"Only Obama Escapes Public Anger over AIG Bonuses"

[Pirate Smile]

Only Obama Escapes Public Anger over AIG Bonuses

While President Obama has weathered the public outrage over the AIG bonus controversy, public dissatisfaction runs high with all the other players - AIG management, Congress and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, according to a USA Today/Gallup poll conducted March 21-22.

The public is satisfied with Obama's performance by 54 percent to 39 percent, but they are dissatisfied with AIG management by 80 percent to 12 percent, with Congress by 65 percent to 26 percent, and Geithner by 54 percent to 28 percent. The poll was taken before Geithner's unveiling yesterday of a detailed plan for buying up the troubled assets of banks which, although a different issue, at least got him a positive mark from Wall Street where the Dow Jones average jumped 497.48 points.

AIG itself by far takes the biggest blamed for the fact that the bonuses were paid with 46 percent pointing the finger at the company. Nineteen percent blame Congress, eight percent blame Geithner and 7 percent single out Obama.

Sixty-nine percent believe that all the bonus money should be returned. A bare plurality say AIG executives should be asked to voluntarily return the money which, in fact, has started to happen with New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo saying that nine of 10 of the top recipients had agreed to give bonuses back amounting to $50 million of the $165 million total.

Twenty-six percent favored trying to recover the money through legal actions or as a condition of payment of additional bailout money.

Twenty-five percent said Congress should pass a law imposing heavy taxes on the bonuses paid to executives of companies that receive bailout money. The House did that, but second thoughts about the wisdom of that strategy has prompted doubts in the Senate and White House that may mean the bill will go no further.

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/polltracker/2009/03/only-obama-escapes-public-ange.html

[Cant trust em]

1. Who are these 12% that are satisfied with AIG's management?

Yes, the management that ran the company into the ground and still gave themselves huge bonuses are doing a great job!

Shameless.