Obama to the Rescue

President Barack Obama caught a light-headed woman in the Rose Garden. Obama was giving a speech on the rollout of the Affordable Care Act. The woman has been identified as Karmel Allison.

Allison is diabetic and can now get health insurance through the ACA. Allison was prevented from getting health insurance because she has a preexisting condition.

President Obama on Allison.

According to the White House, Allison has remained on the same insurance since her diagnosis “despite constantly rising costs, for fear she would not be able to find a plan that would cover her due to her pre-existing condition.”

“Allison recently began researching her options on CoveredCA and has publicly described her experience as finally feeling equal to others, including her young and healthy husband, when it comes to access to coverage,” the White House explained.

Obama's Not So Secret Plan to Close Gitmo

The Obama administration has faced criticism that they have no plan to close the Guantanamo Bay prison. President Barack Obama campaigned on closing the Guantanamo Bay detention center. Obama has been blocked by both parties in Congress from closing Gitmo.

Candidate Obama was asked on 60 Minutes if he would use the power of executive order to close Gitmo. Obama said yes. Obama has never been the wisest tactician. The Senate voted to block funding for transfers of Gitmo prisoners. The vote was held on May 20, 2009. Obama should have just moved the prisoners when he came into office.

The Obama administration's secret plan really isn't that secret. A two page memo really isn't much of a plan. It does cast a lot of blame on Congress. Much of that blame is deserved.

Prosecution and Detention. The U.S. Government will prosecute detainees in federal courts or military commission proceedings to the extent feasible and in the national security interest. The President has directed the Department of Defense to identify a site in the United States for military commission proceedings. But current law bars the transfer of detainees to the United States for any reason. As a result, the Government is prohibited from prosecuting any detainees in a military commission in the United States or in a federal court, even if it represents the best – or only – option for bringing a detainee to justice. This is true even though the Government has successfully prosecuted more than 490 terrorism-related cases in federal courts since 9/11. For those not prosecuted, the Administration will use the PRB process to regularly and carefully review the threat posed by detainees and, where appropriate, they will be designated for transfer.

The leaked secret plan. It really isn't a secret plan if the memo lists prisoner policies the Obama administration has been pushing for and that this secret plan was handed to the media by White House staffers.

White House Plan to Close Guantanamo

To Big to Prosecute is A Myth

Attorney General Eric Holder made news earlier this year when he told the Senate Judiciary Committee that the big banks are too big too to prosecute.

I am concerned that the size of some of these institutions becomes so large that it does become difficult for us to prosecute them when we are hit with indications that if you do prosecute, if you do bring a criminal charge, it will have a negative impact on the national economy, perhaps even the world economy, and I think that is a function of the fact that some of these institutions have become too large.

The recent House financial services committee hearing revealed that the Department of Justice based this assumption on no empirical evidence.

The U.S. Department of Justice appears to have neither conducted nor received any analyses that would show whether criminal charges against large financial institutions would harm the economy, potentially undermining a key DOJ argument for why the world’s biggest banks have escaped indictment.

Testimony by a top Justice official and fresh documents made public on Wednesday during a House financial services committee hearing revealed that financial regulators and the Treasury Department did not provide warnings to prosecutors weighing the economic consequences or fallout in the financial system of criminal indictments against large financial groups. DOJ also could find no records that would substantiate its previous claims that it weighed potentially negative economic or financial impacts when considering criminal charges, said Mythili Raman, acting assistant attorney general for the criminal division.

This is video Sen. Elizabeth Warren during her first Banking Committee hearing. Warren questioned financial regulators on when was the last time they took a major bank to trial. The answer they all the regulators gave is none. This was prior to the recent Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. Warren serves on the

The Obama administration has no interest in prosecuting major financial institutions. The Senate Judiciary Committee reveals that the Justice Department never had studies conducted on what the economic impact would be if major financial institutions were prosecuted. Holder never had the studies done because he never wanted to run the risk of an answer that would be unacceptable to the White House.

