The Reverend on Monday…
As I see it, America, the nation of 300 million, is being held hostage.
It is as if specific and powerful interests have kidnapped the population, placed knives against our collective throats, and then have continually sent ranson notes warning that the kidnappers will slit those throats if the proper authorities do not do exactly as the kidnappers demand.
President Obama, last night at a California town hall meeting….
Complete transcript here.
"Citicorp or Bank of America or, you know, Wells Fargo that controls 70 percent of the banking system, and all of them are weakening, you can't afford to have all those banks all at once start going under. Even though the deposits might be guaranteed, you've got the entire economy resting on that credit."
The president said, "It was the right thing to do, even though it's infuriating, even though it makes you angry because you're thinking, 'I was responsible and these folks are irresponsible and somehow I'm paying for them.' The same is true with AIG. It was the right thing to do to step in."
"Here's the problem," Mr. Obama said,
"It's almost like they've got — they've got a bomb strapped to them and they've got their hand on the trigger. You don't want them to blow up. But you've got to kind of talk them, ease that finger off the trigger."
Exactly right, just like I said on Monday. What Obama was describing was AIG's (and others) "too big to fail" standing. The "bomb", in Obama's wording, is the dangerous threat to our nation if AIG simply implodes…..says 'to hell with it', and defaults on the whole mess. The destructive economic ripple effect, as defaults begat more defaults, would surely bring us to 1929 conditions.
What Obama and Geithner are trying to do is "ease" AIG's "finger off the trigger". Inane screeching about .1% of AIG's total bailout being given out in bonuses, who knew about them and why weren't they stopped….. is simply a media distraction from the real story here….both sides of government allowed AIG to strap the "too big to fail" bomb on. Neither political party did anything about removing AIG's finger from the button. Now, in a hostage-like situation, the new President and his Treasury Secretary must play "The Negotiators", or the suicide bomber AIG might take everybody out with it.
Obama's imagery stirred up the wingnut camps out there….
"OK, the AG says all us whiteys are a nation of cowards. Now the POTUS says that our greatest financial institutions are suicide bombers."
"0bama the socialist compares US banks with fanatics who deliberately want to kill, maim and destroy us. The truth is, 0bama's mouth off the teleprompter is a suicide bomb."
"The bizarreness of this metaphor speaks directly to his lack of intelligence and empathy."
The template is cast. Village media members, and they are legion, will go about misleading and misinforming and misdirecting the American people about what's really of national importance. In January and February, the Villagers did everything in their power to twist the stimulus debate beyond recognition, deferring to the same Republican Party tripe from spokespeople who Americans rejected last November. Obama had to do a prime time press conference to undo the Village media's propaganda and confusion.
Now it's the AIG story that's being distorted and twisted by the Villagers. Majoring on minors and missing the central core of the AIG story, Village media mongrels bark and bark, unintelligibly, that this AIG mess will bring down President Obama. With last night's town hall in California and next week's scheduled prime time press conference, Obama will, once again, undo the distortions of a wretched and compromised media, this time over AIG.
And so it will go. Village scum will f*ck every major story up, just as they have often done over the last 15 years or so, and then Obama will have to follow-up on the Village's f*ckups and play "Corrector in Chief" to set the record straight.
This whole AIG/media/rage horsesh*t over bonuses smells an awful lot like the media's handling of the Iraq run-up. The Villagers influenced Americans to look away from the real enemy, al-Qaeda in Afghan-Pak, and be scared and enraged over Saddam Hussein.
Now it's bonuses to AIG employees that these Villagers want us to look at….when the real "enemy" is what AIG was doing as a business and the real story is how they were enabled by politicians to become a "too big to fail" threat.
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
You don't have to wait for the press conferences anymore, Reverend. I found a great source for the inside dope.
http://baracksteleprompter.blogspot.com/
Well…the teleprompter site is kind of silly….but that's what passes for conservative humor.
In order for humor to, you know, be funny….there has to be a real kernel of truth to the set up. People know that Obama is good with a teleprompter….and they are finding out, like at last night's town hall event, Obama is damn good extemporaneously, too. So, not so funny.
The teleprompter malarkey that you like to repeat so often, larry, is just that. Just admit it, the guy is an exceptional politician who comes across as an honest, engaged, intelligent, problem solver who gets it.
You should be proud our country produced such a strong leader.
You've got it bad, Reverend. He's a good speaker but he comes off as arrogant and lies pretty consistently, even when he doesn't have to.
C'mon larry. When Obama is off, the uh, teleprompter, um, ah, he, uh, still comes across as, you know, um, uhh, very, like, competent.
And Rev, scraping up random quotes from blog commenters is pretty weak stuff. Weren't you the one who criticized me for quoting ex-president Clinton on stem cell research ? Yet, you are quoting CRAZYDOGWACK3 from Tulsa, as if it's somehow representative of something. Nuance.
Obama comparing AIG to terrorists was clumsy, but it's not that important.
He'll probably compare Special Olympians to terrorists next.
I disagree on the alleged Obama lies. Be glad to review any that are worthy of evaluation.
King, the reason I use the cherry picked blog comments (all from one site), was to point out how quickly the machine rages.
Obama did make a mistake with the Special Olympics comparison. It was, as Mrs. Reverend pointed out to me, said in a self-deprecating context…..but it shouldn't have been said. No malice intended.
"any that are worthy of evaluation"? Good one, Reverend.
Obama lies ? Say it ain't so. I can't think of any lies Obama has told, other than about NAFTA, lobbyists in his admin, earmarks, fiscal responsibility, Iraq, his deficit projections….to name the first few that come to mind.
Look at the mess his feigned outrage over AIG has caused. If he'd just said it's a legal thing from the start it would have been zero trouble for him.
The temptation to lie even if it isn't necessary is very strong to the arrogant types who think they are smarter than the rest of us. Every lie they get away with proves to them that they are, on some level.
AIG was a calculated distraction, like Rush the week before. Next week it will be something else. They most definitely think the American public is stupid. I just wish the American public wouldn't keep proving them right.
King lists Obama's "lies"…that aren't lies at all. Obama said he wanted to "review" NAFTA. I've already blogged about the lobbying….already greatly remodeled by Obama. The Omnibus was last year's bill…..and Obama said he wanted to REFORM the earmark process, not END it. Halving the deficit in four years, a disastrous deficit leftover from W, is a pretty responsible plan. Obama is also getting us out of Iraq…as he promised to do.
They're only lies in your thinking….but not in reality.
larry says all that Obama had to do was point out that the AIG bonuses were a "legal thing"….and "zero trouble" would have been the result for him. Have you lost your mind? If Obama would have done that…..today you would be whining about his ugly symbiotic relationship with banksters, his cold aloofness in deferring to legalese.
thanks for the blog, very interesting prespective, i still think b is a soft tyranny tho