Behind the Goldrush Sacks building facade
H/T to Dhyana on the Beautiful Theories thread for this reference to a post from Krugman’s Conscience of a Liberal blog. Here’s what Obama said recently (yesterday?) during an interview to be published Friday:
President Barack Obama said he doesn’t “begrudge” the $17 million bonus awarded to JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon or the $9 million issued to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. CEO Lloyd Blankfein, noting that some athletes take home more pay.
The president, speaking in an interview, said in response to a question that while $17 million is “an extraordinary amount of money” for Main Street, “there are some baseball players who are making more than that and don’t get to the World Series either, so I’m shocked by that as well.”
“I know both those guys; they are very savvy businessmen,” Obama said in the interview yesterday in the Oval Office with Bloomberg BusinessWeek, which will appear on newsstands Friday. “I, like most of the American people, don’t begrudge people success or wealth. That is part of the free- market system.”
Obama sought to combat perceptions that his administration is anti-business and trumpeted the influence corporate leaders have had on his economic policies. He plans to reiterate that message when he speaks to the Business Roundtable, which represents the heads of many of the biggest U.S. companies, on Feb. 24 in Washington.
Ya know, I’m a liberal and I don’t begrudge people making money either, as long as they don’t do it by electing politicians that will get rid of the rules for them so they can speculate recklessly with other peoples’ money, get in over their heads, ruin innocent citizens’ retirement plans, jobs and livelihoods and then give some of the “bonus” money they made with taxpayer bailout funds to the “Mashie Niblick Widows and Orphans Fund” of their choice so they can look like they’re being good guys while they’re applying for a tax deduction for charitable contributions. Now, *that’s* chutzpah! How is it that Barack Obama admires these “savvy businessmen”? Obama is one of them.
Some of us are seeing our industries decimated and our friends’ careers irretrievably gone to Asia, our lives ruined by these insensitive, “What’s mine is mine; what’s yours is mine” bizspeaking, short sighted, greedy, testosterone poisoned adolescents posing as men (and it’s almost exclusively men) and Obama wants us to “cut’em a break”? Compare them to a talented ballplayer who sells his body parts to wealthy men for sport? At least major league ballplayers are ENTERTAINING!
By the way, tea partiers, this should prove to you once and for all that Obama is NOT a socialist.
As Krugman says, “Oh. My. God.”
(Didja finally wake up and smell the sulfur, Paul?)
Another take on Obama’s Gigantic Faux Pas:
The aliens are setting the terms:
“Don’t you want to elevate your career?”
Filed under: General | Tagged: Bonus Class, Brack Obama Clueless, Goldman Sachs, Paul Krugman |
The Confluence 
WH damage control:
Jack Tapper:
http://tinyurl.com/yk9s6cd
*This post has been updated with Gibbs’ response and some more quotes from the interview. I also changed the headline after the White House vociferously insisted that the president was not referring to the bonuses when he said he didn’t “begrudge” wealth or success — though his reaction to the bonuses was the question directly posed to him and the title of the original Bloomberg/Business Week story was “Obama Doesn’t ‘Begrudge’ Bonuses for ‘Savvy’ Blankfein, Dimon.”
TOO LATE!! The WORM has turned.
Obama is the number one bankster whore! Even worse than Bush, which is hardly imaginable.
I hate these Friggen Obots who rammed him down our throats.
BO should learn to apologize properly to the American public. He could take a lesson from this guy.
Is savvy a synonym for greedy bottomfeeder now?
Seriously, if Obama believes that these people are deserving of thousands, let alone millions of times more than the people at the bottom who have lost everything(houses, livlihood) as a result of the excessive gambling that took place we are doomed for the next decade.
It’s unbelievable at this point he’d defend the “free market” system at this point rather than admit that the market needs to be regulated and part fo that should include standards that state if you decimate a business and cause harm to hundreds of thousands of people, you don’t get a bonus for it.
What’s going to be really entertaining is seeing how Glen Beck and Rush Limbaugh are going to make Obama’s free market boosterism sound like he’s proposing a communist state gulag for the rest of us.
Get the popcorn!
The sad thing is there are people who will be manipulated by them into believing in it.
