Politics with Marc Ambinder

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Mar 24 2009, 2:38 pm by Marc Ambinder

One Question I Might Ask Obama....

On politics and the economy: your administration has said that furor over the AIG bonuses is, while understandable, a quote-end-quote -- distraction -- from the real issues. But weren't those embers stoked by your own administration...before the AIG issue.....attempting to shift the debate in Washington from fixing the economy to punishing Wall Street?

Are you concerned that your rhetoric about anger, and particularly, anger against Wall Street, helped enflame public anger and distract attention from the economy's real problems?

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Comments (7)

ireneinmass

Forget about how loaded this question is, and how many highly subjective and therefore questionable assumptions a person has to accept as fact in order to answer it. Forget that you ask the President to accept responsibility for an outcome that you have no way of knowing or proving to be true, or that the reason for which you ask him to accept responsibility for that dubious outcome is something so vague and broad as to be assinine ("rhetoric about anger").

This is just stupid and a waste of time and breath.

What kind of a moron would Obama have to be to answer this? And what valuable insight or information would we gain as a result. The only thing I learned from reading it was that you have issues with logic and connecting the dots.

Ask him something that he can answer and in answering shed some light on the big mess we're all in.

Darius (Replying to: ireneinmass)

Actually, I think there's a hint of an interesting question beneath all the loaded wording and silly assumptions. Perhaps if the question was more like:

"The past few weeks have seen an increase in public anger over issues like the AIG corporate bonuses. How has your overall economic strategy changed in response to this anger? And to what extent do you think the presidency should reflect, and be guided by, this populist trend? Should the president's role be to represent the public's anger, or to counteract it?"

AlchemyToday

Obama chastised Wall Street plenty, but I don't recall his administration ever promoting punitive action. I think his non-State-of-the-Union is probably the most appropriate example of where the administration wanted the debate to be as they introduced their economic plan. Plenty of talk about making sure government funds didn't go to drapes and jets (wups) and assertions that new regulatory schemes will prevent this from happening again. No suggested punishments unless you count attaching rules to free money or making new regulations and enforcing old ones punishment.

As far as anger goes, there's a fine line between displaying that you understand and empathize with popular sentiment and irresponsibly provoking folks to buy torches and pitchforks. I'm pretty sure which side of this line Obama's on. I'm not so sure about Michelle Bachman or Chuck Grassley.

freaktown

marc,
can you cite one example of obama spouting "angry" rhetoric about wall st. sure he said he was angry, but he hasn't let his anger cross over into how he governs. in fact, he actually said "anger isn't a governing strategy."


Bemused

So it's the administration that has "stoked those embers"? Please. The idea of a member of the media posing such question after the last week of absurdly overheated coverage is rather amusing. Pot, meet kettle.

jb

Lets make it a bit simpler...

Mr. President...do you think it was prudent to make the statements you made about the AIG bonuses a week ago, especially about trying to block the bonuses, when your Treasury Department had already determined this to be unfeasible and illegal. Is it health to demean the very industry that you now ask to partner with you in bailing out the housing industry?

Ambinder spelling cop

That is an unbelievably stupid quote-end quote gotcha question. No spelling or grammar errors on this, but now you get a ruler on the knuckles for suggesting such a lame waste of breath. Are you angling for a spot on FNC, perhaps as one of O'Reilly's reporting crew?

Marc, you seriously need a break from the DC press corps sturm und drang.