Michael Barone talks about this Obama White House initiative in this article. The census is, of course, much more than an interesting statistic for updating encyclopedias and the online CIA World Factbook every ten years. In the U.S., the census determines representation and the amount of federal funding for various federal programs. Barone suggests that Judd Gregg, who was originally nominated by Obama to head the Department of Commerce, withdrew his nomination partly because he did not want a major function of his department to be taken over by the White House. I see this as nothing less than an unnecessary attempt to expand executive power and manipulate an otherwise objective statistical bureau of the government.