We are in for a rough next decade. After this we likely get to go down the even more fascist road as the Republicans choose to privatize what’s left of government, turn social security and medicare into welfare programs they can cut(yeah they are already talking about means testing and private vouchers)and dismantle anything remotely resembling something beneficial to the middle class American. I don’t need popcorn, I need an antacid.
I’m getting tired of hearing that we’re in for a rough next time period.
Enough. I’ve had enough.
No kidding.
I wanted so badly to be wrong. I still want so badly to be wrong.
I feel like I’m watching the car careen off a cliff and I’m trying to decide whether to bail or hope a seatbelt might help in some way.
What makes me crazy about all this nonsense regarding socialism is that it detracts from the real criticism that is warranted.
The truth is that Obama was bought and sold by Corporate Banks to loot the public and the U.S.treasury for generations to come and to bring down the American economy.
Bank interests are international, not consistent with the interests and well being of any individual nation state. They are parasites that will move on to another host after killing the one they currently occupy. And that is EXACTLY what OBAMA was BOUGHT to do.
The Markets Are So Addicted To Cheap Money, You’re No Longer Even Allowed To Utter The Words “Exit Strategy”
Seems the administration is the tail being wagged by the markets.
he is terrified of the republicans and being a one term president.. either that or he is glad he lost the super majority because it gives him and excuse to act like a republican and get a secound term.
I’ve been thinking it’s both of those!
I like that. Greedy bottom feeders who eat their young are not “savvy”.
sorry for double post… I meant “they are now called savvy”.
I’m literally shaking my head still even after posting m last commentary. I have never in my life accused him of stupidity despite my disagreements with him. In this case though the stupid burns.
How friggin’ elitist do you have to be to make excuses for these multimillion dollar morons who caused such havoc the taxpayers, many of them now residing in tent cities because they don’t have homes or jobs any longer or any access to them, had to intercede or the whole economy of not just us but everyone would have crashed down around our ears living in tent cities and then say “well that’s how the free market works?”
My head is ready to explode. I can not believe anyone would ever be so cavalier. It boggles the mind.
He’s no FDR, that’s for damn sure.
He’s no Lincoln either.
Harding. He might be Harding.
A new Teapot Dome scandal – transferring the wealth of the USA to ‘too big to fail.”
I think it started during the primaries when I read the story about Obama’s poker games during the time he was in the Illinois state senate…already he was making me think of Harding, the Ohio Gang, and the Teapot Dome scandal.
Of course, “no one could have predicted…”
How in the world could such an indecisive, cowardly a@@hat play poker? Well, I guess he could play and lose a lot.
jangles–here’s how Obama played poker–
http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/obama/729330,obamapoker092407.stng
I had heard that many a lobbyist used so called friendly poker games to funnel money to a politician. The lobbyists would lose intentionally to a politician and nobody could pin anything on anybody. A hundred dollar win a night is real money, at least nice walking around change. Sure better than losing a hundred a night. Barack seemed to find all the ways you could to skim money from anybody and everybody. Rezko, poker, and how many others were involved in his little money games. We know he didn’t spend nights working or researching anything.
I can’t imagine him really playing poker – that’s probably another “I’m just one of the guys” lies
joanelle, did you read the sun-times article? The poker games did happen.
No influence peddling there. Sure. Right.
EXACTLY! Here in N.Y. its a snow day, so I’m sitting here watching the Obama cheerleader/ Misogyny channel (MSNBC), and they just came out with a detailed accounting of what the administration has done with regard to bank regulation. More smoke and mirrors.
They also just had a women report that a seven year old girl will be performing the most sexually explicit dance in the maughty graw parade, despite objections from the Children’s Service Agency, without further commentary.
We should demand to see Obama’s fingers at all times to ensure he’s not crossing them.
The only finger we see is the middle one scratching his nose.
I wish he was “hardly” here.
Millard Fillmore maybe.
I have never thought he was stupid. I think he is probably in the top 25th percentile of brains, but I do thionk he is ignorant. I think he is ignorant about what good policy is and how the country works best. He is a good knee-capper during a campaign but that is about it.
I don’t think he’s stupid, but he’s not very bright. I’d put him in the Bush league.
He is stupid! How much more evidence of failure do you need?
Have you ever heard 0bama say anything brilliant?…..Me neither. I call him the king of the cliche! He states the obvious and then gives a hackneyed phrase or two and the media calls that nuance. Go figure!
