The Anchoress
Right after Obama got told to get his act together in a crisis:
The economic crisis is downgraded. No longer a catastrophe. Let’s dance!
Drudge says: “Dire Emergency Canceled.” You betcha!
Insty calls it The Emily Letilla Presidency
Just the other day: Don’t go stuffing money in your mattresses. Ummm…well, I wasn’t going to, but since you’re mentioning it…
Just this morning: Perpetual Crisis!
Two weeks ago we were reading that the biggest banks were going to fail! Two days ago, we were reading that Nancy Pelosis needed another stimulus package, and the banks might need more bailing out.
Now…Bank of America expects to post profits for all of 2009!
Citibank doesn’t need more money, afterall!
Those terrible retail numbers that spelled Great Recession and had over 50% of the nation saying we were headed for Depression? Not so bad after all!. Pssssst: Retail sales were up in January, too, but that didn’t get much attention, because the narrative back then was DOOM! DOOOM! DOOOOOOOM!
Now…everything is beautiful!
Or…despite the Pravda Polling Numbers, the inside polls don’t look quite so loving and rosy?
Lorie Byrd is feeling a bit manipulated:
So after declaring a catastrophe that we might never be able to recover from, and driving the market down to basement levels, and scaring the public into swallowing a record spendulus bill that will cost their children and grandchildren dearly and accepting government takeover of additional parts of the private sector he gets all Emily Litella on us. “Never mind.”
Most of us knew exactly what was going on. He talked down the economy and talked up the crisis for several reasons:
— to create an atmosphere that would allow the spendulus bill to be passed
— to build up the crisis to fever pitch so that it could fully be taken advantage of in an effort to pass more big government legislation like healthcare
— to create the impression that the economy is absolutely as bad as it could possibly be so that when any progress was seen it would be viewed as a recovery in comparison and that any recovery would be hailed as nothing short of miraculous, no matter how anemic
This strategy was calculated. It was deceitful. It was manipulative. It was opportunistic. It was un-presidential. And unless tax paying American citizens speak up it will be effective.
Well, really Lorie, you didn’t expect them to “let a good crisis go to waste, did you?”.
After all Rahm Emmanuel said they wouldn’t. So did Mrs. Clinton. And didn’t the president just say it a few days ago in a speech? I’m pretty sure he did.
A little fear mongering– since ummm…before he even got into office, and voila, you got your revolution.
Maxine Waters OWNED a bank? How rich are these people? I guess when you get rich enough, money is not interesting, anymore, and only power will do.
Oh…wait…they’re going to change some accounting rules:
This week’s rally got an extra dose of adrenaline after an accounting board told Congress Thursday it may recommend a let-up in accounting rules for troubled banks in three weeks. Banks have been dogging the market since 2007, so hope that financial institutions might finally get relief in how they value their bad assets spurred a flurry of buying on Wall Street.
“We might find that the banks are not as bad, or not bad at all, if these assets are marked differently,” said Doreen Mogavero, president of the New York floor brokerage Mogavero, Lee & Co.
Look, Obama – the intellectual – was getting hammered, his own party was starting to revolt from his grand spending scheme. His administration is making foreign policy gaffes left and right and he personally insulted our best ally. Some wonder if he is malevolent or simply inept. Some of his nominations are outright appalling or at least eyebrow raising. He cannot seat his cabinet or staff treasury. His priorities seem disordered. He’s been picking fights with private citizens to create his nemesis. His nominations are giving him fits. He’s not getting rid of the pork. Even an (unscientific) MSNBC poll says “yer doin’ it wrong, you’re trying to do too much, too fast.” The Tea Parties are actually starting to organize to a point where the press might actually be forced to cover them. Some members of the press are thisclose to starting to maybe doubt him a little. We’ve got warships heading to China. He wants to raise taxes, but you can’t do that in a “Great Recession.” He wants Universal Health Care; he wants to charge vets for their battle wounds. He needs to change the subject and seem like he’s doing very, very well, because he wants to continue the move toward nationalization, and he can’t do that unless – ta-da! – things aren’t so bad, after all!
He’s um…hitting the reset button. Again (he likes that metaphor). On his whole presidency.
Well, I hate to be cynical. So I guess I’ll just sleep better tonight, knowing it’s all really not that bad, afterall. You’ll sleep better too, won’t you? No point in feeling like a fool, or anything.
Oh, and Obama is going to take a pass on the annual gridiron dinner. I don’t blame him. It will be so boring, with the press just praising him. Endlessly.
Meanwhile, slightly O/T, the genuine sufferers of BDS seem to be utterly losing their minds. And Up North Mommy says we are all stupider for reading that.
Related: The Obama Rosetta Stone
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