Skeet Shooting Fiasco

Note to White House political team. President Barack Obama is not running for the Republican nomination to become Florida's next Agriculture Commissioner. Republican Adam Putnam can pander to the conservative base by doing photo-ops and telling Floridians how easy he made it to put guns into the hands of Floridians. The White House is attempting to pander to NRA members by showing the President skeet shooting. These people will never support gun regulations.

To make matters worse, the White House forgot they live in the internet age. Only after releasing the skeet shooting photo did they ask people not to photoshop the image. We can look forward to future photoshops of the President shooting school children or any other offensive madness. The photoshops have already started.

This falls under Obama's instincts to pander to demographics that aren't part of his political base. Polls show that even Republican voters support gun control. We have a President that thinks appealing to a powerful political base is by declaring he is either a Blue Dog Democrat or a moderate Republican. Obama should ask Lincoln Chafee how well things are going for moderate Republicans or perhaps Heath Shuler on how the past few election cycles have been to Blue Dogs. Obama crafts his message for political coalitions that are nearly extinct.

If Harry Truman were alive he would tell President Obama to say he is a proud Democrat. Whether Obama likes it or not he is the leader of the Democratic Party. Truman made this famous quote about how to handle Republicans.

"Carry the battle to them, don't let them bring it to you. Put them on the defensive and don't ever apologize for anything."

Fall Out of Confidence Men

"Just read "Confidence Men." It's good. It's smart. It rings true. It's a tough read for Team Obama."

Journalist Marc Ambinder, on Ron Suskind's new book "Confidence Men: Wall Street, Washington, and the Education of a President."

The book portrays President Obama as weak in handling conflicts with his staffers and getting steamrolled by his Lawrence Summers, Tim Geithner and Rahm Emanuel. This was told to Suskind by staffers on-the-record and with the cooperation of the administration. Team Obama is now trying to do push back. The problem is Suskind has these conversations on tape. Anita Dunn denied she claimed the White House was sexist towards women. Suskind revealed a tape to the Washington Post that made Dunn's original on-the-record quote even more damning.

"I remember once I told Valerie [Jarrett] that, I said if it weren’t for the president, this place would be in court for a hostile workplace,” Dunn is heard telling Suskind. “Because it actually fit all of the classic legal requirements for a genuinely hostile workplace to women."

A White House that gives complete access to a well-known muckraking reporter and then have staffers show incredibly poor message discipline. This is not a smart administration.

Suskind appeared on Morning Joe to discuss a meeting female staffers had with the President about sexism from Summers and Emanuel. Obama told them he wouldn't fire them because he needed them. I have yet to figure out what positive things did Summers and Emanuel do in the Obama administration.

Summers was such an egomaniac that he was telling people in the administration that he was smarter than Obama.

According to Orszag, Summers says, "You know, Peter we're really home alone. There's no adult in charge. Clinton would never have made these mistakes." Later, Orszag says to Suskind, "Larry just didn't think the president knew what he was deciding. Was this [obstruction of the president's wishes] outright and willful?" In other words, asks Orszag, was Summers saying, "I know more than the president flat-out? That strikes me as ... likely."

Joy-Ann Reid tweeted me that I just attacked Summers because I hated him. I tweeted her the Summers quote. Reid never tweeted me back. The thing about Obamabots such as Reid is they never want to talk about the substance about the criticism.

Democratic Caucus Angry At the White House

The Obama team has handled their caucuses poorly since the beginning of their administration. President Barack Obama and his team not informing the Democratic caucuses that they made a deal with Republicans to extend the Bush tax cuts was a move that created bad blood. Sen. Diane Feinstein told CNN that she could not get a straight answer from Jacob Lew on the White House negotiations with Republicans on the debt ceiling.

"Are discussions going on or not?" she said. "We couldn't get an answer. Then you pick up the morning paper and all you see right-hand (side), above the fold, front page (is) about all these discussions going on. It's hard. It's hard."

