Obama: I have “complete confidence” in Geithner
posted at 3:00 pm on March 18, 2009 by Allahpundit
A ringing endorsement on a day marked by the first demand from a GOP congressman for Geithner to resign. Skip ahead to 10:00 of the clip unless you want to sit through The One droning about the need for new regulations amid sporadic reiterations that the buck stops with him. A quick survey on Twitter reveals that I’m apparently the only righty in America to have a shred of sympathy for Geithner. Granted, he’s a tax cheat; granted, he wouldn’t have his job if Larry Summers could survive a confirmation hearing; granted, he announced his economic recovery plan before he had a plan in place; granted, he didn’t know what was going on with AIG until it was effectively too late to stop the bonuses; granted, he’s given to saying creepy things about capitalism that make conservatives shudder; and granted, he has the high forehead and squirrelly look of a vintage comic-book villain. Even so, he’s got an extraordinarily difficult job and people screaming from all directions for immediate results. No sympathy for someone facing that challenge? Teeny tiny bit? Come on — make Ron Rosenbaum happy!
Speaking of AIG, I think we’re just about at the point where the Democrats’ demagoguery starts to backfire, either by scaring away the private investors the feds need to help save the banks or by handing the GOP a hot-button issue to hammer The One with. And sure enough, here’s Eric Cantor hammering away now. Exit question: Will AIG’s proposal to have its employees voluntarily return half of the bonuses quell the populist anger? (Exit answer: No.)
Update: As is true of everything that impedes his agenda, Obama evidently regards the AIG uproar as … “a distraction.”
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“Heckuva job Brownie!”
Sugarbuzz on March 18, 2009 at 3:01 PM
Pack your bags, Turbo Tax Timmy…
Realist on March 18, 2009 at 3:02 PM
At Powerline, they said this statement is the mark of death in baseball.
gmoonster on March 18, 2009 at 3:02 PM
Under the bus Timmy, very soon!
pseudonominus on March 18, 2009 at 3:04 PM
I feel some sympathy for Geithner. I mean, I sympathize with anyone who has to take orders from Obama.
But not much. He signed up, he volunteered. He’s supposed to be a big brain, a financial type. Surely he’s more competent than I am to see the mess Obama would make. I did, why didn’t he?
And he signed up for it. So not much sympathy.
Still, the “Full and complete confidence” line means he’s gone by april 15, tops.
Vanceone on March 18, 2009 at 3:04 PM
Does anyone know when the real president is going to show up? This jug-eared doofus has worn out his welcome.
Enrique on March 18, 2009 at 3:04 PM
Good tihng Barry has the time to do something that slacking unmotivated idiots at work do, an NCAA tourny pool.
Good thing, important, them brackets.
benrand on March 18, 2009 at 3:04 PM
waitaminute…
Allahpundit’s a righty???
WTF!
Mew
acat on March 18, 2009 at 3:04 PM
Anything outside the frame of this guy’s mirror is a distraction to him.
AubieJon on March 18, 2009 at 3:05 PM
Look out Tim, anytime bho says he has complete confidence in someone they get the bus.
L
letget on March 18, 2009 at 3:05 PM
So when Geithner bites the bullet, how many cabinet members are there? Holder and Hillary and who else? Anyone? Oh, Kathleen Seibus, I think.
Most competent evar!
Vanceone on March 18, 2009 at 3:05 PM
From 1972…
“McGovern initially claimed that he would back Eagleton “1000 percent,” only to ask Eagleton to withdraw three days later.”
Why am I reminded of this?
Realist on March 18, 2009 at 3:05 PM
A distraction that Obama made himself!!! He is the one that coughed with anger!
deidre on March 18, 2009 at 3:05 PM
You’re doing a heck of a job there Geithie!
- Barack “W” Obama
MB4 on March 18, 2009 at 3:06 PM
Read some of the comments to that link in the update.
They could have been made by people I know. For these people – no matter what happens – it’s never Obama’s fault in the slightest.
They fell hard in blind love before the election, and I’m afraid they will be battered spouses before they will ever desert their love object.
