Is Obama blowing it?

[Postman]

http://www.alternet.org/workplace/136008/obama%27s_top_economic_adviser_is_greedy_and_highly_compromised/


Obama's Top Economic Adviser Is Greedy and Highly Compromised

[ddeclue]

1. Is this a naked link with no explanation? YES Is Obama blowing it NO...

:P

[DJ13]

2. Bad title, interesting article

[MisterP]

3. compromised? compromise is good! it's what ended slavery in 1820 and 1854, and kept us out of Iraq

in 2003, and prevented wiretapping and torture and...
it's Good

[anaxarchos]

8. That was very funny...

...and sadly wasted.

[quickesst]

4. Some democrats are blowing it....

...So far, I see no real evidence that Obama is one of them. Logic dictates that not enough time has passed to make that determination. Thanks.
quickesst

[Pastiche423]

13. Did he not appoint the very criminals that caused the crisis

to be in his administration?

He's either very stupid, or he knows exactly what he's doing.

I wonder which it is.

[quickesst]

33. I think he knows exactly what he's doing...

...and as I've stated, it is too early to tell if his decisions are right or wrong. The result of his appointments, decisions, and policy have yet to progress far enough to make that determination. If Obama is stupid, what does that make the "critics" who had a couple of years to determine what kind of president he would make, and voted for him? Double-stupid? Of course that description does not include those who were astute enough to understand exactly what they were getting, and voted for him with enthusiasm. What's really irrational, is the mind-set that thinks if Obama fails, we can just put another more left-leaning democrat in the white house in 2012 who will fulfill the left-left's desires. It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that when one party fails, the people will embrace the opposing party. That especially applies to democrats because of the successful right-wing campaign to frame the left as socialists, commies, and anti-American. Something the left was averse to in framing the repug party. If you don't fight back, they win. Thanks.
quickesst

[Pastiche423]

35. Hey, keep on w/your rose-colored bad self!

I don't have the fortune to live anywhere but in reality. The reality I see w/over a half century of life experience isn't as rosy as yours seems to be. It does not take a financial wizard to see that taking taxpayer money and giving it to the greedy thieves that caused our country's financial demise is WRONG. Further, giving him "more time" will not change the fact that he's working for the wealthy and powerful and giving a big fuck you to everyone else.

I voted for him because I did not have a choice, besides not voting at all. That vote was made w/a tiny glimmer of hope that he would not be like all of our presidents since raygun. I did not and do not hope that he fails. That is a right wing talking point that does not belong on a democratic board.

If you knew anything about the the history of the players he's chosen for his team, then you would understand he has already shown where his allegiances lay. His protection of the vast BFEE criminals is an additional hint.

As far as fighting back? I've been fighting since 1972, yet "they" are still winning. It's not a matter of wanting a left leaning president, it's simply wanting what is best for all citizens, no matter their station, nor their bank accounts.

[Double T]

5. When BO surrounds himself with millionaires and a former wall street millionaire investment ........

banker, WE have to start wondering. Saying one thing and surrounding yourself with OTHERS defies common sense.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/obama/chi-white-house-wealthapr09,0,1573304.story

[SlowDownFast]

18. "Saying one thing and surrounding yourself with OTHERS defies common sense."

Sure does.

I knew as soon as he was making his cabinet picks.

Geithner/Summers was the last straw.

[Deja Q]

21. And back when the New Black Panthers and Farrakhan surrounded him, everyone wondered if he was

anti-Christian, out to destroy America, violent thug, and all those other associations too.

Then again, perhaps he's siding with the winners.

[Double T]

32. The 'winners' are the stinking filthy rich and their wall street and corporate cronies who have.....

been bailed out and will be OVER STIMULATED. The 'losers' are the American people that will pay for ALL these economic and financial shenanigans for many generations to come, if ANY of US still have a job. I'm sticking with the 'losers'. You are correct, BO is siding with the 'winners'.

[Captain Hilts]

6. Ask me in ten years. nt

[waiting for hope]

7. This is so telling:

One has to love the sequence of events here. Back in 2004, Goldman chief Hank Paulson goes to SEC chief William Donaldson and petitions to have lending restrictions relaxed for the top five investment banks. Donaldson rolls over, the restrictions are relaxed, and it's a disaster, as the top five banks immediately overleverage themselves — two of the five, Bear Stearns and Lehman, would actually collapse, at least partially as a result of being insanely overleveraged.

In the midst of this disaster, Paulson is named Treasury secretary. He does nothing about the worsening financial crisis until it is far too late, then allows one of Goldman's biggest competitors, Lehman, to fail while at the same time intervening on a huge scale to save AIG, which just happens to owe Goldman a ton of money.

When AIG is bailed out, its government regulator is not in the room, but the new chief of Goldman, Lloyd Blankfein, is. In fact, Goldman Sachs ultimately receives about $13 billion of the money paid to AIG by the government in the bailout, reportedly getting paid 100 cents on the dollar for its AIG exposure, despite the fact that the bank claimed it wasn't going to suffer severe losses if AIG collapsed.

