The brilliance of Obama, Pelosi, Reid, Frank and their Democratic colleagues

[understandinglife]

I posted the following on my.barackobama.com blog yesterday evening and decided to post it here with some additional comments.

The brilliance of Obama, Pelosi, Reid, Frank and their Democratic colleagues



Given the exceptional knowledge of detail that many, if not most of those reading this post have. I’m going to present it in outline form.

Imagine you are suddenly thrust into an entirely public, search lights full blast, blaring audio, moment in which you are told that unless you act the global economy collapses and America is the cause. Imagine some thug from Goldman Sachs shoves a terse document in your face and says ‘do this or the 2008 version of the great depression will happen and you caused it.’

Imagine millions of Americans are suddenly confronted with another dose of mega-fear. What do you do? Well, if you are both strategically brilliant and tactically skillful you do exactly what Obama, Pelosi, Reid & Frank have done during the past two weeks.

Firstly, you recognize the timing and the intended impact on the impending first debate between Obama and McCain.

You recognize that should you refuse to do everything you can to be responsive to the crisis, and explicitly open to dialogue with Republicans, as to reach a necessarily bi-partisan agreement you will be called everything from traitor to terrorist.

You recognize that if you immediately begin informing the public that the three page manifesto you had trust in your face amounts to nothing less than further ravage of the Constitution and poison to any hope of real economic recovery, you will likely see the vast majority of Americans being rambunctiously against “Wall St. welfare.’

You recognize that if you structure your responses as a transformation of Paulson’s trash into a framework of responsible containment of the supposed “crisis” you will have established the high-ground knowing full well that you have primed two critical responses.

One of those critical responses is that you recognized that the vast number of Republican incumbents would have very little chance of winning on 4 Nov 2008 if they supported the plan.

Knowing that, you would have realized that you could easily have a significant number of House Democratic members vote yes without risk, thus diffusing any claim that the Democratic Party was unwilling to support an albeit lame and dishonest Republican President.

Knowing that. you would have painted the Republican members of the House in exactly the picture the entire world saw – they, for the first time in eight years, broke with their President because they knew that if they voted yes – ostensibly the heroic action that the “crisis” demanded – they would be crucified on 4 Nov 2008. Politics trumped serving the good of Americans – and its all the Republican members of the House’s fault.

Now, all that Obama, Pelosi, Frank, Reid and their colleagues need to do is:

1. Incessantly state that they put party politics aside, even in an election year, and tried to support the President;

2. Incessantly state that now that the President’s plan has been rejected by his own party, a plan that was obviously deficient even after much effort on the part of Democratic members of both the Senate and the House working in a collaborative spirit with Republicans, they have decided to bring an even better solution to the vast greed, regulatory collapse, and national security-threatening behavior during the past eight years of Bush and his cronies in Congress.

Fact is, as I write this (2130 PDT – 29 Sept 2008) the Nikkei 225 is down 2.8% and the Hang Seng is down 1.7% -- i.e., the Asian markets aren’t happy but they are not collapsing.

Thus, we have some difficult moments ahead, but with an Administration and Congress that focuses on and enables all the real products and services that Americans can begin manufacturing and delivering in the next decade and thereafter, we have zero reason to cooperate with yet another scam from the greed and fear crowd, i.e., ‘the haves and have mores,’ whom have been Bush’s base these past ugly, immoral, and criminal eight years.

Time for real change, indeed.

I tracked the Asian markets during the night. The Nikkei had closed down, but the Hang Seng began to recover and closed up 0.76 %. As the Hang Seng swung positive, S&P Futures were moving up sharply ... correlated with early news that the Congress and White House were working on a new version of the legislation.

McCain has been for his behavior during the past 10 days.

Obama and the Democratic leadership have NOT been Rovered.

What was obviously a scam, meant to enable McCain to have a 'white horse save the world' moment hours before the debate failed. It failed because of elegant, calm, intelligent leadership.

We have a credit crisis. We have a trust crisis. We have vast debt.

These are facts that are undeniable and that require persistent, aggressive resolution. We need legislation now that begins to address the root problems and does so in a manner that does not compromise President Obama's ability to work with Congress to repair all the damage done since Reagan.

The fundamentals of why credit is in crisis involves the vast destruction of sensible regulation and fiscal management, launched by Reagan and owned by Gramm, Bush, McCain and all their neoconster, corporatist buddies.

Much work to be done, and based on Senator Obama's actions these past two weeks, we have reason for hope because he demonstrates every day he knows how to lead.

Thank you.

[understandinglife]

1. Senator Obama's statement, today, on the path forward:

, within the course of a few hours, the failure to pass the economic rescue plan in Washington led to the single largest decline of the stock market in two decades.

While I, like others, am outraged that the reign of irresponsibility on Wall Street and in Washington has created the current crisis, I also know that continued inaction in the face of the gathering storm in our financial markets would be catastrophic for our economy and our families.

At this moment, when the jobs, retirement savings, and economic security of all Americans hang in the balance, it is imperative that all of us – Democrats and Republicans alike – come together to meet this crisis.

The bill rejected yesterday was a marked improvement over the original blank check proposed by the Bush Administration. It included restraints on CEO pay, protections for homeowners, strict oversight as to how the money is spent, and an assurance that taxpayers will recover their money once the economy recovers. Given the progress we have made, I believe we are unlikely to succeed if we start from scratch or reopen negotiations about the core elements of the agreement. But in order to pass this plan, we must do more.

One step we could take to potentially broaden support for the legislation and shore up our economy would be to expand federal deposit insurance for families and small businesses across America who have invested their money in our banks.

The majority of American families should rest assured that the deposits they have in our banks are safe. Thanks to measures put in place during the Great Depression, deposits of up to $100,000 are guaranteed by the federal government.

While that guarantee is more than adequate for most families, it is insufficient for many small businesses that maintain bank accounts to meet their payroll, buy their supplies, and invest in expanding and creating jobs. The current insurance limit of $100,000 was set 28 years ago and has not been adjusted for inflation.

That is why today, I am proposing that we also raise the FDIC limit to $250,000 as part of the economic rescue package – a step that would boost small businesses, make our banking system more secure, and help restore public confidence in our financial system.

I will be talking to leaders and members of Congress later today to offer this idea and urge them to act without delay to pass a rescue plan.

Steady, reasonable ...

[GetTheRightVote]

2. I hope you are right and that we will have our FDR moment that we need now.

:grr:

[understandinglife]

3. That appears to be the flight plan ... And, I trust the pilot.

:thumbsup:

[understandinglife]

4. self-deleted ... dupe ...

[Barrymores Ghost]

5. My jury is still out on this, as I watch my 401(k), Roth IRA and other funds shrink....

...and shrivel like a leaky balloon; still, yours is a sober and reasoned assessment of the events that have transpired and the psychology of the players involved.

While I am feign to give Reid or Pelosi credit for anything other than a bowed backbone and a talent for shameless capitulation, I guess we'll see if this amounts to a watershed moment of fiscal and political brilliance on their part.