The CNN article backs up previous reports that Democrats went ballistic on Lew. The White House fails to realize that Democrats still control the Senate. House Speaker John Boehner and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell have shown in the past that they cannot deliver their caucuses. Republicans place fear of the tea party over fiscal sanity. These Republicans figure their nay votes are safe because enough Democrats will pass vote to raise the debt ceiling. That is less likely with Obama offering entitlement cuts and no concessions from Republicans.

Benjamin Kirby offers this argument on Obama's strategy.

The president offered to cut Medicare and Social Security -- central tenets of Democratic policy and politics -- and yet the other side apparently doesn't have the capacity to accept a deal. I know progressive bloggers whose heads are exploding right now. They have totally turned on Obama and his supporters. From my view, it's about making a deal before we essentially destroy the republic.

Obama doesn't have to offer anything. Boehner and McConnell have made it clear that they intend to raise the debt ceiling. They know Wall Street will cut off campaign contributions to the GOP if the debt ceiling is not raised. There are enough Democrats and Republican Wall Street lackeys to raise the debt ceiling. Many Republicans will not vote to raise the debt ceiling once they know McConnell and Boehner have the votes. It doesn't matter as long as the debt ceiling is raised.

Obama is offering entitlement cuts because he is triangulating. I wrote that Obama extended the Bush tax cuts because he wanted to appeal to independent voters. If Obama really cared about the debt and budget deficit he would have never extended the tax cuts. This is why Obama isn't going after tax cuts for top earners. Obama is as unserious about the debt as Marco Rubio.

Push Back From Social Security & Medicare Cuts

The Washington Post reports that White House sources have admitted that they are seeking a deal "to the right of the Gang of Six."

Congressional and administration officials said the White House informed Democratic leaders about the talks after Obama met privately with Boehner and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) late Wednesday. Congressional aides, speaking on the condition of anonymity to detail private discussions, said the White House acknowledged that the emerging agreement is “to the right of the Gang of Six” — a bipartisan Senate debt-reduction framework unveiled this week — and far removed from what Democrats have said would be acceptable.

WaPo and the Wall Street Journal report that Senate Democrats went off on OMB Director Jacob Lew. The reason being is that Obama and Republicans are negotiating decreases in cost of increasing rates to Medicare and Social Security. In exchange, Obama gets no tax increases for giving two Democratic sacred cows to the Republicans to carve up. It appears that the Democratic caucus will not go for it. For now.

After a lunchtime meeting between Lew and Senate Democrats, Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) made no attempt to hide his anger, telling reporters that his caucus would oppose the “potential agreement” because it appeared to include no clear guarantee of increased revenue.

“The president always talked about balance, that there had to be some fairness in this, that this can’t be all cuts. There has to be a balance. There has to be some revenue and cuts. My caucus agrees with that,” Reid said. “I hope that the president sticks with that. I’m confident that he will.”

Democrats for planning to go into the 2012 election campaigning against Rep. Paul Ryan's attempted Medicare cuts. Obama is trying to make cuts into Medicare and Social Security. I can guarantee Republicans will run attack ads against Obama if he succeeds in enacting these cuts. The policy is horrible. Why Obama thinks this is good politics is beyond me.

WTF: Stanley McChrystal Appointed to the White House

Gen. Stanley McChrystal was relieved of command after openly trash talking several Obama administration officials in Michael Hastings infamous Rolling Stone article. McChrystal people that the General did not have high regard for President Barack Obama's abilities as Commander in Chief.

According to sources familiar with the meeting, McChrystal thought Obama looked "uncomfortable and intimidated" by a roomful of military brass. Their first one-on-one meeting took place in the Oval Office four months later, after McChrystal got the Afghanistan job, and it didn't go much better. "It was a 10-minute photo op," says an adviser to McChrystal. "Obama clearly didn't know anything about him, who he was. Here's the guy who's going to run his fucking war, but he didn't seem very engaged. The Boss was pretty disappointed."

