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Has a ‘Katrina Moment’ Arrived? (New York Times Slams Obama Alert)
New York Times ^ | March 21, 2009 | Frank Rich

Posted on 03/22/2009 3:39:39 AM PDT by 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.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Constitution/Conservatism; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: aig; bho44; chaos; crisis; democrat; democrats; democratsincrisis; economy; globaleconomy; impeachobama; obama; porkulus; tarp
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To: bricklayer
Has he gone to survey the damage, yet? Visit?
Oh, I know! The teleprompter fogs-up at those temps.
Imagine if it was Bush?

21 posted on 03/22/2009 4:11:41 AM PDT by rvoitier (O.B.A.M.A. - One Big-Ass Mistake, America)
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To: HEY4QDEMS

Nothing paranoid about that. I’ve expecting such a bailout for a while now. And these bozos are trying misdirection like crazy, so why tinfoil?


22 posted on 03/22/2009 4:12:17 AM PDT by Scanian
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To: don-o

Yes, but that was pre-Lewinsky.


23 posted on 03/22/2009 4:13:38 AM PDT by Scanian
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To: Texas Fossil

> There will be no financial recovery until Obozo is out of office!

I think you’ve got it right! I wonder if it will get bad enough for the Dems to start asking about Birth Certificates? (One can hope, ay!)


24 posted on 03/22/2009 4:15:04 AM PDT by DieHard the Hunter (Is mise an ceann-cinnidh. Cha ghéill mi do dhuine. Fàg am bealach.)
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To: Zakeet
Things are getting bad for Barry when the New York Times dumps on him like this.

And Frank Rich, no less.

25 posted on 03/22/2009 4:15:45 AM PDT by jersey117
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To: Zakeet

The only thing Rich is worried about is that BO isn’t pulling the wool down over our eye very effectively...


26 posted on 03/22/2009 4:18:39 AM PDT by Jagman (Obama: Our winter of discontent made summer by the glorious son of pork!)
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To: Scanian
so why tinfoil?

Mainly because it's out of character for me to not accept things at face value.

Like another poster here had written "sometimes a cigar is just a cigar"

I'm hoping that I'm not becoming paranoid is all.
27 posted on 03/22/2009 4:19:33 AM PDT by HEY4QDEMS
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To: DieHard the Hunter

In the beginning I thought the “Birth Certificate” was a tinfoil hat issue.

It is not.

I plead guilty to being a “Birther”.

Not holding my breath, but the collateral damage to the Dem’s of revealing that he is not qualified to hold the office would be huge.

People who predict the future are always wrong, but I have stated since the inauguration (coronation) that the wheels would fly off this thing within 6-months.

It might just happen sooner.


28 posted on 03/22/2009 4:20:52 AM PDT by Texas Fossil
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To: NoControllingLegalAuthority

I don’t remember FReepers saying that, although some articles that are posted certainly say he’s some kind of superhero. The fact is that if the Dims didn’t have so many caucus states, where the Chicago thugs could get Zer0 votes by intimidation, and McCain hadn’t stupidly “suspended” his campaign during the bailout “crisis” while Zer0 merely stayed on cruise control, the White House might have a different occupant now. Lucky schmuck with a gift of gab, in the right place at the right time.


29 posted on 03/22/2009 4:21:16 AM PDT by Scanian
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To: Zakeet

Frank Rich is carrying on like a, well, like a gay theater critic with a snake up his pantleg.

We have a government that disallows one member of it being utterly necessary- we can survive without Obama, he’s not a dictator just yet.


30 posted on 03/22/2009 4:24:50 AM PDT by 4buttons
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To: Prole

I couldn’t believe the way Dennis Miller was sucking Stewart’s ass on O’Reilly the other night, constantly referring to Jon as a “mensch.” Miller can pick the friends he wants but I can think of a few other Yiddish tags that I’d rather put on Stewart.


