Friday, February 06, 2009

Courant notes Obama's hypocrisy

I like President Obama. I think he's certainly trying to do the right thing. Unfortunately, his campaign rhetoric has now met the swamp of Washington's inertia.

As I wrote a week ago:

Bloomberg News continues their quest for open government by holding President Obama to his word that he will have the most transparent and accountable administration in American history. Unfortunately for Obama, only a week into his administration and his actions don't meet his words. Frankly, he looks a bit hypocritical.

The problem?

Tim Geithner.


Now the Courant editorializes on the man they endorsed for President:

Barack Obama's promise of tough new ethical standards to clean up Washington was one of the big reasons he resonated as a candidate. Higher standards still are good medicine for what ails the capital — even if President Obama finds them more difficult to live up to than he had thought.

Mr. Obama has looked like a hypocrite in recent weeks...

His vetting team found that Timothy Geithner didn't pay Social Security and Medicare taxes on time, but Mr. Obama was so certain that Mr. Geithner would be indispensable at the Treasury Department that he overlooked the tax delinquencies and got him confirmed.

For clarity, I'm more annoyed with the hypocrisy in Obama's claims of transparency and accountability in government... while the Courant is annoyed with tax evasion. So even though Bailout Engineer Tim Geithner is central to both concerns... the issues are different. Nonetheless, there is a pattern.

Obama (and all Presidents) will fumble from time to time. In fact, I love Obama's candor. I do hope though that he ends the obvious hypocrisies of his still-quite-young administration. It really wouldn't be that difficult.

Tim White

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

An unknown, freshman senator with no real record to measure, ran for president and told everyone what they wanted to hear.

And the masses fell for it: projecting onto this unknown figure what they wanted to believe.

Well, Lincoln did say, "You can fool all of the people some of the time" (although in this case, nearly half the people didn't buy the Obamessiah's smoke-and-mirrors act).

Anonymous said...

According to PBS’s Frontline, Obama asked Tom Daschle three years ago whether he should run for Pres in 2008, or wait until 2012.

Daschle told Obama to run in ’08 because by 2012 he’d have a voting record that people could judge him on. “Run now and you can tell them what they want to hear.” How cynical is that?

And half the people fell for it. Yes we can!

Anonymous said...

Well, Lincoln did say, "You can fool.

You have a short memory, so let me remind you, for the last excruciating 8 years, we had the worst, dumbest person for President. It's evident that Bush fooled you or you must have been on another planet.

Bush bankrupted the country, sent millions of jobs overseas, let illegal by the millions into the country, got us into a war that has cost over 4,000 American lives and over 30,000 wounded, he left the middle east in shambles, made the U.S government the most hated in the world, didn't protect the country from oil and realestate speculators, destroyed the financial structure of the country, ignored the scientists and denied global warming, allowed millions of people to get HIV because of his religious right wing supporter are against contraceptives, created the worst depression since 1929, etc...............

There just isn't enough time to list all the George Bush screwups. Thank God he's gone.

So, before you go on attacking Obama who has the job of cleaning up Bush's sh&%, spend some time and reflect on where Bush put this country and try to do something positive and that would also include keeping your mean tempered thoughts to yourself.

Anonymous said...

Anyone who criticizes Obama is full of "mean tempered thoughts," according to the previous poster. Just like my daughter's college newspaper which proclaimed criticism of Obama to be "hate speech." I guess the evangelicals aren't the only ones who see blasphemy as a crime.

Anonymous said...

it's interesting about the list of Bush mistakes. On many of the items, such as wasting money, driving the country into debt, and hiring incompetent political hacks, it's apparent Obama is hellbent on outdoing his predecessor's record. And given how well publicised those problems were, that's a very sad commentary indeed.

Bush did keep America safe after 9/11. Let's all hope that's one achievement Obama can emulate.

Anonymous said...

to Anon. 5:24: Your attack on Bush is a poor defense of Obama. Everything you say about Bush is true, but you still cannot refute the truth of the first two posts.

Obama cynically told people what they wanted to hear, and 53% foolishly projected upon him what they wanted to believe.

BTW, Bush was not on the ballot in ’08, and we did have other choices. I voted for Hillary in the primary and McCain in the final (and I never voted for Bush in ’00 or ’04). I’m one Democrat who still thinks that we’ve elected an untested man who is not all he presented himself to be.

Anonymous said...

dear "unknown freshman" and PBS
why don't you move to south africa, you would fit right in there.

Anonymous said...

Even as an ad hominem attack the last comment falls short. Nelson Mandela’s South Africa is a model of positive race relations and progressive democracy.

Anonymous said...

I think 836 was referring to the long dead apartheid system in South Africa, and implying that anyone who criticizes Obama must be racist. Yawn.

If you want to defend your man for, say, appointing three tax cheats and scores of lobbyists to high office, learn to argue the issues instead of screaming ‘racism’. It’s so tired.

Anonymous said...

8:36 pm.
Yes, tired. And LAME.
Another one who drinks the Kool Aid.

Anonymous said...

"Obama is hellbent on outdoing his predecessor's record."

Nobody could ever out screwup Bush and anyone that believes that needs help in recognizing reality.

Bush took good care of his buddies and screwed the rest of the country. History will show that all the economic problems of today are a result of Bush's incompetency and his incompetent administration.

He certainly left the Republican party in shambles.

Anonymous said...

"Nobody could ever out screwup Bush"

Yep, it's a tough act to follow, but remember, Obama has almost four years to do it.

By the way, we've had presidents leave worse messes behind---LBJ for instance

Anonymous said...

"By the way, we've had presidents leave worse messes behind---LBJ for instance"

How ridiculous. You should check your facts.