Posted by James O'Rourke on November 18, 2008
By Richard Cohen
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
The Washington Post
Enough Lincoln. More FDR. This is my shorthand advice to Barack Obama, who in several interviews has talked about wanting to emulate Abraham Lincoln. He said that along with the Bible, the book he would take with him to a desert island would be Doris Kearns Goodwin’s “Team of Rivals.” It’s a useful book — but not if that desert island has high unemployment, a housing crisis, a frozen financial system and no consumer confidence. In that case, a book about Franklin D. Roosevelt would do better.
There need not be a contest between these two great presidents, both of them remarkable politicians. But the one quality Roosevelt had that Lincoln, at least in his popular portrayal, did not is sheer exuberance. FDR, who called Al Smith a “happy warrior,” was himself a happy warrior. It was his jaunty enthusiasm and his willingness to try almost anything to break the back of the Great Depression that mattered most. It had to — after all, in the end, nothing worked. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Issues, Opinions | Tagged: Lincoln, Obama, Roosevelt | Leave a Comment »
Posted by James O'Rourke on November 18, 2008
By Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!. Posted November 18, 2008.
The bailout is a parting gift to the people that George Bush once
referred to jokingly as “my base.”
Amy Goodman: World leaders from nearly two dozen countries met in Washington over the weekend to discuss plans to increase regulation of international financial activity. They acknowledged that a failure of market oversight in countries like the United States had precipitated the financial crisis.
Meanwhile, here at home, it’s been a month into the Bush administration’s more than $700 billion bank bailout. Last week, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson outlined a new bailout strategy intended to boost consumer borrowing and promote financing for companies that give out loans. President-elect Obama’s transition team is reportedly working on improving the management of the bailout come January 20th.
But that’s two months away and according to the Washington Post, with $290 billion already committed, the Bush administration has taken no action to fill congressionally-mandated independent positions to oversee how the bailout is used.
According to Naomi Klein’s latest article in The Nation, “The more details emerge, the clearer it becomes that Washington’s handling of the Wall Street bailout is not merely incompetent. It is borderline criminal.” The article is called “In Praise of a Rocky Transition.” … “Criminal”? Explain. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Bailout, Issues | Tagged: Bailout, naomi klein | Leave a Comment »
