Why can't Obama be more like Bush? Who is missing Dubya?

[frazzled]

16. You get tough on corporate America through laws that affect corporations

Not by a few symbolic show trials and imprisonments. Putting Ken Lay in jail didn't stop the crazy derivatives markets or mortgage schemes from continuing as lax regulation and turning the other way led to a massive financial crisis and recession.

If you want to measure "toughness on corporations" through prosecutions of individuals, that is one measure; but the bigger measure is laws enacted to prevent financial misdeeds. The Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act is more important, imo, than random calls for prosecution. Why? The kinds of trades and deals and compensation packages that the Bush administration turned a blind eye to were essentially legal. Putting a framework into place that limits risks that banks are able to take: that's a big deal.

We can play whack a mole, or we can build sound financial and economic laws. Actually we can do both. But "polemicist muckrakers" (I use TPM's descriptor of Matt Taibbi, and I would add agent provocateur) are not the people I listen to when evaluating complex machinations of administrations with respect to corporate America. On the other hand, ask yourself the simple question: who did corporate America prefer and support, GW Bush or B Obama? The answer probably tells you all you need to know.