Obama seems to be emulating the Clinton era all over again, and leaning very centerpiece looks like high noon on wall street. Some Obama selections for me, his appeasing the right means no change and no hope and business as usual. 

Some of the people surrounding Obama disappoint me, lets see if he sticks it up the lobbyists behind as he eluded to during campaign rhetoric. Since he has some past lobbyists on his staff he could really stick to them but I suppose not. 

We will soon find out if his perceived rhetoric, was just that.

I don’t care much about the “I screwed up” admission here ....

I’m more concerned about a long-past headline (NYT?) that said Daschle had been made aware of the tax problem last June ...

Why did Daschle not take care of this then?

Did he not report this potential trip-wire during the vetting process?

Did the vetting people discount it’s significance?

Judging from my own feeling and that reflected in the response to much of the stimulus “controversy”, I fear Team Obama fails to appreciate the deep suspicion the American public has developed about the ability of the “government”—particularly the federal government—to successfully, efficiently and effectively manage ANYTHING ... Katrina and Iraq / Afghanistan represent ongoing reminders of money/effort down a rat hole .. and of a lot of “fat cat” subcontractors doing substandard work for big big big bucks.

This economic crisis appears to be shaping up into a national Katrina ... and we still have people like Dachle “not getting” that it what has become less than honest “business as usual” is not okay ... surely he could afford to have/should have had accountants and “support staff” whose job was to keep him “squeeky clean” ... sloppy, insensitive or just “entitled” ... yeah, tax problems as deal-breakers are for “little people” ...

baffling. not encouraging.

If someone does not admit a mistake or screw up, we are back to square one, eight years of square one.

John H, are you sure that was a “plain ol’ president” as in cake donut, or was that “plain glazed president”? I gather from your bile that you do not care for that donut described by actor Tommy Lee Jones, in the movie The Fugitive, as “chocolate glazed with those sprinkles on top.”

re: cruxpuppy

“The pyramid of expectations would have collapsed sooner or later. In fact, this is happening right before our eyes.”

I do not know if Obama checked out Putin’s speech at Davos. Nor do I know if he has even considered who will implement the “responsible macroeconomic policies” that the Russian Godfather mentioned.

“It’s important for this administration to send a message that there aren’t two sets of rules — you know, one for prominent people and one for ordinary folks who have to pay their taxes…”

Doesn’t he know that the Wall Street bail out is a collosal hypocrisy that guarantees the subservience of “ordinary folks” to financial speculators forever and ever, amen?

Didn’t he listen to Putin’s speech at Davos?

Fact is, well-meaning Obama needs to get some new friends to help him understand this financial debacle, causes and cures…

“It’s important for this administration to send a message that there aren’t two sets of rules — you know, one for prominent people and one for ordinary folks who have to pay their taxes…”

Well, that’s a start. When he finally also realizes that the bail out of the Wall Street crowd is a monumental hypocrisy, what will he say?

More importantly, what will he do?

Did he listen to Putin’s speech at Davos?

It seems to me, Bush never learned from his mistakes, may include the one or two he admitted.

Don’t be so quick to forget… Bush has admitted mistakes, even just hours after making them…

...remember the pretzel???

How refreshing to have a President capable of recognizing a mistake, fearlessly admitting that mistake, and then altering his actions to avoid repeating that mistake!

For 8 years we have suffered with a dry drunk fanatic who thought the world would think him “un-manly” if admitted to blatantly obvious mistakes.  Instead, he insanely insisted on following through on them, resulting in the attack on 9/11, a failed war in Afghanistan, an illegal, unnecessary and now failed war in Iraq, trashed relations with our friends, more dangerous animosity with our foes, a wrecked Federal bureaucracy that cannot handle natural disasters, a weakened Constitution, and a collapsed and raided economy.

All that could have been avoided if he could have said EVEN ONCE “I screwed up”.

How are we EVER going to clean this mess up?

You have to credit President Barry for keeping a cool head throughout the Williams interview. But why do I have this eerie feeling that the President is the captain presiding on the Titanic?