To make matters worse, McChrystal disparagingly spoke about Vice- President Joe Biden's and National Security Adviser January Jones on-the-record. The result was President Obama stripping McChystal of his command.

We now learn that Obama has appointed McChrystal to the White House position of overseeing military families. Why the President would reward McChrystal with a White House position makes no sense. It is as if Obama has an obsessive need to please people whom hold him in open contempt.

Another sourse of controversy for McChrystal is his handling of the death of former NFL player and Army Ranger Pat Tillman. The fact is Tillman was killed by friendly fire. McChrystal ruled that Tillman was killed in combat. The truth is the fire fight was started when an explosive went off. Tillman's unit did not engage enemy combatants.

McCrystal was well aware the true cause of Tillman's death. McCrystal wrote this memo.

McChrystal wrote to his higher ups to make sure that they knew the truth so as to "preclude any...public embarrassment if the circumstances of Corporal Tillman's death become public."

The Pentigon Inspector General reccommended disciplinary action. The Bush administration protected McCrystal and used executive priveledge to withhold details of Tillman's death.

Mary Tillman, Pat's mother, is outraged and wants McCrystal removed from the White House position.

"He deliberately helped cover up Pat's death and he has never adequately apologized to us for doing that," she says. "General McCrystal knew we were actively looking for answers. No one contacted us to try and square with us what had happened."

Money quote:

(Mary) Tillman says the president's appointment of McCrystal "makes him look foolish, frankly."

Amen.

Why Obama Has No Message

The White House has been handed a golden opportunity with Republicans threatening $5 trillion in Medicare cuts and a government shutdown. Yet Republicans are controlling the political messaging. Obama has an adverse fear for slinging mud at Republicans. That affects his political team.

Republicans are playing to the Tea Party base with the shutdown and Medicare cuts. Obama's idea of negotiating is cutting heating for the poor and a federal pay freeze with getting nothing in return for Republicans. This style of governing makes perfect sense if you are Rick Scott. The cuts Obama placed make little dent in the deficit, hurt the poor and government retaining employees. Obama made the cuts strictly for positioning himself as a centrist. How many independents in America will decide their 2012 vote because federal pay rates heating assistance are make or break issues? I say no one.

Obama is not governing. He has giving up on making proposals to create new jobs. I final decision on Afghanistan has been kicked down the road to 2014. Policy is set a drift because America has a President terrified of not being re-elected.

The problem with the Obama's political team's message is stuck in the 90s. The Democratic Leadership Council has folded. Congressional Blue Dogs had their heads handed to them in the midterm elections. Obama's reaction to these events was to appoint Bill Daley as his Chief of Staff. This Third Way (a neoliberal organization) press release illustrates what Daley stands for.

Secretary Daley said: “I believe in Third Way’s unique mission—advancing moderate ideas, challenging orthodoxies, and building a big tent political movement that can attract an enduring majority. Their views are right for both campaigning and governing: pro-market, strong on security, and seeking common ground on culture issues. Third Way is doing exactly the work that we must do—with the White House, Congress and statehouses—if we’re going to own the center of American politics and create the kind of pragmatic change the country wants.”

Mr. Daley continued: “We’ve really got to listen carefully to the public. Voters are not re-embracing conservative ideology. But we must acknowledge that the left’s agenda has not won the support of a majority of Americans—and, based on that recognition, we must steer a more moderate course. Third Way is playing a central role in helping us navigate that course.”

Obama publicly declared, "I am a New Democrat." The Wikipedia definition of New Democrat.

In the politics of the United States, the New Democrats are an ideologically centrist faction within the Democratic Party that emerged after the victory of Republican George H. W. Bush in the 1988 presidential election. They are identified with more pragmatic and centrist social/cultural/pluralist positions and neoliberal fiscal values.[1][2] They are represented by organizations such as the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC), the New Democrat Network, and the Senate and House New Democrat Coalitions.