None. He’s not very bright and he’s incompetent. And the worst part is that he is so full of himself that he mistakenly believes he’s a brilliant super hero. And that is the recipe for the current disaster of an administration.
I was waiting until the debates to make up my mind about Obama …. and no, he never said anything that made me think he had a clue about anything. But he loved Wall Street and could care less about Health Care and Social Security (which he wants to privatize, mark my words.)
Thats why I was so amazed that so many people incl.women like Ehrenreich, Klein, etc, folks I had respected for decades , went totally nuts over him. Disliking Hillary doesn’t excuse that kind of sycophantic behaviour. They all sounded like teens who adored rock stars.
And still, one continues to read how smart, talented, and brilliant Obama is – from those writers who are criticising him and are terribly disappointed.
Show me why he such talented politician? Didn’t BTD from TL go completely over the top after Obama read the State of the Union?
He is clueless, Obots!!! Wake UP!
Today, Krugman admits that We are doomed.
Lets wait if he changes his mind. He is one of those hopechange nobelists.
gxm17,
you said it.
Incompetent is the word.
Honest question – what are the assessments of his intelligence based on?
The fauxgressives think he’s brilliant. But they compare him to Bush, who had trouble stringing together three intelligent sentences without stumbling…though that was more about his problem articulating. I don’t think Bush was stupid stupid…Quayle stupid…it’s close. Anyway, BO gets alot of credit for being able to talk like a normal politician, with occasional help from the prompter of course. None of that speaks to his innate intelligence, judgement or wisdom. He’s no Yoda, but plenty of people want to believe he is. Maybe our standards have dropped. Maybe the nation at large has trouble recognizing genuine intelligence beyond the realm of television talk shows and general entertainment.
“Maybe the nation at large has trouble recognizing genuine intelligence beyond the realm of television talk shows and general entertainmen”
You may be on to something.
The fauxgressives think *they’re* brilliant. They see themselves in Obama, therefore Obama is brilliant.
Unlike most of the posters here, I don’t feel that wall street is the big bad evil doer responsible for all our cares and woes, despite mr. obamas extreme attempts to paint it as such. That being said, I always thought Obama was extremely smart, at least as far as his political abilites. My husband has always thought otherwise. Starting to think my husband may be right. This flip flopping just can’t be all elitism on his part, I am starting to think he doesn’t have the intellectual capacity that so many attributed to him. I always knew he didn’t have the experience or the connections that seem to be a requirement of this office.
He looks extremely weak, exttremely out of touch with the vast majority of Americans, including his base, starting to look not too bright and totally interested in getting relected while not too concerned at all in what is good for this country and the people in this country(unless of course it happens to go along with his being relected).
From the fat frat boy press secretary to his really strange appointments, this guy is really looking about as clueless as bush, and that is saying a lot.
Yes. HE is stupid. He is corrupt. He is bought and paid for. He is a disaster.
I was glad to see this from Herbert on Monday. He’s coming around. Most in the mainstream media seem to be in collective denial about the pain out there.
The rest of us income levels are catching up.
I’m confused — who has a 150K income when they are unemployed?
Either that represents their salaries before unemployment, or there’s another wage-earner in the family who makes 150K. It’s “household” income, not individual income, that’s cited.
Obama is so involved with his narcissism that he can’t even fake empathy or concern. Managing Obama has to be a nightmare for his handlers. Every time that he isn’t regurgitation memorized “talking points” or reading words that other have written, he reveals himself and it isn’t pretty. This is the prime reason why Obama hasn’t been allowed to have a press conference since July.
They don’t want him to be put in a position where he has to publicly answer any questions. Reading a teleprompter is about all he can handle.
WHAT A MESS!!!
I saw this interview this morning and I couldn’t believe it either. Krugman almost had a heart attack in his op-ed.
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/10/clueless/?8ty&emc=ty
And I agree with Cwaltz. I’ve never actually thought Obama was genuinely stupid, just intellectually lazy. But I don’t think even Dubya would say something that assinine.
Free market my backside- Those men have earned their bonuses on the backs of taxpayers- many who now are living on the edge of desperation, collecting unemployment and wondering how they are going to pay the mortgage, or for their health care, or if their job is going to be their for them tomorrow or how they are going to pay for gas in the car or the increase in the electricity when their real income has actually plummeted.
