Has a ‘Katrina Moment’ Arrived? (New York Times Slams Obama Alert)

New York Times ^ | March 21, 2009 | Frank Rich

[Zakeet]

A Charming visit with Jay Leno won’t fix it. A 90 percent tax on bankers’ bonuses won’t fix it. Firing Timothy Geithner won’t fix it. Unless and until Barack Obama addresses the full depth of Americans’ anger with his full arsenal of policy smarts and political gifts, his presidency and, worse, our economy will be paralyzed. It would be foolish to dismiss as hyperbole the stark warning delivered by Paulette Altmaier of Cupertino, Calif., in a letter to the editor published by The Times last week: “President Obama may not realize it yet, but his Katrina moment has arrived.”

[Snip]

To get ahead of the anger, Obama must do what he has repeatedly promised but not always done: make everything about his economic policies transparent and hold every player accountable. His administration must start actually answering the questions that officials like Geithner and Summers routinely duck.

Inquiring Americans have the right to know why it took six months for us to learn (some of) what A.I.G. did with our money. We need to understand why some of that money was used to bail out foreign banks. And why Goldman, which declared that its potential losses with A.I.G. were “immaterial,” nonetheless got the largest-known A.I.G. handout of taxpayers’ cash ($12.9 billion) while also receiving a TARP bailout. We need to be told why retention bonuses went to some 50 bankers who not only were in the toxic A.I.G. unit but who left despite the “retention” jackpots. We must be told why taxpayers have so little control of the bailed-out financial institutions that we now own some or most of. And where are the M.R.I.’s from those “stress tests” the Treasury Department is giving those banks?

That’s just a short list.

[BluH2o]

The NY Times having qualms about America's first affirmative action president? A president foisted on America by the liberal MSM ... with the NY Slimes leading the parade? A president without any practical work experience or qualifications remotely suited to the job he now holds? Now, and only now, the liberal media is beginning to see the light ... that Barak Hussein Obama is completely clueless ... a president who is hopelessly in over his head. It's only going to get worst for America

[Steven Tyler]

The Financial mess persists because :
0bama is not an executive, never was, and
0bama cannot make a decision.

[nikos1121]

Is this the same Frank Rich who dumped on Bush?

BTW, wasn’t Chris Dodd and Obama teh two politicians who received the most money in campaign contributions from AIG?

[nikos1121]

They will do what Clinton did and bomb a drug company in Afgahanistan. Even the Iranians know this guy is not capable of carrying any weight with the public shown by them giving him the finger for his peace offering...

[pointsal]

HEY4QDEMS- great screen name.
Tend to agree with your tin foil outlook about bailing out the NY Times.

Presently, better (less slanted) reporting seems to come from London or Moscow.

[saganite]

Not really. The NYT is trying to tell the President he’s screwing up big time. They occasionally did the same with Clinton. This is basically how the press talks to any President but especially one of their own who they think is making a serious mistake.

[Steven Tyler]

John Stewart is a comedian, not a financial thinker.
This whole mess is attributal to Democrats, from Jimmy Carter, to Clinton, and yes Barney Frank and Dodd. And, that lawyer for Acorn, Barry 0bama, who sued banks to force lenders to give money to unqualified borrower’s. These Democrats forced Banks to fulfill their policy of a house for every person. A bubble was created. Debt “Insurance Policies” issued by AIG and the like were not enough to prevent the expected crash. I suspect the Bankers have more than enough dirt on the Politicans

[nathanbedford]

But general, if you defeat Rommel's plan, you defeat Rommel

The “dirty little secret,” Obama told Leno on Thursday, is that “most of the stuff that got us into trouble was perfectly legal.” An even dirtier secret is that a prime mover in keeping that stuff legal was Summers, who helped torpedo the regulation of derivatives while in the Clinton administration. His mentor Robert Rubin, no less, wrote in his 2003 memoir that Summers underestimated how the risk of derivatives might multiply “under extraordinary circumstances.”

As the nation’s anger rose last week, the president took responsibility for what’s happening on his watch — more than he needed to, given the disaster he inherited. But in the credit mess, action must match words. To fall short would be to deliver us into the catastrophic hands of a Republican opposition whose only known economic program is to reject job-creating stimulus spending and root for Obama and, by extension, the country to fail. With all due deference to Ponzi schemers from Madoff to A.I.G., this would be the biggest outrage of them all.

