People defending Geithner are defending Wall Street, are delusional, or both

[FLAprogressive]

I stopped by GD : P (aka GD : DLC) and saw thread upon thread defending Geithner, even one saying that Geithner resigning would be damaging to Obama politically!

I beg to differ.

Geithner staying on would be damaging to Obama and it would be damaging to this nation as a whole. He is a Wall Street insider who does not want to change the system.

Now you all can act cute, and you all can say that "Obama's in charge"....but it's obvious that Tim Geithner will go behind Obama's back to make sure that his Wall Street Buddies are rewarded.

Geithner and Larry Summers are not change agents....they are status quo agents. It is time for Geithner's (and Summers') firing or resignation...and it is time for real reformers to come in and stick it to the Wall Street criminals.

[jody]

1. Perhaps some want to openly discuss major problems and others want to apologize. n/t

[FLAprogressive]

5. that's pretty much it. Stroll on over to GD:P (GD:DLC) and it's an apology fest. Almost as bad as FR

over there objectivity wise.

[Sebastian Doyle]

2. It's sickening.

I don't think paid lobbyists should be allowed to post here, at least not without full disclosure. And ever since this bailout bullshit started in September, there have been unmistakable shiils for the Wall Street Whores on this board.

Fuck Geithner. Fuck Summers. Fuck Ghoulsbee. Fuck Rubin.

Bring in some people who can actually DO what Obama says he wants to do - restore this country from the bottom up, not the top 1% down.

[billyoc]

14. I don't know how you could ferret them out.

:shrug:

[Horse with no Name]

24. It would be a very tough job, wouldn't it? n/t

[JDPriestly]

3. Either way, Obama is damaged.

If he fires Geithner, Obama looks like a fool for having hired him. If he doesn't fire Geithner, Obama looks like a scoundrel -- one of the bad guys.

Obama put himself between a rock and a hard place. If he had sought advice from true progressives before choosing his team, he would have chosen a better team.

I hope Obama learns from this mistake.

He needs to fire his entire team of economic advisers and ask Joseph Stiglitz, Robert Reich and Paul Krugman to suggest the names of some qualified people.

[FLAprogressive]

4. I'd rather have a temporary hit in popularity than another Great Depression

[Sebastian Doyle]

18. Maybe those ARE the qualified people?

I've been saying Reich's name all along.

[backscatter712]

6. As much as I'm a big fan of Obama, he needs to get rid of Geithner.

Time to bring in Robert Reich!

[FLAprogressive]

7. yup. And I'm sure the "You must hate Obama!" shills will pop up in due time.

I don't hate Obama. I just want to see a little less compromise to the corporate right.

[stillcool]

8. As far as I know, the President..

chooses his Cabinet members to carry out the policies he wants enacted. While Geithner may be a very unpopular figure to some here, he is the President's choice to head the Treasury. If he has done something illegal, or committed some other faux pas, then the President will ask for his resignation. If the public is whipped into a frenzy by the media they adore, who knows? Maybe he'll stay, maybe he'll go. If he goes, I'm sure the President will pick someone else that he has confidence in, and that person will be ripped from limb to limb as well, when the time comes.

[FLAprogressive]

9. and as I predicted, it's begun.

[babylonsister]

12. Your opinion doesn't make it so. Don't

post on a political message board if you can't handle differing opinions.

[stillcool]

15. oh..anyone that has a different opinion..

than you do, is what...a boot-licker? An apologist? An Obama lover? Come on...I know you want to...call me some name you learned in kindergarten!

[babylonsister]

13. I agree. If it's not Geithner, it'd be someone else

lots of people disagree with. This is a lose/lose proposition unless an unknown was hired, which would most likely mean inexperienced. I don't want that either.

[stillcool]

16. I'd really love it if he picked a fan favorite.

and we all got to watch he/she get chewed up and spit out. Of course, the 'outrage' would be no different, but it might be much more entertaining to watch.

[cali]

10. I strongly disagree

I think it's waaay premature to be demanding that Geithner be shitcanned. And I believe that axing him would not only be detrimental to Obama but could well endanger his economic platform

[wackywaggin]

35. Agree!!

[spanone]

11. yes, but their boss is an agent of change and they work for him.

guilty till proven innocent

[LakeSamish706]

17. I disagree with your OP as well, now is not the time to be changing the Treasury Secretary....

President Obama and his people have faith in Geithner, and thats good enough for me. If/when President Obama decides that Geithner needs to go, he will make that decision.