Translation: New Democrats are pro-corporatist and socially conservative. Obama promised the Chamber of Commerce less regulations. Obama signed an executive order forbidding federal funds being used to fund abortions. If Obama campaigned on these positions he would have never made it out of the presidential primaries.

Tampa politician Bob Buckhorn was a corporatist Democrat in the 90s. Buckhorn was best known for attempting to ban lap dancing in strip clubs. Buckhorn's move to the right of center resulted in 3 campaign losses.

In 2011, Buckhorn ran for Mayor and ran an extremely policy driven campaign. Buckhorn ran a successful social media campaign and won in a landslide. The former New Democrat moved to the Left. Buckhorn explained the change.

"I didn't fear losing, because I've felt losing," he says. "I know what it feels like, and I know it doesn't kill me. So when you really have no fear of losing, it changes your perspective."

Obama's governing and message problem is he is afraid of losing. America loses when the President isn't willing to fight for job creation, financial reform or a sane foreign policy.

Obama is "Less Horrible Than Advertised'

Poor Joy-Ann Reid. I love her work. Sadly, it is becoming harder for her to defend President Barack Obama. Calling Obama's budget proposal "less horrible than advertised" is not a ringing endorsement. Reid participated in a conference call with the White House and believed the spin. Case in point the administration's defense of cutting the Low Income Heating and Energy Assistance Program funding by half.

On the White House Af-Am call, I asked about LIHEAP, and was told it was one of the “difficult” but necessary cost savings the president was proposing. On the call, Rouse explained that LIHEAP had seen its funding essentially doubled in the president’s first two years due to spiking energy prices. Now that prices have leveled out, the White House has decided to return funding to pre-spike levels. However, Rouse said “rest assured, if energy prices spike again, the White House is prepared to bring funding levels back up.” In a follow-up email after the call, a White House spokesman explained that LIHEAP is in fact a block grant, meaning money transfered to the states and administered by them. And because the money is paid directly to utilities, not customers, with energy prices down but the funding still at spike levels, it has essentially served as a federal subsidy to those energy companies.

Unemployment projections will be high for 2011. The Office of Management and Budget paints a far rosier picture of deficit reduction than OMB director Jack Lew.



Reid writes that the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities gave Obama's buget good reviews. I don't believe that Reid read Robert Greenstein, CBPP Executive Director's statement on the budget.

The President’s budget, however, does not go nearly far enough to keep the debt stabilized in later decades, which the Administration acknowledges. The President and Congress will need to take much bigger steps — on both spending and taxes — to meet those challenges. The budget signals the Administration’s interest in bipartisan discussions on these issues, explicitly calling, for example, for bipartisan talks on Social Security and laying out the Administration’s principles for such negotiations.

Greenstein notes that the White House is wrong on on cuts to LIHEAP funding are practical because heating prices will drop.

One exception is the deep cut in LIHEAP. The President proposes to return LIHEAP to its 2008 funding level on the grounds that home energy prices are much lower now than when Congress substantially increased LIHEAP funding in response to a rise in those prices. But, the Energy Department’s own price forecasts indicate that home energy prices in the winter of 2012 will be back to their levels in the winter of 2008 and higher than in any year since then as well as in the years before 2008. The price of home heating oil is projected to be almost twice its 2000-2007 average; residential electricity almost 30 percent higher, and residential natural gas over 10 percent higher. While these prices will still be lower than at the peak of the price spike that occurred after the winter of 2008, the number of low-income Americans is much higher now— the number of people living in poverty is expected to be about 15 percent greater in 2012 than it was in 2008.

In fairness, Greenstein has good things to say about the budget proposal. Greenstein notes that the current Washington political climate is "toxic." Obama won't get everything he wants but no one expects the President to put up a fight.

Obama's budget calls for letting the Bush tax cuts expire in 2012. Does anyone see Obama doing that in an election year. The 2012 economy isn't going to be Clinton's 1998 economy. Things are likely to still be bad.

It amazes me the best defense Obama progressives have is "less horrible than advertised." Imagine that as a 2012 campaign bumper sticker.

DCCC Attacks Tax Cut Deal

The DCCC is attacking Republicans on the tax cut deal. The DCCC doesn't attack Obama. It is fascinating to see how politically far apart the DCCC and the White House are on tax cuts.

Voice Your Outrage at Republicans Despicable Vote on Social Security

Just one week after voting to give millionaires a tax break that increases the deficit by hundreds of billions of dollars, House Republicans voted in droves against giving seniors $250 to cover their Social Security cost of living increase. Let's hold their feet to the fire.

The House of Representatives Democratic caucus as a whole is much more liberal than the Obama White House. My take is Obama isn't really going to care about the incoming House Democratic caucus since they will be the minority party. Obama made the tax cut deal with Republicans without bring in House or Senate Democratic leadership before his official announcement. It would be mistake for Obama to exclude the Democratic House membership. The result will be his policies will be attacked from the Left.

Obama Pressuring DEM Congress to Say Rich Tax Cuts Popular

The Huffington Post reports the White House is now pressuring Congressional Democrats to go out and say tax cuts for the rich are popular.

That an administration would promote polling data backing its policy preferences is normally not an astounding revelation. But the private push of the Gallup study struck the Senate aide as depressing if not counter-productive. Even as the president was insisting that he thought an extension of rates for the wealthy is poor economics -- "I'm as opposed to the high-end tax cuts today as I've been for years," Obama said on Tuesday -- his aides were privately embracing the idea that extending the Bush tax cuts across the board was politically prudent.

"We are making the argument for (Republicans)," said the Senate aide, who sent over the email on condition that it could not be reprinted. "The White House now wants us to defend extending the Bush tax cuts."

I have yet to read articles on Obama pressuring Democrats on financial reform, repealing DADT or the DREAM Act. Obama lobbied Senate Democrats to not support a bill allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical companies. The deal resulted in costing the taxpayers $76 billion in savings. This president backs policies that continue to hurt the American people.

More Proof Obama Is Not a Policy Wonk

White House officials told Scott Wilson of the Washington Post that President Barack Obama made the tax cut deal to please independent voters.

The move is based on a political calculation, drawn from his party's midterm defeat, that places a premium on winning back independent voters.

The strategy emerged from hours of post-election meetings among senior administration officials who, after poring over returns, exit polls and midterm history, have determined that the loss of independent voters who supported Democrats in 2008 cost the party dozens of races this year. That conclusion places Obama at odds with many liberal Democrats, who say the midterm losses were the result in part of a political base dispirited by the president's penchant for compromise.

I continue to say Obama is not a policy wonk. If Obama really cared about the deficit he would not have been so ready to make a deal on extending the tax cuts. It is now obvious the Deficit Commission was merely a dog and pony show. Obama ran in 2008 on ending the Bush tax cuts for the top two brackets. The reason progressives are angry is they are holding Obama to his previously stated policy positions.

We now learn the tax cut deal had nothing to do with extending unemployment extension. This was about getting Obama re-elected. This wasn't about reducing the deficit. This was about Obama courting independent voters. This is sickening beyond words.

Once Again: Obama Is Not A Policy Wonk

Benjamin Kirby comes out against the federal pay freeze. Kirby calls upon President Barack Obama to end the pay freeze.

But there's a time for conciliatory negotiations and there's a time to roll up your sleeves and fight.

Now is the time to fight. Obama has the hope in him. But does he have the fight?

Frankly, I think federal employees deserve a fight -- and they're not going to get it. The every day working people of the federal government -- who make 24 percent less than their counterparts in the private sector -- just got used as a political chit.

Kirby went from urging Obama to fight to throwing in the towel in three paragraphs. Progressives can not even summon up the strength to write posts appealing to Obama's nonexistent champion to the common-man side. Ezra Klein noted that Obama didn't frame the pay freeze with doing away with the Bush tax cuts for the rich, as a way for Obama to say everyone must make sacrifices to pay down the deficit. The Economic Policy Institute has come out against the pay freeze. We have seen on the state level, the economy has added more state government workers to unemployment numbers.

It would be one thing if Obama truly believed the pay freeze was necessary. Obama makes the pay freeze announcement right before a scheduled meeting with Republicans. I read a White House official say the administration wanted to pre-emp Republicans. The two year pay freeze will save $2 billion in 2011. That is small change when the Congressional Budget Office said the deficit is $1.3 trillion for 2010.

Does anyone seriously still believe Obama is a policy wonk? It is bad when Ron Paul calls Obama a corporatist. Obama represents the most stupid aspects of neoliberalism in the past 20 years. Imagine scientists placing Mickey Kaus' political instincts, Harold Ford's love of Wall Street, and Martin Peretz's foreign policy in one person. That person is Barack Obama.

Disturbing Story on Obama Economic Team

According to Los Angeles Times columnist Richard Wolffe, a White House senior adviser told him that Obama called a meeting with the economic team about the level of unemployment. Obama called this meeting the day before the election. The goal of the meeting was not to find a solution for unemployment. The meeting was an intellectual debate on if the cause of unemployment was structural or cyclical.

I find this hard to believe. Obama has never exhibit economic policy wonkery. If Obama did he would have never hired Lawrence Summers and Tim Geithner. Obama is not going to take time out of his schedule to have academic debates. Obama wants new jobs created so he can get re-elected. The details are secondary.

Economist (and Lawrence Summers protege) Brad Delong calls the White House adviser quoted a "liar."

Given who they were and what I know of how they all think, all the members of Obama's original economic policy team--except, I suspect, Peter Orszag--did indeed have different views of what would be the best policy to try to generate jobs in the short run, but they all agreed that anything was better than nothing. (Peter thought, I think, that only policies that promised credible long-term deficit reduction were better than nothing.)

Orszag is no longer serving in the Obama administration. Orszag has advocated in his New York Times column to extend the Bush tax cuts and gushed about the deficit commission's recommendations. Summers will soon be out the door. Geithner is hoping quantitative easing by devaluing the dollar will increase exports. Federal Reserve chair Ben Bernanke sees short-term inflation, created by QE, helping job gains.

The action by the Obama administration on quantitative easing and signing the Recovery Act of 2009 suggests the economic team does not believe unemployment problems are structural. Paul Krugman comes to the same conclusion.

What I want to know is, who was arguing for structural? I find it hard to think of anyone I know in the administration’s economic team who would make that case, who would deny that the bulk of the rise in unemployment since 2007 is cyclical. And as I and others have been trying to point out, none of the signatures of structural unemployment are visible: there are no large groups of workers with rising wages, there are no large parts of the labor force at full employment, there are no full-employment states aside from Nebraska and the Dakotas, inflation is falling, not rising.

The real question is why did the Obama senior adviser tell Wolffe that the White House economic team hasn't figued out if the increase in unemployment is structural or cyclical? Either the Obama economic team is clueless or the Obama adviser has an axe to grind. Either possibility doesn't fill me with hope. What seems to be clear is Team Obama is falling apart and the finger-pointing has begun.

Axelrod Out, Plouffe In

I take this as a good piece of news. David Axelrod is leaving the White House. The political strategy and messaging of the Obama administration has been a disaster. I don't blame that entirely on Axelrod. A New Republic reports that Axelrod has become increasingly frustrated with the direction Team Obama has been going. Axelrod can best serve Obama by laying the groundwork for Obama's 2012 campaign.

The good news is David Plouffe is taking over Axelrod's job. Plouffe was Obama's presidential campaign manager. Plouffe didn't join the White House team because he had a child. Plouffe has advised Obama without holding an official White House role. James Carville had a similar working relationship with the Clinton administration.

Plouffe is the best hope Obama has to get his political strategy back on track. Plouffe carries more weight because he doesn't need the White House job. Plouffe can make vast sums of money as a consultant and on the lecture circuit. My hope is that Plouffe can get Obama out of neoliberal mode and reshape him back into the populist of 2008.

End the Pretense That Obama Will Fight

My response to Benjamin Kirby's post.

I (and my fellow blogger Tas) have blogged repeatedly about why Obama's economic policies were a failure. Franklen Delano Roosevelt tried stimulus and it failed. What saved the FDR economy was the jobs program.

I am not surprised that the team of Geithner, Summers, Orszag, and Goolsbee failed. Goolsbee wrote papers saying not to worry about the housing market crashing. Summers backed repealing Glass–Steagall Act. Orszag wrote an op-ed repeatedly describing the deficit commission's Social Security proposals as progressive. These people are always wrong. Their proposals actually hurt the country. The President who hired is a faith-based believer in neoliberalism. Any serious policy wonk wouldn't let Lawrence Summers within a 100 yards of the White House.

What surprised me is how the White House mishandled the politics side. This administration has been hostile towards the base and the Democratic caucus for a while. I know since I blogged about that.

I understand for merely political purposes it is in Obama's interest to maintain the pretense of bipartisanship. When Obama makes bipartisanship into a religion, gets stood up by McConnell and Boehner and doesn't heal the riff with Democratic elected officials and the base then there is a problem. As for bloggers and activists urging Obama to have a showdown with Republicans - it will never happen. Obama has shown a distaste for partisan fights. Obama will see his proposals destroyed and be a one-term president before having a Clinton v. Gingrich epic battle. Going back to Obama's time in the Illinois state legislature, there was never a moment Obama was willing to get his hands dirty in a partisan fight.

Obama is going to run to the middle. The White House isn't interested in helping the Democratic caucus or the progressive base. Obama and his team are thinking about 2012. Obama will triangulate with Jon Stewart's imaginary center and sign horrible bills to say something was accomplished. Welcome to the next two years.

Quote of the Day

"During the campaign... their message of 'what we are doing is working,' people would get mad, okay. Most kind of messaging is not very effective, it just goes in one ear out the other. This one, it went in one ear and right to the brain. What were they thinking? It was almost universal. And as opposed to saying 'These irresponsible, greedy people got us into this mess and we are the only thing between you and them, and we are fighting every day and we understand.' We kept telling them, don't tell them it's working... The White House had the best and brightest. But they mis-underestimated this."

James Carville, on the the failed midterm message strategy of the White House.

Obama: Horrible Dealmaker

Stories like did where Obama actually believed his bipartisan spin is always amazing. Didn't Obama pay attention to the Republicans he served with in the Senate? Remember all that time the White House wasted trying to win the health care votes from people like Charles "Death Panel" Grassley. A Democratic strategist told David Corn that the White House was repeatedly warned that they would never get any Republican support.

It took "so goddamn long," of course, partly because the president and his aides were overly deferential to Congress—especially to a few Senate Republicans they were trying to rope in. "We told the White House repeatedly," says the Democratic Senate strategist, "that it was a mistake to think they could negotiate with Republicans. They never listened."

Sen. Mike Enzi admitted he only worked with Democrats to delay the health care bill.

"If I hadn't been involved in this process as long as I have and to the depth as I have, you would already have national health care."

The only vote the White House ever got was Olympia Snowe in the Finance Committee. Her vote wasn't needed for passage. Snowe and every Republican voting against the final health care legislation. I wonder if Obama still believes in bipartisanship.

Bill Nelson On White House Cover Up of Spill

Bill Nelson rips the White House a new one for lowballing estimates of oil released into the Gulf from the Deep Horizen accident. The White House is getting ripped by a member of the Democratic caucus. Notice Lindsay Graham they courted on the energy bill is not coming to the White House's rescue. Neither is BP or other energy companies.

BILL NELSON: If it's true then there is no excuse that the Office of Management and Budget would try to muzzle the truth.