as the article states: " 'It's unrealistic to think every aspect of the negotiations is going to be public,' said Senate Assistant Majority Leader Richard Durbin, D-Ill.

"White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, traveling with Obama in L'Aquila, Italy, said Thursday that 'this president has demonstrated more transparency than any president.' He said that Obama had participated in multiple town-hall meetings with doctors, nurses and providers to discuss revamping health care.

" 'I don't think the president intimated that every decision putting together a health care bill would be on public TV,' Gibbs said.

It's becoming more apparent that, as president, Obama's mantra is that he did not promise to keep his promises, the ultimate fallback of politicians.