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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsObama defends Larry Summers: "Don't believe everything in the Huffington Post"
But the president also conveyed the message that Summers, who's on the short list of candidates, has been mistreated by some liberals and media outlets. The New York Times, for instance, gave Yellen a strong endorsement in a recent editorial."He gave a full-throated defense of Larry Summers and his record in helping to save the economy in the dark days of '09," Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) said after the meeting. Obama, Connolly added, "felt that Larry had been badly treated by some on the left and in the press."
Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) said Obama told the Democrats "not to believe everything you read in the Huffington Post" a reference to the liberal web site that's been critical of Summers' record.
Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/banking-financial-institutions/314693-obama-defends-summers-record-amid-liberal-criticism#ixzz2adrpOYlB
Safetykitten
(5,162 posts)MindPilot
(12,693 posts)But Snowden! Or something.
Tansy_Gold
(17,860 posts)NuclearDem
(16,184 posts)LWolf
(46,179 posts)geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)Aides take political heat to protect the president, not the other way around.
Ugh.
hatrack
(59,587 posts)Not as badly as his piss-poor decisions treated hundreds of millions of people around the world, but in his shoes, I'm sure I'd be shocked, shocked too.
Whatver . . . .
sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)currently putting his own BRILLIANT ideas into practice destroying the Public Schools and privatizing those Education Dollars.
usGovOwesUs3Trillion
(2,022 posts)mick063
(2,424 posts)By the President.
Hell Hath No Fury
(16,327 posts)fredamae
(4,458 posts)need the HuffPo stories--The memories of Summers damages are still fresh and raw...
markpkessinger
(8,401 posts)leftstreet
(36,108 posts)PoliticAverse
(26,366 posts)JHB
(37,160 posts)...we'll but Larry a really big bouquet of posies as an apology for all the hard feelings.
GeorgeGist
(25,321 posts)Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/banking-financial-institutions/314693-obama-defends-summers-record-amid-liberal-criticism#ixzz2adxrcfof
Safetykitten
(5,162 posts)truebluegreen
(9,033 posts)he's not nice enough.
forestpath
(3,102 posts)That Obama is so enamored of him says it all about Obama.
And Connolly is my rep, I'll be contacting his office.
PoliticAverse
(26,366 posts)QC
(26,371 posts)markpkessinger
(8,401 posts)I posted a thread about this exactly a week ago. And since the nomination hadn't officially been made, I was accused of "making shit up."
Hydra
(14,459 posts)The Ministry of Truth Firefighters are more obvious these days, but they've been here as long as I have.
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)Obama's comments are troubling, but just as his comments re: XL aren't a guarantee he'll reject it, these comments don't prove anything about his intent.
It could be that Obama is really being a stubborn idiot and has decided he wants Larry Sumnmers's sexist ass in the Fed Reserve chair. Or he could just be sticking up for someone who was on his team.
xiamiam
(4,906 posts)I hold larry summers personally responsible for destroying any hope of financial security in my life...as well as millions upon millions of americans. Geithner runs a close second as he was the one who was adamant about saving the banks by not allowing principal reductions on underwater homes. That is Geitners legacy, destroying the lives of millions of us. They give me the creeps as the worst of the worst..and yet, Obama ... loves these guys. Disgusting. I voted for helping main st. ..hasn't happened yet, I'm still waiting.
quinnox
(20,600 posts)No wonder so many hard core Obama supporters are always slamming the Huffington post. (among many other liberal-slanted news sites)
LondonReign2
(5,213 posts)Otherwise known as Democrats. As opposed to whatever this adminstration has become.
steve2470
(37,457 posts)I won't hold my breath.
JVS
(61,935 posts)Obama can do all the vouching for this guy he wants, I don't care.
AnotherMcIntosh
(11,064 posts)phantom power
(25,966 posts)MineralMan
(146,317 posts)Benton D Struckcheon
(2,347 posts)I figure I can afford to take some heat.
