DEMOCRACY DIES IN DARKNESS: Obama delivers speech in Soviet-style vacuum.

We all know that President Obama was never a transparent president, but who would have thought the former commander-in-chief would stoop to giving a secret speech about sports.

Yes, that’s right. The “most transparent president in history” — as Obama liked to call himself — spoke under a bizarre gag order during his appearance yesterday at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center.

What’s next? A gag order on Obama’s golf scores?

The media and audience members on hand for the conference were not only banned from recording or streaming the talk, but prohibited from even talking about what he said.

And if you violated the ban? The journalistic equivalent of the death penalty.

Is anyone surprised by this?