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2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: I am Very Disappointed with the Democratic Party [View all]WhaTHellsgoingonhere
(5,252 posts)31. Holy crap criers! This is EXACTLY what Bubba did to Obama. Sat him down and this happened.
It happened in 2008, it can happen again!
"That was the day the jubilant Obama campaign announced its transition team. Though many of the names were familiar - former Bill Clinton chief of staff John Podesta, long-time Obama confidante Valerie Jarrett - the list was most notable for who was not on it, especially on the economic side. Austan Goolsbee, a University of Chicago economist who had served as one of Obama's chief advisers during the campaign, didn't make the cut. Neither did Karen Kornbluh, who had served as Obama's policy director and was instrumental in crafting the Democratic Party's platform. Both had emphasized populist themes during the campaign: Kornbluh was known for pushing Democrats to focus on the plight of the poor and middle class, while Goolsbee was an aggressive critic of Wall Street, declaring that AIG executives should receive "a Nobel Prize - for evil."
But come November 5th, both were banished from Obama's inner circle - and replaced with a group of Wall Street bankers. Leading the search for the president's new economic team was his close friend and Harvard Law classmate Michael Froman, a high-ranking executive at Citigroup. During the campaign, Froman had emerged as one of Obama's biggest fundraisers, bundling $200,000 in contributions and introducing the candidate to a host of heavy hitters - chief among them his mentor Bob Rubin, the former co-chairman of Goldman Sachs who served as Treasury secretary under Bill Clinton. Froman had served as chief of staff to Rubin at Treasury, and had followed his boss when Rubin left the Clinton administration to serve as a senior counselor to Citigroup (a massive new financial conglomerate created by deregulatory moves pushed through by Rubin himself).
Incredibly, Froman did not resign from the bank when he went to work for Obama: He remained in the employ of Citigroup for two more months, even as he helped appoint the very people who would shape the future of his own firm. And to help him pick Obama's economic team, Froman brought in none other than Jamie Rubin who happens to be Bob Rubin's son. At the time, Jamie's dad was still earning roughly $15 million a year working for Citigroup, which was in the midst of a collapse brought on in part because Rubin had pushed the bank to invest heavily in mortgage-backed CDOs and other risky instruments.
Now here's where it gets really interesting. It's three weeks after the election. You have a lame-duck president in George W. Bush - still nominally in charge, but in reality already halfway to the golf-and-O'Doul's portion of his career and more than happy to vacate the scene. Left to deal with the still-reeling economy are lame-duck Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, a former head of Goldman Sachs, and New York Fed chief Timothy Geithner, who served under Bob Rubin in the Clinton White House. Running Obama's economic team are a still-employed Citigroup executive and the son of another Citigroup executive, who himself joined Obama's transition team that same month.
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2009/12/13/obamas-big-sellout-president-has-packed-his-economic-team-wall-street-insiders
Hillary was part of the DLC Third-Way Clinton 42 Admin. So that puts her in the company of:
Robert Rubin
Larry Summers
Rahm Emanuel
Alan Greenspan (oh yes, nominated by Clinton)
Bill Daley
John Podesta (In 1988, he and his brother Tony co-founded Podesta Associates, Inc., a Washington, D.C., "government relations and public affairs" lobbying firm. Now known as the Podesta Group, the firm "has close ties to the Democratic Party and the Obama administration has been retained by some of the biggest corporations in the country, including Wal-Mart, BP and Lockheed Martin."
Tim Geithner (Under Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs)
Do these names look familiar to you, too? Add Wall Street's top defense attorney, Eric Holder, and it is idendical to the people with whom Obama surrounded himself, and there's even a Clinton touting shitty trade deals (Hillary sold as TPP "the gold standard" until Bernie said it's another Clintonian crap trade policy).
Which brings us to today. John Podesta is Chairman of Hillary's Presidential campaign. Why would we expect anyone different. Politically, ihis is the bubble she grew up in. These are the people she knows and trusts. When you attack her about her Wall Street ties, she doesn't take responsibility. What does she do? She shames her detractors by (1) saying they're attacking President Obama (who, obviously, was way too close to Wall Street and arguably closer to WS than Clinton 42 when you consider Clinton's AG was Janet Reno) or (2) applying a sexist double standard to her, e.g. demanding her Goldman Sachs speech transcripts (her lack of transparency here could also be used against her as avoidant behavior).
Based on these facts, the "reasonable man" would expect more of the same too-close- for-comfort relationship with Wall Street. Further, she's promising more of the same at every opportunity.
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Didn't have time to read all of your comments (I will), but read the para about a third party....
seekthetruth
Apr 2016
#3
The ideals of the Democratic Party were squashed by politicians like the Clintons who...
Human101948
Apr 2016
#98
I thank you for that, and feel much the same way until the last where you mentioned your solution.
Xyzse
Apr 2016
#16
I don't think that we feel differently about this -- even my last paragraph
Time for change
Apr 2016
#24
It's not about feelings. What a skeezy thing to say. You can disagree but the meme is incorrect. nt
haikugal
Apr 2016
#105
Polling now would not show anything, because Sanders is mostly unvetted and has had no real
Lucinda
Apr 2016
#56
thanks for sharing and for so eloquently stating what so many, many Dems are thinking, feeling, and
amborin
Apr 2016
#17
Holy crap criers! This is EXACTLY what Bubba did to Obama. Sat him down and this happened.
WhaTHellsgoingonhere
Apr 2016
#31
Bernie will run if we make him. this is our movement and he will do what the people want.
litlbilly
Apr 2016
#34
People that are older and who have voted for the "lesser of two evils" have come to realize ...
slipslidingaway
Apr 2016
#60
Thank you! It is strange how Sanders has united the young and the old ...
slipslidingaway
Apr 2016
#66
reading some comments - HRC supporters back to business as usual - no issues, just rudeness
snowy owl
Apr 2016
#63
Excellent comment Melissa G! It is the middle finger salute waved in our faces by grinning
haikugal
Apr 2016
#96
You were very vocal about the fraud in 2004, for those that might not know or remember ...
slipslidingaway
Apr 2016
#71
We should always remember what Andy Stephenson did to try to stop election fraud!!!
RememberAndy
Apr 2016
#75
The polls for the NY primary were very good. The exit polls were misleading.
Fresh_Start
Apr 2016
#82
I was accused of being hyperbole by a Clinton supporter concerning the outcome of Arizona
mrdmk
Apr 2016
#90
There was obvious and severe voter suppresion in AZ, as there was in NY
Time for change
Apr 2016
#93
Thank YOU!!! Wonderful piece of writing with substance! Excellent!!! K&R&Bookmarked!!
haikugal
Apr 2016
#91
Thank you for the excellent discourse on the dilemma many of us are now facing.
BillZBubb
Apr 2016
#102