Alana on March 18, 2009 at 3:07 PM
“I can no more disown Rev. Wright than my own white Grandmother” – Obama just a few days before he threw him under the bus
“I have complete confidence in Geithner” – …….
Little Elf Timmy Geithner is about be thrown under the bus as well.
Norwegian on March 18, 2009 at 3:07 PM
What else would he say?
radiofreevillage on March 18, 2009 at 3:07 PM
It’s a stinking distraction from The One’s agenda; THE MARCH TOWARDS SOCIALISM
bloggless on March 18, 2009 at 3:07 PM
If I were Geithner, I’d probably be smelling disel fumes off in the distance right now, except that given the PR efforts of this administration, he’s probably going to be thrown under a a natural gas/hybrid bus.
jon1979 on March 18, 2009 at 3:08 PM
Your most basic function as the boss is to hire people to do their job.
He has not performed that most basic function yet.
lorien1973 on March 18, 2009 at 3:08 PM
Cartoon bubble over Geithner’s head: “I am so screwed…”
Bruno Strozek on March 18, 2009 at 3:08 PM
Doing a heck of a job, Brownie….oh, wait, wrong president! Nevermind.
Torch on March 18, 2009 at 3:08 PM
The Teleprompter = HAL
bloggless on March 18, 2009 at 3:09 PM
Darn… you beat me to it.
Let’s start the Geitner Firing Pool Now… I’m in at two weeks.
And the wheels of the bus go ’round and ’round.
Illinidiva on March 18, 2009 at 3:09 PM
BUMP!
whitetop on March 18, 2009 at 3:09 PM
“Distraction”=”Politically inconvenient”
Repurblican on March 18, 2009 at 3:10 PM
Geitner will resign in 5…4….3….2….1 week, sighting tax troubles!!!!!
bloggless on March 18, 2009 at 3:10 PM
He said “bad assets”. Archive that one. I may want to do some editing later.
Ronnie on March 18, 2009 at 3:10 PM
LOL,..this from the #2 man for the A.I.G “bonus”.
christene on March 18, 2009 at 3:11 PM
He got caught off guard by the T-promter.
the_nile on March 18, 2009 at 3:11 PM
Makes you long for the good ‘ole days of Dubya or even Billy Jeff!
Illinidiva on March 18, 2009 at 3:11 PM
Leave Michelle out of this.
bloggless on March 18, 2009 at 3:12 PM
All I can say is Obama’s circus act is a helluva distraction for our nation
gatorboy on March 18, 2009 at 3:12 PM
It is, oh it is. As a Yankees fan who suffered through the 1980s, I have vivid memories of Steinbrenner having “complete confidence” in his manager du jour. Usually Billy Martin.
I do have sympathy for Timmy-boy having a difficult task, but he was presented to us as “the one indispensable man.” He needs to calm and reassure the markets.
rbj on March 18, 2009 at 3:12 PM
The day will come when Obama claims “Don’t blame me, the teleprompter told me to say that.”
First evah, a teleprompter as President of the worlds lone super power. Does the teleprompter hold the key to the nuke arsenal?
Keemo on March 18, 2009 at 3:13 PM
Don’t worry, Tim. Keith Olbermann and Jack Cafferty got your back.
wildweasel on March 18, 2009 at 3:13 PM
Anyone else hearing that warning siren that goes off when a large vehicle starts backing up?
teke184 on March 18, 2009 at 3:14 PM
the teleprompter is making this clown pay, and pay dearly for disrespecting all hard working americans…err.. teleprompters
what a bafoon… there’s got to be some way to infiltrate the circuitry that sends those wonderful words to the teleprompter
gatorboy on March 18, 2009 at 3:14 PM
Keemo on March 18, 2009 at 3:13 PM
The teleprompter shall be known as HAL. Shudder…..
bloggless on March 18, 2009 at 3:14 PM
Other people also seem to think that – I think that it will be sooner. The one thing that The One is pretty decisive at is abandoning people.
Realist on March 18, 2009 at 3:14 PM
There’s only so much room under that bus I guess…
moc23 on March 18, 2009 at 3:16 PM
There are two options when dealt a bad hand:
Fold or bluff.