Everything is connecting - and I find it hard to believe that the current administration didn't know how the dots where connected.

[Double T]

9. Be assured. THEY knew.

[emilyg]

10. They knew.

[Postman]

15. When it comes to this financial thievery, Obama has been acting just as bad as Bush.

This guy is a major disappointment by having Summers and Geithner.........not to mention his escalation in Afghanistan.

[UTUSN]

11. No. Next question. n/t

[OneBlueSky]

23. guess we'll have to agree to disagree . . . yes, he's blowing it . . .

at least on the economic front . . . and, frankly, that's about all that really matters right now . . . everything else feeds into and feeds off of the economy, and if that's not fixed, nothing else will be either . . . and the people Obama has trying to fix it are the very same ones who caused the crisis in the first place . . . that approach is, and always has been, moronic on its face . . .

you don't bring termites in to fix termite damage, and you don't bring financial crooks in to fix the economy . . . common sense, folks, common sense . . .

[girl gone mad]

12. The political gamble he's taking here is enormous.

He and his advisers are betting that:

1. The economy will recover by 2012.

and

2. People won't care about the theft of the treasury because the bubble will be re-inflated and the good times will be back in swing or they simply won't be able to put the pieces together in time to cause a scandal.


In my judgment, the Bush administration used much the same Calculus when deciding to invade Iraq. They believed either it would be a huge success or the people wouldn't figure out they'd been had until long after the election. They were right, though aided largely by a weak opposition party. It did cost Republicans the 2006 and 2008 elections, however.

[Hawkowl]

14. Excellent Analysis

I think your analogy is spot on. I also think it is not going to work. Too many holes in the bubble to reinflate it and it is going to cost incumbents elections in 2010.

[and-justice-for-all]

16. Jeebus on a cracker!!!! Its been 4 fucking months..nt

[EstimatedProphet]

30. Not even that.

[SlowDownFast]

17. Yes. n/t

[SammyWinstonJack]

19. And does he care that he is?

:shrug:

[Deja Q]

20. I thought he was straight?

:shrug:

See my other response in this thread; it's the only serious one I can even give.

[KharmaTrain]

22. Broad Brushes Miss The Finer Points...

I assume you're refering to the economy...just one facet of many areas this new administration is having to get up to speed on. One issue of many that President Obama was elected to change. It all but ignores things that have been accomplished so far...legislation like SCHIP that have already passed and others that moving through the system. Change takes time...especially in a beauracracy as cumbersome as the federal government and in an era where each and every move is scrutinized (if not distorted) by the opposition, the corporate media or the blogosphere.

That said, I not only have seen President Obama make mistakes, I've all but expected it. The issue isn't "did he blow it", but how is he adjusting to a very fluid situation...and how many mistakes he's made in comparison with progress that has been made.

It's easy to be critical of Geitner and Summers as shills for the very Wall Street robber barons who created this mess...and there will come a time that we will need to investigate the cronyism of the past 25 years that let regulators and regulated get far too cozy, but right now we have a runaway train. Now you can let that train crash and try to salvage the scraps...or you can find someone who knows how to slow the train down and try to minimize the damage. President Obama has chosen the later...and IMHO with some modest success. The market appears to have bottomed (I would hardly suggest it's on the way back...or even that the recent gains will survive) and maybe we're reaching a status quo...a place where the train is slowing...as to allow the stimulus to start bringing some relief to the middle and lower classes and stabilize the credit markets.

A true fix can't happen without reformation...and President Obama has said that. Regulation must be enforced..."deregulation" reversed and accountability brought back to the financial system. Too big to fail must be broken down to prevent speculation to replace fiscal reality and greed to over-rule responsibilty. Time is the avenger here but it's hard to see it as we still have a bunch of messes to clean out.

[DCKit]

25. What you said. K&R

But it still stinks, so I'm torn too.

However, given the sheer magnitude of the various problems, the progress this Administration has made is spectacular. What this President gets accomplished before breakfast is more than I'd care to deal with in any single month.

It is no great wonder that the Republics have resorted to blanket attacks on anything and everything he does - they just can't keep up.

[azmouse]

24. About 68% of the American people don't think so.

[jonnyblitz]

26. ignorance is bliss. nt

[ProgressIn2008]

27. Will you stick by that argument if those numbers change? Or claim the "sheeple" don't matter

anymore and are just stupid and irrelevant? Just curious.

In any case, the elites will win again.

[azmouse]

28. But I bet you'll claim the 30% approval for boosh was correct.

Somehow Pres Obama doesn't get credit for appealing to the American people.

[progressoid]

29. That's almost as many that thought going into Iraq was a good idea.

Yea for the majority!

[BlooInBloo]

31. hahahaah! You're not in the ihateobama forum, tiger.

[WI_DEM]

34. Only on DU and Freeperville--in the country at large Obama is quite popular

DU, in my opinion, has gotten just as bad as any freeper site.