Corrupt market is more like it.
I’m caught between furious and appalled at his insensitivity and his inability to grasp the idea that the average American will not see 17 million in their lifetime. Giving that type of money to people who have said “whoopsie, my bad” over almost toppling the world economy isn’t free market(even us savvy people have our off days), it’s idiocy.
Even some of the free-marketers see this point. It is NOT “govt interference” to demand accountability when WE are the ones backstopping them. If we are on the hook (and yes, we still are, despite the paybacks) for their future actions, then we have a vested interest in how the profits get spent.
Want zero govt interference? Then cut the banks totally loose, and if they fail they fail. Which means legislation to break them up small enough that none poses a monopolistic systemic risk to the entire country. After that, have at it – do what the hell you want, and if you fail you fail and YOU eat the cost of blowing profits on CEO bonuses instead of wisely shoring up your capital.
Until that situation exists, then what you are saying is that I the taxpayer am forced to co-sign your credit line, but I should have NO say in the terms of it, or what it’s spent for. Which is bullshit, and NOT a free market. Make up your damn minds, and stop this “have it both ways” corporate welfare crap.
And BTW – explaining it in this manner to some gung-ho purist “free market” friends has really opened their eyes. They end up agreeing with me on this.
Dayum, WMCB, excellent rant!
You have to come to grips with it. He IS stupid.
Did the tax payers bail out a baseball team when I wasn’t looking?
The Washington Senators
LOl! You know I saw them play a game at RFK waaaaaaaay back in the day.
oh, check out this comment by a former obot on Krugman’s column:
Should have listened to us, loser. Gawds, I hate being right all of the time.
but if you tell them you knew it all along they will only say “Hillary would have been just as bad”….. to which I can only respond “based on what?”.
They aren’t saying that as much anymore. There is tremendous buyer’s remorse.
That is what my Obot sister says….but “Hillary is polarizing”…
I bet she grew up, or was a young adult, or not especially politically aware, during the Clinton years. CDS has grown deep roots.
Yeah. Like I’m going to believe their assessment of Hillary when they were stupid enough to think Obama would be a good choice for President. Every frigging Obot out there has won a lifetime supply of STFU when it comes to poitical commentary, right along with the Bushies.
Oh yeah. My ex is stlll droning sanctimoniously about race: “You are judged by the company you keep, people like Tancredo wish a return to Jim Crow and the repeal of the VRA.” Maybe YOU’RE known by the arrogant woman-hating frat-boy company YOU keep, big boy. STFU indeed.
“Obama sought to combat perceptions that his administration is anti-business” this is the problem I have: is there any one out there, other than the right wing noise machine, who thinks Obama is “anti-business”?
Obama is still working hardest at trying to win favor from people who have a vested interest in being against any thing he puts forth. He’d be better off owning the bail-out, instead of trying to run away from it after he voted for it, then say “these people are rewarding themselves with taxpayer money, that’s why I’m against these bonuses”. End of story. Stupid analogies to baseball salaries are just, well,stupid.
GWB owned the Texas Rangers.
….and infuriating. The notion of comparing the salaries of professional athletes to greedy bankers is insulting to the public conscious.
Digby thinks it’s about securing wall street campaign contributions. The bipolar diagnosis is a nice touch. Maybe she’s projecting.
I have a bipolar friend who functions quite nicely with Lithium. Maybe that’s the prescription for BHO; somehow I think not.
The Rx for obama is a hearty fall down the stairs. Maybe he’ll be a little better after a 3 year coma. jmo.
Investors follow momentum. The indicators, I suspect, are not there for the Ds right now.
“ranting” is a bit of hyperbole there, Digby. “Gently rebuking wall street one day” is much more accurate.
I’m glad some of the access bloggers are catching up, but they have pretty far to go still.
I’ve never thought Obama was particularly smart, either. But then, I’ve never thought he was actually in charge of anything. He’s the same Spokesmodel he’s always been; he goes where they send him, reads what they put on the little screens in front of him and does whatever they tell him. How smart do you have to be to smile and have your picture taken?
Not very smart, but the sad part is that Obama really believes his press. He thinks he is the hopey changey savior come to save the America and the world from destruction. I bet in the oval office he replaced his framed photograph of Sasha and Malia with that stupid blue and red “Hope” poster and drew a cigarette hanging out of his mouth on it.
