QOTD, Steve Benen: This seems to happen a lot. A "rising star" in Republican politics decides he or she should be on the national stage; drops any pretense of intellectual seriousness; and trades the respect of credible observers for the adoration of the Republican base. ... The difference seems to be that Jindal is trading his reputation for seriousness and intellectual honesty much sooner than seems necessary.
John Aravosis: Alabama paper stands by quotes from GOP Senator Dick Shelby, who still hasn't produced proof that he isn't a pedophile
In response to an Ambinder post, in which he said: the Santelli moment was real enough, and it might catalyze something among conservatives, and it might be the type of political activity that an enterprising Republican presidential candidate can take advantage of. commenter TeresaKopec responded
I think reporters who are based in NY & DC are missing what is going on on the ground. We are solidly middle class, but every friend we have is scared of being laid off right now. I'm talking about architects and middle management, not construction workers. They are in same house they had ten years ago and their kids are in good public schools. They do not want to exhaust 401k if they lose their jobs. They see home program as safety net if something bad happens.
These people did not speculate & will pay mortgage as long as possible to stay with neighbors, keep kids in same school, & not have to try and find tiny apartment. It would never cross their mind to just walk out.
You guys have too many wealthy friends who will be OK if they lose their jobs. Normal people don't have huge savings to draw on to pay mortgage that was perfectly affordable when they were employed. And to be called a "loser" by Santelli stings as does the attitude amongst the press that you are a bum if you get laid off.
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One of our friends is a top engineer at a big, national firm. He has been there over 20 years. The company cut everyone's hours to 35 per week in order to retain staff. However he says that there are NO new projects after March because new construction has ground to a halt. He is a Republican & very conservative, but scared. He & his wife have been in their home a long time but they still have a few years on their mortgage & two kids in college. He is not a bum in any sense of the word.
- It appears that Santelli is as sharp about markets as McCain. Via Smooth Like Remy: Check out Rick Santelli from September 2 of last year right before the market collapsed. "I think the economy IS healthy."
Josh Marshall: CBS News hires Dem-hating right-wing consultant as new PR Chief.
- Nate Silver: Santelli Smackdown Shows White House Foil Strategy
Cable news and Rush Limbaugh are an Obama Administration foil. Today, the White House continued to signal that the dumb things that get said by administration critics on right-wing radio and cable news networks will be used by the White House as fodder for "look how irrational our critics are."
Robert Gibbs relished the opportunity to lay some wood to the cable barkers today, specifically that CNBC reporter Rick Santelli "doesn't know what he's talking about."
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When Obama first responded to Limbaugh, the reaction on cable news (I'm thinking of Chris Matthews in particular) was one of, "What's Obama doing? Doesn't he realize this just gives Limbaugh what he wants, elevates him to Obama's equal? Isn't that a bizarre miscalculation?" The way it's always been done is, don't give oxygen to your critics.
Well, the White House is clearly comfortable going after individuals as props, as foils, for its own arguments. It's aligned with the brand of Obama as problem-solver-in-chief, calling out specific instances and individuals to say, hey look, see what I mean about a petty political culture? By keeping examples fresh, the White House is betting that Americans will side with it, and marginalize the "people who rant on cable television."
In essence, tone implies substance. If you're "ranting," you have an agenda, you're contributing to an unhelpful public policy climate. You might attract wide attention, as the Santelli incident did (Gibbs confessed he'd been watching it over the previous 24 hours on cable). By contrast, the highly popular Obama is seen as calm, thoughtful, nuanced and deliberate. Whereas Bill Clinton probably wouldn't have been able to pull this personality contrast off (he was seen as more ebullient and combative in his personality), it works effectively for a popular Obama.
Daily Kos' DHinMI has a must read: How Will Our Economic Transformation Change Our Political Geography?
NYTimes: As Doubts Grow, U.S. Will Judge Banks’ Stability
By EDMUND L. ANDREWS
The nation’s largest banks will face stress tests this week, as the government examines their long-term viability.
- Krugman on Banking on the Brink.
But here’s the thing: the funds needed to bring these banks fully back to life would greatly exceed what they’re currently worth. Citi and BofA have a combined market value of less than $30 billion, and even that value is mainly if not entirely based on the hope that stockholders will get a piece of a government handout. And if it’s basically putting up all the money, the government should get ownership in return.
Still, isn’t nationalization un-American? No, it’s as American as apple pie.
Lately the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation has been seizing banks it deems insolvent at the rate of about two a week.
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How would nationalization take place? All the administration has to do is take its own planned “stress test” for major banks seriously, and not hide the results when a bank fails the test, making a takeover necessary. Yes, the whole thing would have a Claude Rains feel to it, as a government that has been propping up banks for months declares itself shocked, shocked at the miserable state of their balance sheets. But that’s O.K....
