Remember when the Huffington Post turned upside down and sideways to support neophyte Barack Obama’s every move? Huffpo’s editors exploited their entire arsenal of tabloid techniques to promote the One, including two-inch banner headlines in red ink shouting his virtues, slanderous verbal attacks and Photoshop-distorted photos of his adversaries, and routinely slanted story lines.
But in this morning’s edition, political editor Thomas Edsall has some stern words for the one-time darling of left-wing extremists, even a couple of warnings:
Edsall reports:
The decision by the Bush and Obama administrations to use taxpayer money to prop up troubled financial institutions has produced a growing populist outcry that threatens to undermine the administration's ability to win Congressional approval for future legislation to counter the recession, and/or to win approval for the record-setting $3.55 trillion 2010 budget proposed by Obama on February 26.
In effect, the Obama administration has tied itself to a policy that shows every sign of becoming an inexorably-tightening hangman's noose around the president's neck.
Not only does public anger over the current bailout strategy threaten the administration's executive authority, but it also the carries the political risk of linking the White House to the now-loathed Wall Street establishment.
Democrat Robert Shapiro, former Under Secretary of Commerce for Economic Affairs during the Clinton administration, and chairman of the economic advisory firm Sonecon argues that, by generally deferring to Wall Street leaders, the administration has become the target of populist resentment, drawing attention to the fact that many in the administration came from the financial industry, or the New York Fed -- which is closely linked to the industry, including Larry Summers and Tim Geithner. Now, Shapiro added, Summers and Geithner are in position of virtually defending Wall Street - only backing off on the AIG bonus issue, for example, when the public rose up in fury.
The great tragedy for Obama is that his first in the nation election of a minority may begin to look more like a noose than a crown.
ReplyDeleteWhy would anyone aware of what occurred under Bush continue with Bernanke and Paulson to begin with?
More than strange bedfellows, it's much like sleeping with the enemy.