If he’s going to save America then e has to understand America.
Based on his above statement,I think he might be able to save the top 5%. The 80% of us on the bottom appear screwed because he seems to have no idea of what we feel about a “free market” that has cost us so much.
I agree with Cinie. Obama isn’t smart.
same here, I read bloomberg over the office hour this morning and nearly flipped when I saw this … how absolutely stupid do you have to be to say something like this? The outrage against banksters is about the only thing he could ride … he’s at a 44% approval rating according to a new Maris poll. How long can this guy go before the Democrats turn on him and start trying to save themselves by being democrats for a change?
oh, and I bet he got this talking point about sports figures straight form his buddy Jamie D.
Yes, even I who do not agree with the outrage against bankers do agree that it was the only thing he could ride, but of course we are all assuming he knows how to ride.
And, he’s got that smiling thing down–
If he were smart, he would have figured out by now that he is hurting himself with the pro-business, pro-Wall St., “bipartisan” routine. He would know that the banks and insurance co’s are using him, and no matter how much money they give him it won’t be worth it if he has to live out his life as the failed President who finally destroyed our country.
I always likened him to Miss America. He can smile and dance and smile for the camera. He merely flies from one photo op to another. No substance. At least Miss America has some talent.
Another comment found at the Krugman article:
“I’ve tried to believe in Obama, but it’s getting harder to do. More and more, Hillary Clinton’s critique of him during the primary campaign seems right on the mark. He’s a neophyte and his lovely oratory can’t hide the fact that he’s flailing around and losing the confidence of the people who wanted progressive leadership so badly. At this rate, I hope Howard Dean launches a progressive primary challenge to Obama in 2012.”
Howard was a huge part of the problem in 2008.
Yep.
If Howey was willing to sell out for Obama’s election, you know he would a bigger whore to secure his own.
howard dean is a schmuck and a half!
Somebody better primary him. If he keeps this up he’ll be alienating 80% of the population.
There is only one person who has the legitimacy and the following to take on Obama and win.
It ain’t Dean.
You know, I read so-called “progressive” bloggers all of the time, the male grad student guys who aren’t even thirty or the guys who are so deep in the weeds they can’t see where they’re peeing and they keep searching for a leader to redeem the party. But it seems like they will reach for anyone but the obvious. That one person will be the last person they turn to instead of the first. But there really is no one else who can do it. All of the other Democrats are smurfs in comparison.
I think Clinton could reconstruct her following as well as part of Obama’s, but the DLC/Hamilton people, the Banksters, and the Dem establishment won’t have it.
Eff em’ They’ve taken enough from the average American. It’s time for THEM to take one for the team.
Amen. Run, Hillary Run!
I have noticed the same thing RD. It is mind blowing to scan through the comments of the progs who are disillusioned with their choice and hear them call out for an alternative but it is always anyone but HRC. Having made that mistake once and sent us all over a cliff I guess they want to try it again and see if they get different results.
The very definition of insanity. 🙂
If the criticism against him continues, and his poll numbers don’t recover, I fully expect him to announce that he will not seek re-election.
Indonesia took down his statue. He won’t be handed anymore Nobel prizes, and he won’t want to be there on the day he finds his pedestal was kicked out from under him.
Howie was in charge of the DNC while they gamed that primary and ran wild with their misogynistic crap. Howie got THOUSANDS of phone calls screaming about the cheating, etc, and said NOTHING. I know this, because I personally called several times a week, as did many.
Howie is SCUM, who knew exactly what was happening and tacitly endorsed it, and I would never vote for his spineless cowardly ass for dogcatcher, much less president. I hope he crawls back to Vermont and sucks on his own irrelevance til the day he dies.
I hope he takes Donna Brazille with him.
Dean also took down the help desk at the DNC for GLBT issues. He started screwing us queers early on but no one noticed he was shoving us out of the tent.
At the same time they took down the help desk they added staff members dedicated to fund raising in our community. In other words – “We want your money but fuck your issues.” Many in the GLBT community absolutely refused to believe Dean and Donna and Leah D. were capable of such hate.
Pinning all your hopes on the guy at the scene of the crime (Dean) to save the day–good luck with that.
