General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Bad nominee withdraws. Obvious defeat for everyone who thought he was a bad nominee. [View all]Maedhros
(10,007 posts)They view our celebration of the Summers flame-out as (somehow) an attack on Obama, and they are tired of defending the President.
There's something to that - look at the posts on the thread about the nomination of Zientz for Economic Advisor. A lot of posters jumped on the President's case simply because Zientz is a CEO and had worked at Bain Capital eighteen years ago, without knowing much else about the man. I get just as frustrated at posters who jump into a thread and smear Glenn Greenwald without knowing much else about him other than he admitted to supporting the Iraq War in the preface to a book published in 2006 (and then immediately explained how his sense of betrayal when he learned the truth of the matter led him to despise Bush, but that part gets ignored).
In this particular case I believe Summers was the Beltway's presumptive nominee because Obama had praised him in the past and because Obama has appointed Wall Street mavens to cabinet positions before (cf. Tim Geithner). I'm not sure that Summers would have removed his name from consideration all on his own, so the idea that Obama may have asked him to do so after testing the political winds carries some weight.
I just wish we could get more thoughtful responses to this issue beyond "You're all stupid! He was never the nominee! "