Since Timmy is still pushing the libtard agenda, one can only conclude he is bluffing.
BobMbx on March 18, 2009 at 3:16 PM
Wondering if the chin will ask Obama if he brought HAL to the show tonight?
Does the chin have that kind of stones?
Keemo on March 18, 2009 at 3:17 PM
The only problem with throwing Geithner under the bus? It doesn’t leave anybody to drive the bus and there ain’t a long list of folks volunteering either.
Just A Grunt on March 18, 2009 at 3:17 PM
I only read the headline. Geithner is screwed. 2 weeks max.
TubbyHubby on March 18, 2009 at 3:18 PM
HAL
http://www.reellifewisdom.com/files/images/hal2.jpg
bloggless on March 18, 2009 at 3:18 PM
What is it supposed to actually mean when Obama, who has no history of doing any economics work, has “confidence” in anyone on his economic team?
MayBee on March 18, 2009 at 3:18 PM
Quick, we need a distraction! Get the military to do something useful for once, bomb something!
Ok folks, al ist in ordnung! Repeat after me: “It’s all George Bush’s fault”!
GarandFan on March 18, 2009 at 3:18 PM
Is anybody watching the hearings?? If I was Liddy, I would have taken a dollar bill from my wallet and thrown it at the committee and walked the hell out of there.
jewells45 on March 18, 2009 at 3:19 PM
AP you need to promote that Cantor link.
http://republicanwhip.house.gov/blog/2009/03/house-democrats-vote-to-let-aig-keep-bonuses.html
The fact that the Dems voted to let AIG keep the bonus deserves AT LEAST a headline… if not a full post.
Diogenes of Sinope on March 18, 2009 at 3:20 PM
In the sports world, a “vote of confidence” usually means the object of the vote is out on his ass in two weeks.
Can we give President Obama a “vote of confidence”?
NoDonkey on March 18, 2009 at 3:21 PM
Well,the russkies just push the “reload button” every time they want their message through.
the_nile on March 18, 2009 at 3:21 PM
I am 1000 percent for Tom Eagleton and I have no intention of dropping him from the ticket.
- George McGovern
MB4 on March 18, 2009 at 3:22 PM
Ivy League on display. Are you wowed yet?
PrincipledPilgrim on March 18, 2009 at 3:23 PM
Wait a second. If Geithner goes, doesn’t that mean that there will be literally no one at Treasury?
Weight of Glory on March 18, 2009 at 3:24 PM
Did I just hear that the Fed is doling out another trillion to Freddie and Fannie?
WHAT THE HE** ARE THEY DOING? How can they just do that? No congress, no oversight. It’s our money.
Someone tell me I didn’t hear that.
stenwin77 on March 18, 2009 at 3:24 PM
Diogenes of Sinope on March 18, 2009 at 3:20 PM
I agree. That needs to be at LEAST a headline. Ridiculous! They are trying to backtrack now and say it isn’t that bad and just a distraction.
deidre on March 18, 2009 at 3:25 PM
Then, he turns around and writes a tell-all on Obama.
BuckeyeSam on March 18, 2009 at 3:25 PM
Well, he may be an incompetent bumbler, but, gee, he did just about blow up the Asian financial system.
mr.blacksheep on March 18, 2009 at 3:27 PM
Tim Geithner=Mike Shula
Obambi=Mal Moore
All fans of Alabama football will get the references.
Percy_Peabody on March 18, 2009 at 3:27 PM
There’s plenty of room under the bus. Geither should go ahead and assume the position.
Physics Geek on March 18, 2009 at 3:27 PM
I give it less than a month before he says, “This is not the Geithner I knew.”
Enoxo on March 18, 2009 at 3:28 PM
Can we fire the president too?
