Obama is playing poker....with your money

[rfranklin]

By Matt Stoller, the former Senior Policy Advisor for Rep. Alan Grayson. His Twitter feed is @matthewstoller

Since the 1970s, Democratic elites have focused on breaking public sector unions and financializing the economy. Carter, not Reagan, started the defense build-up. Carter, not Reagan, lifted usury caps. Carter, not Reagan, first cut capital gains taxes. Clinton, not Bush, passed NAFTA. It isn’t the base of the Democratic party that did this, but then, voters in America have never had a lot of power because they are too disorganized. And there wasn’t a substantial grassroots movement to challenge this, either.

Obama continues this trend. It isn’t that he’s not fighting, he fights like hell for what he wants. He whipped incredibly aggressively for TARP, he has passed emergency war funding (breaking a campaign promise) several times, and nearly broke the arms of feckless liberals in the process. I mean, when Bernie Sanders did the filiBernie, Obama flirted with Bernie’s potential 2012 GOP challenger. Obama just wants policies that cement the status of a aristocratic class, with crumbs for everyone else (Republican elites disagree in that they hate anyone but elites getting crumbs). And he will fight for them.

There is simply no basis for arguing that Democratic elites are pursuing poor strategy anymore. They are achieving an enormous amount of leverage within the party. Consider the following. Despite Obama violating every core tenet of what might have been considered the Democratic Party platform, from supporting foreclosures to destroying civil liberties to torturing political dissidents to wrecking unions, Obama has no viable primary challenger. Moreover, no Senate Democratic incumbent lost a primary challenge in 2010, despite a horrible governing posture. Now THAT is a successful strategy, it minimized the losses of the Democratic elite and kept them firmly in control of the party. Thus, the political debate remains confined to what neoliberals want to talk about. It’s a good strategy, it’s just you are the one the strategy is being played on.

A lot of people think that Obama is a bad poker player, but they miss the point. He’s not playing with his money, he’s playing with YOUR money. You are the weak hand at the table, he’s colluding with the other players.
-more-
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/

[Poboy]

1. Recommend

[Name removed]

14. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[xchrom]

2. recommend

[Tuesday Afternoon]

3. as are all elected officials..........

Net recommendation: 0 votes (Your vote: +1)

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[HeroTwins]

5. so now Obama's responsible for TARP?? some people will eat whatever BS is shovelled at them.

[obxhead]

6. His vote as well as many Dem votes passed it.

In FACT it was the Dems that voted that bill into law, not the Repubs.

Edit to add:

http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=110&session=2&vote=00212#top

More R's voted against than D's (I's included)

[HeroTwins]

8. so, it's Obama's fault then. I get it.

[obxhead]

10. No, obviously you do not get it based on your sarcasm.

This bill took Dems in a Dem controlled Senate (with I's included) to pass this legislation.

Blame is continually shifted from Obama to Congress and Senate for what can not or will not be done. If that is the case for Obama now it should be the case for Bush then.

[grahamhgreen]

7. But he did fly to DC to get it passed.

[HeroTwins]

9. how dare he vote in the Senate!

[grahamhgreen]

22. Well, we had the banksters on their knees,

we could have used the opportunity to put these crooks in the poorhouse where they belong, indeed, in jail.

Instead O gave them trillions and tax breaks.

They took the money and stuck it in commodities, now there is a commodity bubble.

These people are an elite criminal class, and it's sad that this great opportunity to stop them slipped us by, it will not next time.

If we do not reach equanimity, the consequences may be as severe as the french revolution, which would be tragic.

[Warren DeMontague]

27. There's NOT going to be another French Revolution.

"Creative Financial Instruments" like the crap derivatives in question need to be regulated, but rescuing the global financial system was the right, smart thing to do.

[asjr]

11. Well, my day has been spoiled.

[davidthegnome]

12. K & R

I reluctantly agree with you. Lately I have been rethinking some of my thoughts regarding Obama, considering that perhaps he is simply doing the best he can and giving us everything he's got. Perhaps the status quo is too powerful for him to challenge. Nonetheless, he is still a politician doing as politicians have always done. That said - I do give him credit for some of the things he has accomplished. Primarily the repeal of DADT.

He may not be what I had hoped for or wanted, but he's better than McCain.

[Warren DeMontague]

13. If the global financial system had collapsed, things would be way worse for EVERYONE.

Sorry, but I'm not into all the ridiculous temper tantrums over TARP. It needed to be done.