I agree that Dean was part of the problem, and would not likely make, at this point a candidate that I would support. However, some of his behavior after the election makes me think he might at least listen to a different cohort of groupings and be useful in other ways. Even if it was posturing, it had the right tone.
[…] his body parts to wealthy men for sport? At least major league ballplayers are ENTERTAINING! — The ConfluenceObama's "one from column A and one from column B" approach has always frustrated me, but I think […]
You conveeeeeniently left out the paragraph before the one you quoted.
One of the quotes at Wingnut News:
I guess them funny boiz ain’t laughing now.
I’m still looking at his picture and wondering at the fact he appears to be able to read. Did you see drool and spittle under that grin or was it just me?
Tax dollars also subsidize a lot of stadiums and arenas.
Which is also wrong.
However, ball players are accountable.
Subsidies over the last 20 years or so have been wrong, because they’ve been based on wildly exaggerated numbers of the return on investment communities would receive for their subsidies, and there’s been virtually no accountability.
But at least no state or city has guaranteed their teams a championship trophy.
Plus, how out of touch does one have to be to think that the appropriate comparison for the bonus class is gazillion-dollar professional sports players?
Obama’ll be creamed over this and every bit is deserved.
I think the stadiums are subsidized with tax dollars because they rent them out for other events and take revenue from the games and food vendors for the city. The city/county owns the stadium, so it’s understandable why they would subsidize.
The players are paid by the team, not the stadium or city.
Heh,
and in contrast the subsidized banks have drug their heels on modifying mortgages, have stymied lending to small businesses, but can afford to pay out millions to one or two select individuals.
Almost the same right(tongue firmly in cheek)?
Where did I say that?
Tongue in cheek means I was being snarky gweema
Ah yes, the free market [devoid of any regulation or moral compass] being trumpeted by President Obama. And he’s a Republican, right???
I believe in capitalism but not the unfettered, we-can- step-on-your-head and stick-it-on-a-pike type of capitalism. How absolutely insulting to all unemployed Americans, those just barely scraping by or the growing numbers of fellow Americans on food stamps, squatting in foreclosed homes now forced to listen to this crap about how multi-million bonuses are A-okay for the very people who gamed the system and brought the country to its knees.
That’s part of the free market, the American way?
This is a Democratic President who sounds more and more like Ronald Reagan every day. And these clowns wonder why the voters are angry, frustrated.
It’s utterly incomprehensible how anyone can buy into this nonsense and pretend that this is any different than the worst of the unrestrained free-market, social Darwinism, Republican/Libertarian spin machine. On high cycle!
To say I’m disgusted with this crew would be an understatement.
What’s even worse is in a “free market” those bottom feeders would have faced bankruptcy and would have lost the bonuses in their contracts.
He didn’teven get the “free market” part right.
What we have is a perversion of a free market where the 1% of the poulation collects benefits and golden parachutes regardless of their actual expertise in their fields. How many people on the other end of the economic spectrum can say they not only go to keep their jobs when they screwed up but were given a bonus for doing so? No, I guess we aren’t “savvy” enough.
True. The government intervened.
I said similar above. This is NOT a free market. Any more than the referees running onto the field and moving the ball to where they want it to be for their “good buddy” team is a “competitive” football game.
It plain thievery, that’s what Obama was BOUGHT to facilitate!!!!
The only think you forgot is that a free market economy doesn’t bail out banksters.
Oh, and Krugman’s word for it: Lemon socialism. That is where the taxpayers get all of the loss burden, while the banksters get all of the gains.
Obamacare was lemon socialism too.
Very true.
Krugman’s calling The One a lemon socialist?
Maybe those tea partiers knew that all along.
Up is down; down is up. Carry on.
He sounded like Ronald Reagan in the primarys to me.
It’s not market capitalism. Monopolies are the antithesis to the competitive model. The results of theoretical government planning and capitalism are the same. It’s monopoly and oligopoly that are the inefficient systems. Always surprises that no one knows either don’t know that or completely missed that part of the microeconomics lectures.
I love visiting DailyKOS on days like today. From the frontpagers, crickets on this topic.
The only criticism is in a rec’ed diary where someone lambasts Huffington for her “mischaracterization” of what Obama said.
LOL, they report, you decide.
0 needs to stop with nuancing what he says. It doesn’t work anymore.
Balloon Juice and Blogstalkers are talking about the Republicans and the Tea Partiers and how they are mismanaging our country.
“If only the Democrats were in charge, we’d all get ponies!”
ROTFLMAO!
Poor Obama, he wouldn’t want to triangulate or anything.
Do you ever get the feeling thast we’re railing against and peeing into the wind ?
Arianna NOW pretends to be a populist!!! Back during the primaries the working class were a bunch of ignorant racists. Now cares about the foreclosures in Ohio? BULL SHIT!!!! She’s just embarrassed about how quickly the American people found out the truth about HER PICK, Obama.
Arianna isn’t one bit embarrassed, she is just an opportunist who knows how to keep her brand relevant. She has been pretending to be a populist for many months now.
Yep. And she’s been pretending to be a Democrat for years.
Does anybody read her? I stopped during the election, when I kept finding articles that referenced back on themselves from other places. You know, read an article, click the reference, find it refers to another article, which referenced Huffi.
The snow is coming down pretty heavily out there. Lots of shovelling this evening if there is even a prayer of getting out tomorrow morning.
I just heard that DC has broken an all time record going back to 1898-99.
Oh yeah. It’s a total mess here in the Northern Virginia suburbs. We’re totally unprepared for this much snow. We just don’t have the resources to deal with it.
What is this “snow” of which you speak?
I’ll send you some. How many tons can you take and what’s your address?
Manoman, Brook is going to be sore tonight.
I think I’ll start a fire.
Pretty scary stuff, RD. Pretty scary. I took a break, but back. Hope all is well in snowstorm!
hugs.
ps: watched Palin on TV just to see. A thorn is she into the vast bubble of his. Dems in exile sigh — wishing for better times for all than these.
Hillary times? And to think…we could have had that, instead.
You betcha we could have.
White House Moves Swiftly To Stem Fallout Of Obama Interview
Imagine if that Chill-billy from Wasilly had said something like that. Maybe next time Obama should write some notes on his hand.
Oh Lord, don’t give Steele and the RNC any ideas for SNL skits based on his performance. The political kabuki from both sides of the aisle is killing me!
So what would those notes be:
Populist
Little People
Wimmins
ROFL
Yeah exactly the groups he through under the bus during the primaries: women, working class, older voters
threw*
What good would it do to write on his hand? He can barely read the ‘PrompTers. Haven’t you ever seen him lose his place, stumble, pause, squint, and then whip his head in the other direction like that ‘PrompTer has something different written on it? Do you really wanna see him trying to figure out what they wrote on his hand?
yes. yes I do.
😉 I wouldn’t mind seeing Biden read the following from his hand: “Jobs is not a three letter word.”
If anyone needs crib notes it’s Joe 😉
His hands aren’t big enough
I guess President Obama is not getting the message from the people, and that is a crying shame.
Was a slogan for those with millions already and not for the little working folks. 😦
Obama did need a crib sheet to order a few ice cream cones. I imagine he didn’t even write the note himself. He needed to have staff do all the heavy lifting.
He was ordering 19 snowcones, not a few, though.
Lol, RD, last night, when I saw the ads for the new “V”, I thought wow! Someone in La la land really has their finger on the pulse of Nat’l thought. It’s easier to think they are aliens than real humans in charge.
I don’t bother to read Krugman anymore. I think his opinions are more influenced by political winds than facts. Obama hasn’t changed but Krugman’s interpretation of Obama seems to change according to his blood hopium level.
Wow! What a great descriptor…
“blood hopium level”
wish I had thought of it!!
OT..Charlie Wilson died
http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/02/10/charlie.wilson.obit/index.html?hpt=T1
Forgive me for asking but why does the FBI want a copy of the tape?
I believe they’re still investigating Edwards for misappropriation of campaign funds…like for making sex tapes.
I thought it’s because he misused funds to pay off Young and Hunter to keep them quiet and they need proof that there was something going on at the time that needed to be covered up.
I dunno. Just guessing.
They probably just want to watch the tape….
Hoover would have loved it.
A copy of the tape was given to the FBI because of the grand jury investigation into Edwards’ campaign finances.
OT: Tabloid says Edwards has asked Hunter to marry him. John should get on the Appalachian Trail for a year or two.
She’s a fool if she marries him. He’s a sorry excuse for a husband and father. One only need look as far as how he treated his first wife and her daughter to see exactly how he’ll treat her.