Summers is a standard-issue old-fashioned Keynesian. Market folks shivered a bit because he expressed some cynical skepticism re QE. That skepticism was based on the standard Keynesian argument, long lost now, but one that Galbraith the Elder was intimately familiar with and a very bold proponent of, that fiscal policy works, while monetary policy just plain doesn't work.
The Fed traffics in hocus-pocus. Summers realizes this. Yellen, being a bit too close to the institution, probably doesn't realize she's in an institution that has, throughout its history, demonstrated a very large ability to do harm, and only a very small ability to do good. Summers knows this, though. So, from a strictly economic POV, Summers is the better choice. I know why he's hated by you guys, and it would be doubly bad politically for Obama to pick Summers from the POV of women's rights. That being the case, I think he should pick Yellen, precisely because the Fed, in the end, only matters to Wall Street, not Main Street. It's economically irrelevant except in times of crisis, when its potential for screwing up is limited only by the prudence and common sense of its leaders, all of whom have demonstrated a conspicuous lack of both.
I'm not sure Obama knows enough to understand that if the Fed is irrelevant in normal times, which we're in, there's no crisis going on now after all, Yellen is the better choice for precisely that reason. We'll see.
JoePhilly
(27,787 posts)None of the outraged folks responding to this thread are aware that the original story includes quotes from multiple congress members?
Big surprise there.
The actual article in Huffpo includes quotes from other members of congress who were in the room during this exchange.
"He gave a full-throated defense of Larry Summers and his record in helping to save the economy from the dark days of '09, he said. "I mean, Larry Summers is a very capable person. I think the president showed real moxy in rising to his defense."
Connolly said that Obama emphasized hes not even close to deciding whom hell tap for the Fed post, but said he "didn't like the disparagement" toward Summers.
Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.) disagreed with his colleagues on their characterization of Obama's remarks.
"I don't think he made a defense of Larry Summers," Larson said. "I think he just said, 'Listen, I want to state a few facts about his service.'"
Rep. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) said she didn't interpret Obama's comments as an endorsement.
"He was just talking about how he's interviewed quite a number of candidates and will make up his mind when he does," she told HuffPost.
But why include all of the quotes from the original article when the first quote is the most useful in creating some outrage.
Enrique
(27,461 posts)it says the story was updated since I posted it here. I don't remember seeing those quotes, but I might have missed them.
JoePhilly
(27,787 posts)... I provided are in the original Huffpo article. Found here.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/31/larry-summers-obama_n_3682908.html
Naturally, Huffpo uses the one quote to make the title "sizzle" as much as possible, and then they pay very little attention to the other quotes, but at least they include them.
Maybe the Hill took its cue from Huffpo, spread the outrage, while ignoring the other quotes completely. The Hill still does not seem to mention them (at least when I looked while writing this).
leftstreet
(36,108 posts)BlueCheese
(2,522 posts)... speaks loudly enough without having to read the Huffington Post.
There are surely other people who are at least as qualified as Summers to be Federal Reserve chair who aren't saddled with the baggage of sexism.
City Lights
(25,171 posts)Rex
(65,616 posts)Larry Summers is a failed BUM...is it really that hard to look in the recent past, Mr. President, to see that he will fuck up the economy? There MUST be someone else on that short list that doesn't already have a huge resume of FAILURE!
Sheesh...why is it always a liberals fault when they tell the truth? Obama seems to believe we should be stupid and shortsighted so as to forget the failures of the past.
Sorry, not going to just "move on" from this issue. Larry Summers a horrible pick.
ChangeUp106
(549 posts)And he never will. He thinks guys like Summers are experienced pros who know what they are doing.
Rex
(65,616 posts)I kinda knew that when I saw him letting GFS and Citibank decide on who would fill his cabinet. It is one thing to be pro-business, it is another to stick your head in the sand while Wall Street runs roughshod over the working poor.
His blaming of the liberals for telling the truth, is getting old with some of us liberals.
Catherina
(35,568 posts)Like the time Summers was passed over 4 Fed chair in 2009 and then demanded a chauffeured car and Secret Service protection right?
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-29/obama-bonding-with-summers-over-tennis-no-ace-in-decision-at-fed.html