[rfranklin]

16. But it did collapse....

or didn't you notice that hundreds of millions around the world were thrown out work. The only people who came out whole were Goldman Sachs and others who got 100 cents on the dollar for their criminal financial schemes.

[Warren DeMontague]

17. No, it didn't.

It could have been far, far worse.

I'm not saying that the creative 'geniuses' who came up with 'innovative financial instruments' designed to hide crappo mortgages and sell them off to suckers shouldn't be held responsible- but TARP needed to be done. And all this never-ending grumbling about 'elites' and the rest is a display of pure ignorance. The economy took a hit, but even 10% unemployment isn't Great Depression level. A wholesale collapse would have been a fucking disaster, at which point the far larger numbers of people living in tent cities and cardboard boxes would be going "why didn't you do something to prevent this?"

[rfranklin]

20. Wake up...we have 20% unemployment...

and we do have people living in tents and cardboard boxes.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/26/us/26tents.html?hp=&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1294948976-dDKbdoFczqXq2cl54EuNjg

[Warren DeMontague]

25. Yes, we do. I guess you missed the part where I said we would have "far larger numbers"

Right. Rescuing the global financial system was just a big plot by THE MAN. (Never mind the large portion of TARP funds that have already been paid back)

Muahahahahahahahahaha!

[rfranklin]

31. I have to admit you are brilliant in your arguments...

Your intelligence is overwhelming.

[Warren DeMontague]

32. Yes, but even I am not such a genius that I can prove a negative.

And I can't prove that the shit would have hit the fan in an immeasurably worse fashion, had we not followed through on the TARP bailouts.

But here we are, and the economy is damaged, but we aren't in Great Depression II. We aren't.

And like I said, a lot of the TARP money has been paid back.

http://articles.sfgate.com/2010-12-29/business/26351275_1_preferred-shares-dividends-tarp-funds

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2009/06/17/jpmorgan-repays-treasury-as-tarp-exits-continue/

http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/banking-financial-institutions/137575-two-financial-institutions-pay-back-tarp-funds

Now, I do still understand that there are plenty of people in this country- like the Tea Party- who are MAD MAD MAD!!! and don't feel like they even need to string together a coherent narrative as to what, precisely, they're MAD MAD MAD!!! about.

[JuniperLea]

19. My grandparents told me all about real collapse...

This isn't even in the same ballpark. Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it... I'd strongly suggest you read up on the subject.

Then read the short history of TARP. Who created it, and who got back the lion's share of the funds.

[rfranklin]

21. I'd strongly suggest that you don't extrapolate from anecdotal stories...

and it isn't just about TARP. Read the original post.

P.S.--I had grandparents too.

[JuniperLea]

24. Excuse me...

But their anecdotal stories are supported by history... it was their stories that pointed me to the history for confirmation of what they said. It sounded unbelievable to me, so I went to the library... it was the 70's, there were no InterTubes.

I'm just going to save us both a lot of frustration and put you back on ignore... I'm really fed up with the continued Obama bashing... really. Completely.

[Warren DeMontague]

26. For all the weeping and wailing and histrionics over NAFTA, that's not where the jobs went.

The jobs left for other reasons. Not NAFTA.

[hfojvt]

15. which Democratic Senators in the last election should have been primaried?

Many of the Reps we might like to see primaried, lost their elections anyway, and there is nothing to say that a more liberal candidate would have won in their districts.

[emilyg]

18. knr

[Brickbat]

23. This guy must have missed that GREAT speech last night, and doesn't understand that a new day is

dawning. The Speech will unite the country, create jobs, and make everything all better again.

[upi402]

29. Pretty werdz

is gud fer dumeez like me

pfft
I'm done with talk from this guy, lets see the walk.

[Catherina]

28. Recommended. n/t

[treestar]

30. This simply takes every far left hyperbole for granted

One has to have accepted all of those conclusions up front to agree.

TARP was passed as a law. Disagree with it, but it was a law that passed. Carrying it out is the responsibility of any executive.

[bigwillq]

33. But I thought he was playing chess?

I am so confused. :rofl:

[Blue-Jay]

34. Hilarious and totally original!

Next, someone will say that they didn't "HOPE" for this kind of "CHANGE".

[bigwillq]

35. Why, thank you!

That was going to be my next response!
:rofl: