The Inconvenient Truth About Jack Lew

A commenter on HuffPo (I wish I could take credit for it) wrote before the 2012 election during the height of the "but he's SO much better than the other guy" movement, "The choice in 2012 is between death by gunshot and death by arsenic poisoning."



Now everyone please enjoy your delicious almond-flavored torts....
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Lew for Treasury: Some Questions From the People

Pretty much every appointment made by President Jellyfish for an official with direct influence over the economic engines of this country has been a slap in the face of Americans living (well, more like surviving and dying) as best as they can through this economic abomination created by the most powerful and wealthy people in this country (and the world).


The President is so weak that he won't even TRY to appoint someone with resumes as substantive and relevant as Borne and Blair.


And if being paid a bonus upwards of $1 million after your too-big-too-fail bank was bailed out by taxpayers can't be chiseled into something concrete in the White House as a 'minimum criteria which disqualifies you for consideration for a post that regulates banks' - then there is simply no one incompetent enough to be passed over by Obama.


Seriously, the answers to those questions are utterly pointless. The fact that this character is nominated with his Citi background is ALL you need to know about the economic beatings that will continue until a real Democrat can rise to power in 2016.


Mr. President, the Koch brothers want you to get over there now with their dry cleaning! Chop-chop!

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Elizabeth Warren Slams Possible AIG Lawsuit: 'It Would Be Outrageous'

They have no intention of suing. It's preposterous. And it's a game.



It's a calculated move to help position republicans against cutting gifts to AIG. The republicans will, after a new Treasury Secretary comes on board and recommends cutting these corporate welfare recipients off, defend from a position of "making sure the government doesn't continue to punish private enterprise..." which the true believers will swallow without a blink.



The worst part of this is that, even when trotting out a concept as absurd as that which AIG has announced with a straight face, the President STILL can't manage to call these scoundrels out for what they are.



It's horribly sad that Obama is such a complete, quivering doormat for corporate america. Thank goodness we have real leaders like Elizabeth Warren to do the heavy lifting while the President is hiding.
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14th Amendment Option: Nancy Pelosi Urges Obama To 'Just Go Do It' (VIDEO)

"The White House, however, has resisted the option, arguing that they don’t have the legal power to do so and that, even if they did, the fact that they had to resort to it would still send terrible economic signals."



Utterly pathetic. The President is so terrified of action, it's just embarrassing.



Telling the world that we're going to always pay our bills - no matter what sort of political games one or both major parties plays in Congress - is as welcome, reassuring, and positive a signal as is possible. Only the most timid creature on the planet with no concept of how the economy operates could believe so strongly to the contrary.



The French have earned a reputation as serial surrenderers. The President tops them. The most terrible economic signal you can send is that you, the President of the US, is afraid of republicans and their hostage-taking exercises.



I can only hope he's playing a game and trots out a platinum coin or does go 14th amendment... but that would be out of character.
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14th Amendment Option: Nancy Pelosi Urges Obama To 'Just Go Do It' (VIDEO)

""This administration does not believe that the 14th Amendment gives the president the power to ignore the debt ceiling -- period," White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said early in December."



More proof to pile on the mountain of evidence showing that this President is the most weak-kneed ninny to ever occupy the White House.
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Dem 2014 Strategy

On Dem election strategy...

It's essentially the republican strategy - kick up dust over an ephemeral concept like "foreign," "not like us," or "extremist." As far as a tactic goes, it's low-brow, feeble, and embarrassing to its practitioners.

This is why Obama is such a colossal failure. By adopting a clear set of legislative priorities (he does during election and then promptly flushes them away at first opportunity) and continuously promoting them in public, a differentiation between Dems and republicans can be drawn. But Obama is a champion of austerity and proposed Social Security cuts - so where is the line between the leader of the Dem Party and repubs?!

Sadly, Dems in Congress, with rare exceptions, are cowed by Obama and won't step up to define what a Dem platform is, why the planks are vital (how people are helped), and how critical it is to move the platform forward.

A strong House takeover strategy would be to compare the actions of the repubs in the House versus a clear, consistent, data-supported Dem platform. But too few in the Party want to have the honest debate about economic policy, so the best the public gets is "fiscal cliff" buzzword tap-dances around the real issues.

So the campaign they're left with - the one they're apparently now looking to champion - is merely going to devolve already awful campaigns into a humiliating shouting match featuring "[Obama/republicans] are extremist and bad!" I'd rather see best of 3 falls in an open sewer.

Paul Krugman: Obama Could 'Go Down In History As The Wimp Who Threw It All Away'

I understand FDR had a huge majority. But the thing I was trying to zero in on was the fact that he held a vision, he talked to the citizenry constantly to rally their support, and he relentlessly pursued his agenda for almost his entire time in the White House.



All of which, I'd suggest by the way, helped maintain a Democratic majority. It's a point of logic that escapes (I think) the brain of the party's leadership (if there is any). Create a vision, drive it home to the public, and keep the barbarians at bay.



But I digress....



Obama is a stone cold failure on all those important traits/techniques. No vision, no drive, no determination, no nothing. Just a guy looking for bipartisanship merit badge. Terrible.



I submit that if he publicly battled republicans on the key points of principle, he'd help win back a majority in the House. He gelds himself and slows or retrenches progress because of his timidity and fear of leading.



Sorry to prattle on... I'm so frustrated by this guy.... underachiever of the millennium.
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Obama's Bad Deal and Worse Negotiating

The only thing the President is accomplishing is an addition to his neato collection of Bipartisanship Merit Badges, improving the standing of the republican party, and the continued dumbing down of debate over economic policy and economic justice.



Portraying solutions to our economic policy problems as solvable by finding a delicious combination of republican and Dem ideas is pure fantasy. Sometimes tiny little plots of progress aren't worth the "feel-good" of this sort of deal. Sometimes the only way to get any real progress is to confront problems honestly and out in the open, with passion and vigor. In the course of that battle, there is pain. But there is also differentiation of parties that can lead to Congressional majorities based on the clear vision and earnest effort made to pursue it.



Absorbing republican oligarchy policy only helps entrench oligarchy.



But our President loves the backroom deals and the somber, post-dealmaking sound bites that make him feel like he's some sort of a hero by continuously making hostage deals. But the hostages never get released and continue to get worse while the richest cash ever-rising mountains of record income.



Back in the "real world," shake your pompoms with pride over a job well-avoided.
About Fiscal Cliff
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Obama's Bad Deal and Worse Negotiating

Face the facts. The President is a push-over.



Short term, minor public relations win for Obama while the republicans get the long term win, the massive reservoirs of campaign cash assured to stick in the coffers of the richest, continue progress on starving the government, and gain leverage for the next battle.



He's selling you out, too... while you cheer him on. And that is the saddest part of all this theater. We lose. The republicans and the wealthiest win. And you're saying, "thank you sir, may I have another?"
About Fiscal Cliff
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost