Monday, June 08, 2009
The country's in the very best of hands
David Axelrod describes the making of economic policy in terms that can appeal only to people who have never been executives before.
6 Comments:
By 
, at
Mon Jun 08, 10:22:00 PM:
WTF ... someone older than me please tell me all of this will pass.
By , at
Mon Jun 08, 10:30:00 PM:
I agree with the comments that when its a NYT story the real angle is who planted it and why. I also agree with the comments that it feels like Larry Summers is being set up to take a fall. I still bet that Little Timmy will be forced out as well.
Link, over
By 
JPMcT, at
Mon Jun 08, 10:38:00 PM:
Do you ever get the feeling that, in about a month or so, Obama will step up to a podium and, while laughing knowingly, say something like "OK, OK....jokes' over...we actually ARE competent, patriotic, well trained people who have America's best interest's at heart. We've just been messing with your minds for the past few months. Get ready for you tax break, oil drilling and nuclear power legislation, anti-missile program and, oh, by the way...all of you race-baiters, eco-loons, UN crooks and fanatical muslim terrorists...WATCH YOUR SIX!!"
No, I didn't think do either...but can the reality be any more BIZARRE!!??
By , at
Tue Jun 09, 11:20:00 AM:
Someday this will be seen as the story of really smart people who groupthinked themselves into believing they could make the dream of benign state control of the economy real. Crazy people.
By , at
Tue Jun 09, 01:18:00 PM:
"Hands, touching hands, reaching out, touching you, touching me--ee-ee-ee."
Sweet Caroline! He actually said something like that.
The problem with real smart, well-educated people is that they think that they can apply their smarts to everything -- like magic dust -- and good things will happen. History is littered with the detritus of bad decisions coming from bright people who, while well-intentioned, err because they fail to see the limitations of their brains.
I hope they succeed -- we need them to -- but something tells me that you need more than telling everyone else how smart the team is.
The Centrist
By , at
Tue Jun 09, 07:52:00 PM:
Team Obama
Larry Summers is the smartest guy who ever lived, or so he thinks. While he is a lot smarter than me, he should know better about Obama-nomics and does. But Larry has nowhere else to go to find a position to match his ego, and so has been co-opted. He was cast to be the re-assuring old hand in Act I, but doesn't know that he'll be the fall guy in Act II.
Little Timmy is a well-intentioned bureaucrat but on this team he's the waterboy. He may prove my hero yet ... my bet is that Little Timmy will be the one to "go postal." Rahm will break his balls just once too much, or Obama will publicly liken him to a fire hydrant just once too often. He's showing some signs of independence. I hope he calls out the team captain some day.
Rahm is a player ... he'll do whatever the boss wants, as long as there's an angle in it for him. He don't know from economics and doesn't care. He's the Texas Hold Em guy who doesn't even look at his own cards -- it's all about playing the other guys at the table.
Axelrod is Obama's fraternal twin red diaper baby. He's a bad cross of Rove and Cheney and Trotsky. He does Obama's hatchet work and PR. He wants to kill America's middle class.
Obama is bubble boy. He's got some real talent, but some real blind spots ... he may even be innumerate. His biggest problem is that no one has ever told him "no."
Link, over