I liked his ideas as a pol but as a human being I think he’s a pretty sorry excuse of one and any woman can and should do better.
I guess good manners are not his best attribute since become a PORNO Candidate ACTOR! I pray to God Elizabeth out lives him, because he just keeps dipping lower and lower…
There is no redemption, it just keeps getting worse.
It is now being reported that he beat his terminally ill spouse!?! Good God, and some think he may have a come back? I am also, a bit agast at a blog for having a go at Elizabeth and the women that are finally speaking up and taking back their power.
Looks like my yearlykos 2007 assessment of the presidential candidates holds up.
John Edwards: one trick pony phoney
Barack Obama: bored BMOC
Hillary Clinton: the gold standard
Bill Richardson: out of his league
Chris Dodd: one really tall dude
Dennis Kucinich: Dweeb. Sorry.
Why am I not surprised.
I was actually waiting for that bit of news.
Lets face it, Elizabeth Edward would still be with him. He most have told her how the cookie crumbled.
The blogger’s candidate No. 1 ……
Who will play Edwards and Co. in the movies?
Who could play “phony” best?
Costner.
Joe Isuzu
way. that’s more like it
no way. KC is my 2nd favorite actor
Probably doesn’t want “his wife to be required to testify”…sort of like her being in a country without extradition. A clever lawyer with slimy tactics.
OT:
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0210/32801.html
“California’s Diane Watson won’t seek reelection”
“Watson’s seat is regarded as solidly Democratic, with Barack Obama winning 87 percent of the vote there in 2008.”
Krugman was predicting a recession on a yearly basis from 2001 on, just after he left his job as a highly-paid consultant to Enron. Now he claims to have “predicted” the 2008 meltdown, making him eight for the last one recession.
That tape of Edwards’ with Rielle will surface soon on YouTube. The BreckGirl fucking the original Bret Easton Golddigger—right out of central casting!
Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?
It sounds like dave spent quite awhile polishing that bon mot. Still not funny though.
Obama:
““I, like most of the American people, don’t begrudge people success or wealth. That is part of the free- market system.””
Ever think of all the American people who lost their homes thanks to your wealthy CEO friends, Mr. Obama? Ever? Guess not. Who cares, right?
—-
Am I the only one who got the feeling that Obama is just waiting to get the Presidentin over so that he can get also $$$$ for his oh so talented and brilliant speeches? With hopeful audacity: 17 Mil and more?
You are not alone on that one.
Kharma, gotta love it!
Now he truly has 99 problems…but a bitch ain’t one!
go on and brush your shoulders off Hillary!
LOL, cdo!!!! And sooo karmafrigginlicious!!!.
Heh:
Not quite “my husband doesn’t know I’m a man” but definitely Jerry Springer material.
You guys are cracking me up something awful!!
The lovely thing about the fools that followed President Platitude and the fools that threw the true shero away, is that they’re both slow learners. It’s taking the followers awhile to learn that President Platitude is basically an idiot, and he’s yet to catch on that you shouldn’t give them a hint you are…..every…..waking…..day. It’s almost poetic.
ok – so should have read….
The lovely thing about the fools that followed President Platitude and Platitude himself, is that they’re both slow learners. It’s taking the followers awhile to learn that President Platitude is basically an idiot, and he’s yet to catch on that you shouldn’t give them a hint you are…..every…..waking…..day. It’s almost poetic.
nut you knew what I meant. 🙂
It’s easy to see
Yep! That was the picture I had too!
I thought about watching MSNBC to see how they would spin this or if they would even cover it – but, well, I was afraid it would cause brain damage.
The asshole progs have started a memeorandum parade of links about Palin’s bracelet with Track’s name on it, criticizing her for wearing a memorial bracelet when Track is alive. But, Palin wasn’t wearing a memorial bracelet, she was wearing a deployed hero bracelet. What jerks.
Are they aware that Biden was given the same bracelet? Crooks and Liars had a cow, and is now issuing a sort of retraction:
Maybe next time they’ll look before they leap.
Nah, they’ll make fools of themselves again, probably before the weekend.
Just more evidence of what is wrong with our supposedly advanced new world – the free market system. Obama’s endorsement of this (like New Labour’s) simply means we will never find a cure for our problems, because we refuse to recognise we are addicted to the very thing that causes it.