[eridani]

19. Having faith in deregulation as a continuing policy is seriously stupid

I have no faith that the people who caused the financial problems are the ones to fix them.

[cali]

20. really? you have evidence that the administration wants

to continue deregulation?

[eridani]

21. Just the appointment of treasury people who have a long history of believing in it

Hey, if they turn on a dime and change their minds, fine. Haven't seen it yet though.

[LakeSamish706]

22. I happen to believe that if President Obama is wrong in his choice, he will...

deal with it quickly. He is the elected President by a very substantial number of American people and I have his back.

[eridani]

25. Well, as FDR once said to A. Phillip Randolf--

--MAKE me do it!

[Kdillard]

23. What an obnoxious, arrogant post.

[FLAprogressive]

29. Thanks!

[Mike 03]

26. This is my view: I do like him and have made no bones about it, but I also said

that I'm open minded and if presented with evidence that he is corrupt I will change my opinion of him on the dime.

So rather than insult us all, why not engage in an intelligent discussion?

[ihavenobias]

27. I reject and denounce you! Why are you part of the Hate Obama Crowd?

How DARE you EVER criticize any decisions? It's only been 55 days. Like with Bush, you need to let *history* be the judge, who are you to judge?

;)

Sorry, but I'm disgusted by this "see no evil, speak no evil" cheer-leading bullshit. If you care about someone and want them to succeed, you don't pretend to be blind to their faults and mistakes. That enables failure, not success. Unfortunately some people can't seem to make that distinction.

I agree that there are some who aren't constructive in their criticisms of this administration, I would never dispute that. But to lump together EVERYONE with any criticism (constructive or otherwise) and suggest that they hate the president, want to fail, are unpatriotic, etc....it disgusts me.

Let's leave the partisan cheer-leading for the Republicans. They gave us a great template on how to do that the last 8 years, and I think we'd be doing ourselves, our president and our country a great service by NOT following it.

[FLAprogressive]

31. Great post. Like I said....GD:P (not DU as a whole) is basically the "liberal" counterpart to FR

Partisan cheerleading, zero objectivity.

[notesdev]

33. That explains

why so many over there take exception to basic mathematics

[Mike 03]

28. Even though I think those of us defending Geithner deserve more respect, I'm still going to

kick and rec this thread, because I'm hoping for someone to make a good argument, if the contrary is true.

[ihavenobias]

30. David Sirota granted your wish

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-sirota/lying-or-incompetent---ei_b_176457.html

[notesdev]

36. Where to begin?

Look at his background, and look at his policies. Look into his IMF policy disaster in the late 1990s. Ask yourself why the head of the NY Federal Reserve, an organization that was instrumental in feeding the credit bubble, is the right person to put in charge of solving the problem.

Ask yourself why he follows a policy indistinguishable from Hank Paulson's. Ask yourself why he can't find anyone to work for him in any important position.

Ask yourself if the decision making process that made him Secretary of the Treasury, which just picked the very Citibank (allegedly on whose advice the bank failed) head economist to "help" (read: replace) him, is functioning correctly.

Ask yourself, what is a "bond market dislocation", and is Bernanke-Geithner policy steering us directly into it?

But most importantly, ask yourself: why is it so important to cover up for, and most astonishingly reward(!) systematic fraud throughout the financial system? Why are not the ones who took the risks, standing to gain by them, bearing the burden of defaults?

Is this right? If not, is Geithner acting to remediate it, or to cover up the truth of what has been going on?


If you can find satisfying answers to all that and still not share the opinion that Geithner (and Bernanke) must be removed ASAP for everyone's (sans, perhaps, the people who caused the mess) good, then I cannot further help you to understand.

[rhett o rick]

32. The problem as I see it, is that wall street is blackmailing Obama. He can't get rid of Geithner.

If wall street decides that Obama is getting into their schtuff they can shut the economy down. His hands are pretty much tied. What I think he should do, and Thomas Jefferson forgive me, is build a takeover team. And at some point, with martial law if necessary, move in and nationalize wall street. Remove all the thieves and replace them with honest businessmen (if that isn't an oxymoron).

[CreekDog]

34. are you the dude who keeps calling Gillibrand by the name "Willard" as in Mitt Romney?

:eyes:

[FLAprogressive]

37. "told ya so" self-kick.....