31 posted on 03/22/2009 4:25:49 AM PDT by Scanian
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To: Zakeet
Unless and until Barack Obama addresses the full depth of Americans’ anger with his full arsenal of policy smarts and political gifts,

Policy smarts? Are you kidding Frankie boy? As for political gifts, that has yet to be completely reveled. I am guessing that some of those gifts could be very embarrassing for the anointed one. Just how many and how much of those gifts were from AIG? (Those are the only "political gifts" this dufus has, believe me.)

32 posted on 03/22/2009 4:26:40 AM PDT by mc5cents (Show me just what Mohammd brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman)
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To: Zakeet
Just a lovers' spat.


They are made from the same Marxist cloth, after all.

33 posted on 03/22/2009 4:29:50 AM PDT by Bon mots
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To: Texas Fossil

I’m a “Birther” too!

> Not holding my breath, but the collateral damage to the Dem’s of revealing that he is not qualified to hold the office would be huge.

Depends on how the Dems play it, ay. They could decide to get onto the front foot and “discover” that the B/C copy they had seen was false or counterfeit, and that they had been “deceived” — thereby throwing His Excellency under the bus.

Or depending upon their Party discipline, they might be able to make sure that he gets nothing accomplished — not sure how that works in the US, but we’d call that “white anting” here in NZ...

Things could get really interesting in the next few months!


34 posted on 03/22/2009 4:29:51 AM PDT by DieHard the Hunter (Is mise an ceann-cinnidh. Cha ghéill mi do dhuine. Fàg am bealach.)
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To: Zakeet

Obama on Leno as the economy falters = Obama’s “My Pet Goat” moment!
When will we see THAT in a Michael Moore movie?


35 posted on 03/22/2009 4:30:22 AM PDT by massmike
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To: FUBO

The race card has been overplayed and the American people are ticked off.

Let the race card continue to be played and the backlash will continue to grow.


36 posted on 03/22/2009 4:33:11 AM PDT by Paige ("All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing," Edmund Burke)
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To: Zakeet

while cracks in the dam are forming, there are still enough useful idiots in the media that will quickly plaster them long enough for Obama to weather the storm. I am just waiting for birak to replace Gibbs with Queef Ogreman as his press secretary.


37 posted on 03/22/2009 4:33:20 AM PDT by MAD-AS-HELL (Hope and Change. Rhetoric embraced by the Insane - Obama, The Chump in Charge)
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To: Scanian
Miller evidently saw the light after 9-11, but he doesn't take the dangers posed by Obama seriously enough for my interest.

O'Reilly is a jerk who hates the Conservative movement.

Leibowitz is a schmuck whose propaganda is largely responsible for the obamatron mentality that is pervasive in my generation.

My media hero is Mark Levin, and he will most likely stay that way.

Listen from 92:48 to 100:19 here:

http://www.marklevinshow.com/wp-content/themes/levin/player/?url=http://podloc.andomedia.com/dloadTrack.mp3?prm=2824xhttp://citadelcc.vo.llnwd.net/o29/network/Levin/MP3/levin02052009.mp3

Check these out when you have the time:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dO5TEvSNguQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1-ZgouoJso

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2132144/posts

38 posted on 03/22/2009 4:33:33 AM PDT by Prole (Please pray for the families of Chris and Channon. May God always watch over them.)
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To: Zakeet
Just a little editing:

Unless and until Barack Obama addresses the full depth of Americans’ anger with his full arsenal of policy smarts, of which, he has none, and political gifts, those, of which, are quite useless, his presidency and, worse, our economy will be paralyzed.

39 posted on 03/22/2009 4:35:43 AM PDT by Road Warrior ‘04 (I'll miss President Bush greatly! Palin in 2012!)
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To: don-o

“As Freud said, “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.””

I thought Clinton said that.


40 posted on 03/22/2009 4:36:26 AM PDT by Beagle8U (Free Republic -- One stop shopping ....... It's the Conservative Super WalMart for news .)
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