So MIT professor Simon Johnson writes that the naive simpleton Obama “still doesn’t get it”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/simon-johnson/obama-still-doesnt-get-it_b_456408.html
Paul Krugman is shocked that Obama could be so “clueless”
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/10/clueless/
Once again, the mighty wurlitzer of the right wing control of media works to destroy the Democrats and honest government – with economists standing in for the discredited New Republic as the “even the liberal” critics.
And it’s all bullshit – as usual
At least DKos had an immediate calling out
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/2/10/835693/-Arianna-lies-about-what-Obama-said-%28until-called-o
n-it-here%29-updated
But fuck these people, seriously. The only Democratic President we have is trying to win a 10 front battle against Republicans, Bankers, a corrupt and witless congress, a massively propagandistic media, and the power of corporate money – and the best we get from these people who claim to be on our side is constant whining and attacks.
Duncan Black, having the sense to be obscurely terse doesn’t embarrass himself as grossly as his fellow liberal-economists, but comes up with a:
Free-Market System
I do not think that phrase means what President Obama thinks it means.
which he then amends to a snide:
Better
But perpetuating the fantasy the the builders of Big Shitpile are operating according to the rules of the magic free market fairies is still a problem.
One hour later when the transcript reveals the knee-jerk whimpering to be as ill-founded as usual. Hey, when you make a poorly informed snap attack, the onus is on you to make a real apology when the bullshit won’t sell, not to sidestep with another bit of snark.
Let me explain something: everybody but academic economists and Tea Party morons understands that there is no such thing as a pure free market. When the President compared Blankfein to baseball players who didn’t make the playoffs he knew something that Black apparently forgot: baseball is a legally sanctioned monopoly making its main money from contracts with TV broadcasters and cable companies that – how’s this – are also legally sanctioned monopolies. Funny how that works.
But thanks so much for helping generate more noise on Frank Luntz spin. Maybe you dumbfucks should read the original instead of being left to reflect it via what you learn from Politico.
I’m sorry, but I read the transcript before attacking Obama over this, and I still don’t see why people are letting him off the hook. I wish someone would explain this to me.
His comments were absolutely foolish. How are the people who bet our nation’s future on housing prices rising forever “savvy businessmen”? Then there are people who think he was calling for new regulations on CEO pay, when all he was saying was that shareholders should get more influence over that pay–as if it were the shareholders who bailed out those companies. My favorite part was when Obama rambled on about baseball players and shareholders, then the interviewer tried to throw him a lifeline by asking if Main Street could stomach such payments–and he went right back to worrying about those poor shareholders.
And what was his reason for this awful interview in the first place? Why, to “combat perceptions that his administration is anti-business and trumpeted the influence corporate leaders have had on his economic policies”. Whew! I was really worried there that corporations didn’t have any input into his administration! But I feel so much better now.
This interview would look different in a world where Obama pushed hard for a consumer financial protection agency, or forced concessions out of the companies we bailed out, or worked to break up the “too big to fail” banks, or dumped Bernanke for refusing to battle unemployment because it might diminish Wall Street’s wealth a tiny bit. Instead we get an occasional sternly-worded letter from Obama asking the bankers to maybe possibly consider being responsible citizens with all that money we handed them. And now this.
And don’t make me laugh with this “Obama is battling Congress” nonsense. Senators like Al Franken are begging him to get involved, while Joe Lieberman says the White House never tried to influence his votes on health care reform.
I’d love to stop attacking Obama. If only he would give me a reason.
Sure, Alex Rodriguez makes a lot of money, but at least his team didn’t endanger our way of life.
“How are the people who bet our nation’s future on housing prices rising forever “savvy businessmen”? “
“Saavy businessman” and “public spirited” often don’t go together.
I understand what this kinds of ill-intentioned misreading brings to Republicans, but how the it’s supposed to help “the left” is a mystery.
I’m sorry, I don’t see what point you are making.
dude, Blankfein is clearly a savvy businessman. Not only does he make a fortune personally, but GS skillfully navigated the collapse and make bundles – both on the up and downside of the bubble. That’s not an endorsement of their business model or ethics.
Geithner (remember him, the really bad guy) introduces a financial protection agency law drafted by Elizabeth Warren.
Chris Dodd, remember him – the hero of the dimwit blogosphere – then spends 4 months “negotiating” with RICHARD SHELBY and, suprisingly, getting nowhere.
Then the administration comes back with the Volker Rule proposal – remember Volker, the guy that second generation pampered media princling Matt Taibbi assured us had been sidelined?
And Dodd reacts by having a temper tantrum that the Administration was harshing his buzz with BFF Shelby.
So -yes – I think that the Administration is battling congress and doing it while the supposed “left” runs around barking furiously and looking for ankle to bite.
What you just said is a nice start. But it’s stuff like this that makes me say Obama has so far failed to provide clarity or direction on health care and the other big bills it wants Congress to enact
“Sen. Al Franken ripped into White House senior adviser David Axelrod this week during a tense, closed-door session with Senate Democrats. Five sources who were in the room tell POLITICO that Franken criticized Axelrod for the administration’s failure to provide clarity or direction on health care and the other big bills it wants Congress to enact.”
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0210/32561.html
to say I am skeptical about Politco’s reporting would be a vast understatement.
look, one can legitimately critique the administrations policies and messaging, but that’s not what was happening here. Instead, commentators used a strained reading to call the only democratic president we have “clueless”, stupid, naive etc. etc. If you read the transcript, Obama is clearly not excusing bank bonuses and the continual panic responses of people like Krugman only serve to reinforce Republican spin points.