AIG Money and Obama

I was watching CNN tonight, and the Larry King Show right after it, and saw coverage regarding the $165 million in bonuses given to AIG Executives. They had interviews on there with various members of the Democratic Party who were on committees to draft the Bill giving them the money in the first place. Those Democrats said that they had been instructed by the Obama administration to leave a loophole in the bill that would allow for the bonuses, fearing that banning them would cause them to "lose talent on Wall Street." They also said that a second attempt was made to caution the administration about the possibility of using the money for bonuses, and they were instructed to do nothing to outline that they would not be allowed. The Democrat being interviewed -- I think he was from Oregon -- said point blank that he didn't think Obama knew about his administration's decisions (or something to that effect).

I saw Obama giving a speech somewhere and responding to various allegations that he is doing too much and not focusing on the economy like he needs to be. A Republican said that he needed to stop doing things like Jay Leno's "Tonight Show" and "come home" and figure out what went wrong with the AIG Bill, who was responsible, and what needs to happen to fix it and prevent future similar problems. Obama lightheartedly said that he had heard a comment was made that he should not do "The Tonight Show." "It seems," he said, "that they think I can't handle appearing on 'The Tonight Show' and tackle the economy at the same time." He laughed, the audience laughed, and then he used some fancy rhetoric to boost the people and commented on needing to address Health Care and Oil Prices and something else that I can't remember. He also said that we need to focus in this country on accountability and that ultimately he is responsible for his administration's decisions.

I'm not usually one to engage in political bashing. But I have to say that I was VERY disappointed and upset by what I saw tonight. It's great that he admits responsibility, but that doesn't change what happened with all of this. Some of the criticism against him is that he is focusing on too many things and not taking the problems facing this country seriously enough. I agree with that. What, was he too busy to READ the bill he signed into law and SEE that there were no provisions made to STOP something like BONUSES being paid to multi-millionaires when there are good, hard-working people losing their jobs every day whose tax money has gone to pay for these bonuses?

And he may think that admitting responsibility somehow removes responsibility from him. Like the people are going to say, "Oh, isn't that refreshing? He admitted that he made a mistake." But other than hearing him admit that he made a mistake, I didn't see any evidence or hear anything in his speech that said, "I am working to make this right." Instead, he re-directed the focus to health care and high oil prices. Why? When the conversations and criticism focused on the economy and the AIG bonuses, why did he bring up health care and oil prices? Because he wanted to distract people from the issue at hand by hitting a spot that is close to their hearts and raising hopes again that he is going to bring CHANGE. It's like not showing up to your child's soccer tournament and then saying, "I'm sorry. I admit that it was wrong; but don't forget that I got you that great toy for your birthday and bought you that new bike last summer." How sincere is that?

And the worst thing is that if he was, in fact, ignorant on what his administration was advising -- HELLO!!!!!! It's like he is admitting that he is incompetent and inexperienced, appointing people that he thinks are adequate enough to handle the problems, and then not checking back to see what they are doing -- maybe because he doesn't know enough to know what to look for, so he's just trusting what they tell him and signing things off and not giving it a second thought. So, his administration is doing the work while he is out being the public image of the work being done. And when something went wrong, when he didn't verify what was happening and just went along with the people he had appointed, he flippantly admits fault and then moves on and still goes around doing high school popularity-type things like appearing on national talk shows -- or would you call it a comedy act on stage? I don't really know what "The Tonight Showed" would be labeled. Still, if I had made a mistake with MY budget in my home and had to figure out a way to fix it, I wouldn't be vacationing in Disneyland with the attitude, "Well, the problem will still be there when I get back, so whatever." I would be rushing home and reviewing my bank statements line by line and looking at my budget to see where we overspent and checking what checks were cashed, what were still pending, etc. I wouldn't be able to sleep until I had it resolved.

So far, I don't like the kind of change we're seeing here. In the end, rhetoric is nothing more than fancy language used to persuade an audience to feel or think or act a certain way to benefit the one delivering the message. And rhetoric is not going to CHANGE America! I hope this is NOT a foreshadowing of things to come.

But I fear it is. He is using the same things that got him elected -- a call to "the people" to make change happen instead of recognizing that the people really can't do more than what they have done when the government and his administration make laws and directives like the one in question. The people have done what they can do -- now it is up to them. And I think he needs to realize that he is not a celebrity now, appearing on Jay Leno (the first president to do so, I might add), and trapesing around the country on his private jet to keep people passionate about him and his ideas and try to maintain popular support. A few more mistakes like this one with nothing more than TALK of responsibility and I fear -- I HOPE -- that even his rhetoric won't save his public face. He won't get a second chance to change things one multi-millionaire's pocket book at a time.