The Obama administration, says Robert Gibbs, the White House spokesman, believes “that a privately held banking system is the correct way to go.” So do we all. But what we have now isn’t private enterprise, it’s lemon socialism: banks get the upside but taxpayers bear the risks. And it’s perpetuating zombie banks, blocking economic recovery.
What we want is a system in which banks own the downs as well as the ups. And the road to that system runs through nationalization.
AmBlog's Chris in Paris says EU agrees on more oversight and regulation of financial markets.
Hint, hint. This would be an ideal time for Geithner to start working closely with the EU to implement similar oversight or even propose additional changes. It's in the best interest of everyone to have a common policy in light of the current crisis. Who knows, maybe Switzerland will even want to join in the fun.
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- ""There was a consensus ... that all financial markets, products and participants -- including hedge funds and other private pools of capital which may pose a systemic risk -- must be subjected to appropriate oversight or regulation," a summary of the meeting said, according to The Wall Street Journal."
AmBlog's Chris in Paris says SEC somehow overlooked red flags with Stanford. For years, there were red flags — so many they could have massed into a crimson blanket.
All kinds of crazy: Alan Keyes: Stop Obama or U.S. will cease to exist
C&L: McConnell Peddles Old GOP Lie About Small Business Taxes
In his first budget, President Obama apparently plans to keep his campaign promise to let the Bush tax cuts expire for Americans making over $250,000 a year. And just as during the election, Republican leaders are falsely claiming that Obama's proposal constitutes a tax hike on small business owners. This time, it is Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell echoing John McCain and Joe the Plumber in spreading the lie.
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McConnell is merely parroting the same fraud now that John McCain tried to perpetrate then. Last fall, then Republican presidential candidate McCain attacked Obama, wrongly asserting, "The small businesses that we're talking about would receive an increase in their taxes right now." As it turned out, McCain's human shield and faux small business owner Joe "the Plumber" Wurzelbacher will receive a tax cut, and not an increase, under the just passed Obama stimulus package.But in case there was any doubt the Republicans' deception on the point, the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center quickly put it to rest. As the Obama campaign correctly claimed, 98% would see their taxes decline or remain the same:
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But just because it's a lie, doesn't mean Mitch McConnell and the Republican Party won't keep saying it.
Think Progress: Louisiana’s Lt. Gov., Mitch Landrieu (D), said that “Jindal needs to choose whether to represent the state of Louisiana or be the spokesman for the national Republican Party“: ... Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-CA) responded to new of Jindal’s decision by quipping, “You just tell them that anyone that doesn’t want to take the money: I’m ready to take their money and rebuild California.” Gov. Jennifer Ganholm (D-MI) made similar remarks in reference to the possibility of Govs. Tim Pawlenty (R-MN) and Mark Sanford (R-SC) following Jindal’s lead.
Ryan Lizza's The Gatekeeper - interview with Rahm Emanuel. Great stuff. Read it and laugh.
By any measure, what Obama’s White House has achieved in passing the stimulus bill is historic. The last President to preside over a legislative victory of this magnitude so early in his Administration was Franklin Roosevelt, who on the sixth day of his Presidency persuaded Congress to enact a wholesale restructuring of the banking system. (That, too, is likely in the offing for the Obama team.) Yet praise for Obama was surprisingly grudging. Some liberal Democrats said that Emanuel and his team had made too many concessions to House Republicans, all of whom voted against the legislation. Meanwhile, conservatives complained that Obama had broken his pledge of bipartisan coöperation. Both arguments infuriated Emanuel, who spent hours on the Hill during the negotiations, arranged private meetings with Obama in the Oval Office for the Republican senators Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe, and Arlen Specter, whose votes were critical to the bill’s passage, and personally haggled over the smallest spending details during a crucial evening of bargaining that lasted until the early morning.
“They have never worked the legislative process,” Emanuel said of critics like the Times columnist Paul Krugman, who argued that Obama’s concessions to Senate Republicans—in particular, the tax cuts, which will do little to stimulate the economy—produced a package that wasn’t large enough to respond to the magnitude of the recession. “How many bills has he passed?”
- Jane Hamsher has some criticism:
It's a profile more appropriate to People Magazine than the New Yorker, and any political journalist should be embarrassed to have their name on the byline. But such is the price of access it seems, and it's not like there's a shortage of people willing to fawn and flatter in exchange for a scoop. Given Rahm's firm control over any information coming out of the White House and his unfettered love of hagiographic profiles, we'll no doubt be seeing more.
The Wonk Room offers A Suggested Correction For Will’s ‘Dark Green Doomsayers’ Column. Not much left of Will's "case" when they are finished.
the Santelli moment was real enough, and it might catalyze something among conservatives, and it might be the type of political activity that an enterprising Republican presidential candidate can take advantage of.
ReplyDeleteThat's interesting about the Santelli moment being a rallying point. One of my friends on Facebook, a wingnut, just posted the video with a blurb about how Santelli is hitting the nail on the head.
It surprised me to find out that there are some who are not pissed off at Santelli.