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Today, President Obama will meet with his Sudan Special Envoy Scott Gration in the White House to discuss the recent elections in the Sudan that Gration hailed as being “as free and fair as possible” only a couple weeks ago – ignoring the fact that the Bashir regime “threatened to cut off the fingers and tongues of election observers.”  Human rights group Enough Project had a very different take on the elections:

[T]he administration almost always characterizes the credibility of these elections in relative terms only. By calling for an election that is “as free and fair as possible” without clearly defining the minimum standards that need to be met, the US government is sending an implicit message to Khartoum that it can manipulate these elections and still secure international legitimacy for the results… it is increasingly clear that Khartoum believes that the Obama administration will endorse a rigged election.

This is the same violent and oppressive government that Obama promised to “stand up” to during his 2008 campaign, but since taking office last year, Obama has pursued a reckless policy of praising Khartoum’s election spectacle.  The administration’s approach to the delicate situation in the Sudan has already been described as “dangerously, perhaps willfully, naïve,” and their handling of the recent elections appears equally misguided.  As John Norris writes in Foreign Policy magazine:

Why the rose-colored glasses from the special envoy? Gration is clearly eager to view this election as a necessary benchmark, a box to check, on the road to the broader issue of independence for South Sudan… the imperatives of his short-term diplomacy seemed to be at odds with the long-term goal of transforming Sudan into a freer and more democratic place.

What is truly unfortunate about the approach of the Obama administration is that by hailing these rigged, undemocratic elections as “free and fair,” President Obama legitimizes the Bashir regime, the same regime responsible for the continued genocide in Darfur.  It’s time to for the Obama administration to face the unfortunate reality in the Sudan and be honest with the American people and the international community.