This is truly an astonishing opinion piece from one of the stalwarts of the reflexive left appearing on Sunday, no less, in the New York Times. One hardly knows where to start to identify the most startling admissions in it.

Reflecting on the piece seems to me that the motivation for it comes in the last paragraph. Here Rich says, "To fall short would be to deliver us into the catastrophic hands of a Republican opposition whose only known economic program is to reject job-creating stimulus spending and root for Obama and, by extension, the country to fail." In other words, Rich thinks that the only solution for the financial crisis is a Keynesian solution. He believes the federal government must spend our way out of a recession. This is, of course, is repugnant to Reagan's historic solution to the recession he inherited and Bush's successful solution for the recession he inherited. The conservative solution is to cut taxes to stimulate the economy. Essentially, Rich wants us to try socialism.

Rich is saying here that it is immaterial if history teaches that socialism has failed every time it's tried. He is saying that it has only failed because the wrong socialists were in charge. The program that Obama is undertaking is not wrong but it's implementation by Obama and especially by Obama's appointees has failed. So in the face of the evidence to the contrary the underlying Obama/Keynesian thesis is correct. Only it's implementation has failed. In fact, the problem is not wholly implementation but largely perception. Obama and his administration must realize they have a perception problem and get out in front of it.

Rich senses that the economy is spinning out of control as is the perception of the Obama administration and its thesis for dealing with the financial crisis is spinning out of control. He wants the blame where it belongs, on the Bush administration. But he admits in one of the most damning admissions seen recently in the New York Times that the derivatives-the real cause of all our plight, and this was torpedoed by the Clinton administration. He knows that none of this can withstand scrutiny. Rich is telling us that Obama has put the wrong socialists in charge of socialism

Frank Rich is terrified that the collapse of the economy will prove to be a collapse of the Keyes/Obama plan. If the country believes that the plan failed, it means that socialism failed. This is precisely the opposite of the fundamental premise of the Obama administration: capitalism failed and the government must save us.

[SumProVita]

“I know I’m having a tin foil moment but here goes.

The NYT is being encouraged by Rats to write some articles criticle of Dems and the POTUS so it won’t look so scandalous when congress endows them with bailout cash.”

I’ll share the tinfoil with you.....because I tend to believe the same.

[Man50D]

Unless and until Barack Obama addresses the full depth of Americans’ anger with his full arsenal of policy smarts and political gifts, his presidency and, worse, our economy will be paralyzed.

Paralyzing the economy is exactly what B.O. and the socialists pulling his strings want to happen.

[Thermalseeker]

It’s a planned deception tactic to keep Americans focused on AIG scandals while they are busy raping the nation behind the scenes.

Yep. Obamalamadingdong going after Rush wasn't working so well.....except for Rush.....

[paulycy]

ODTB

[Lazamataz]

I'm taking the tinfoil off.

I feel a sea-change of opinion in the offing.

Barack Obama will be the first president impeached for incompetence.

[Lazamataz]

You are rapidly becoming my favorite poster.

[aruanan]

Unless and until Barack Obama addresses the full depth of Americans’ anger with his full arsenal of policy smarts and political gifts, his presidency and, worse, our economy will be paralyzed.

His full arsenal is equivalent to the kid's cigar box war chest of lady fingers, snakes, exploding pearls, and the few tattered short-fused Black Cats found in the dirt on the morning of July 5th that the older kids overlooked when they set off the whole pack.

The problem now is not that he has failed to use his "policy smarts and political gifts" but that he has relied on them, instead of real world experience, so heavily.

[erlayman]

I assume an apology is forthcoming. Until then, he continues to buy something that he never gets, from a man that never had it. (paraphrasing Will Rogers)

[uglybiker]

They're starting to ask...

[Free America52]

The worm is turning folks. Keep the heat on high for a few more weeks / months and this administration will be finished. The media is starting to realize his rhetoric means nothing.

[thethirddegree]

I think we are close to having the people behind the curtain throwing Obama under the birther bus and have us limp through a one-term presidency with Biden.

[RoadTest]

That’s right. It used to be his friend.