HornetSting on March 18, 2009 at 3:28 PM
AP, you should photoshop the A-Rod kissing the mirror pic into Obama kissing his own reflection in the Teleprompter.
econavenger on March 18, 2009 at 3:29 PM
Mr President you agreed to pay those damn bonus! Take your lumps. Resign.
petunia on March 18, 2009 at 3:29 PM
Raindrops keep fallin’ on my head
And just like the guy whose brain is too small for his head
Nothin’ seems to fit
Those raindrops are fallin’ on my head, they keep fallin’
- Timmy Pixie
MB4 on March 18, 2009 at 3:29 PM
Funny how Obama doesn’t answer that question about the money he received from AIG.
dinkyjackson on March 18, 2009 at 3:31 PM
If Comrade Obama fires Comrade Timmy, there will be nothing at Treasury but an answering machine that says, “…we appreciate your concern but the current financial collapse is really just a distraction. When those deadbeat wounded veterans finally pay for their medical treatment everything will be just fine.”
lonesomecharlie on March 18, 2009 at 3:32 PM
I ain’t bitin’…
ladyingray on March 18, 2009 at 3:33 PM
You have to find him first.
Obama is turning into Major Major, a character from Joseph Heller’s Catch-22. He was the officer who was always “in” when he was actually out of his office, but he was always “out” when he was actually in his office. And, if he happened to be in his office when someone insisted on seeing him, he’d crawl out his office window.
Barack Obama = Absentee in Chief.
“Absence you can believe.”
BuckeyeSam on March 18, 2009 at 3:34 PM
The more I listen to Obama’s speeches, the more he is sounding like Professor Irwin Corey. IMHO
lefaucheur on March 18, 2009 at 3:34 PM
Obama in the mind of his supporters will always be like the memory of their first love. No matter how much Obama might shit on them, they’ll always have fond thoughts of him.
evenkeel on March 18, 2009 at 3:34 PM
So, just to be perfectly clear about this,
Obama, you stirred the pot YESTERDAY about these bonuses, but it’s now a DISTRACTION?
I guess you figure you got everything out of it you could and it’s time to move on.
JeffWeimer on March 18, 2009 at 3:35 PM
AP, I guess I do have some sympathy for Geithner. My guess is that he’s being controlled by Obama and then thrown out there as the pinata. It is a tough job, he should have said no. But definitely can’t let him go, as someone else said, no one will be at the treasury (with his one man staff). I think Obama likes that by the way, treasury Czar! Screw the whole secretary/under-secretary thing!
youngO on March 18, 2009 at 3:35 PM
These jokers are the ones who did nothing during the campaign to disocourage the talk and implication that electing them WOULD solve all of our problems post haste. So no, they get no sympathy from me.
Two days ago Obama was railing about how “choked up” with anger he was over the bonuses, helping to fan the flames of the populist anger to now call this stuff a distraction?
Perhaps it’s a distraction now:
that after a few days of analysis, we see the bonuses were and are entirely legal,
are contractual obligations for a company which isn’t in bankruptcy proceedings (where those contracts could be re-negotiated or eliminated) and
that the Treasuery department knew about the upcoming bonuses all along
and that the Democrat Chris Dodd put legisltation in place in the Spendulus which makes these very bonuses exempt from scrutiny.
The bonuses are in “poor taste” all things considered, granted. Yet for the righteous indignation over these bonuses by Congress and the public, I wish they would show the same contempt for other government excesses, such as giving the Palestinians $900 Million taxpayer dollars to rebuild their weapons caches with.
catmman on March 18, 2009 at 3:35 PM
Tim is the man and was cleared in the hearings today.
getalife on March 18, 2009 at 3:39 PM
How does a teleprompter say bump bump? Adios, Timmy boy, those are tire tracks on your chest. Please take a few more with you.
Lincoln Cadillac on March 18, 2009 at 3:39 PM
An Ivy League educamation is looking less and less important to me… Most of the Ivy Leagues I see on TV are complete arrogant idiots.
gmoonster on March 18, 2009 at 3:40 PM
Welcome to the real world.
Perhaps this will help:
http://www.slate.com/id/2213942/
getalife on March 18, 2009 at 3:41 PM
Obama: I have “complete confidence” in Geithner
I’m glad one of us does! I have even less confidence in you President Teleprompter.
GFW on March 18, 2009 at 3:43 PM
I saw this when it aired this morning. There were TWO questions asked; 1. how ’bout that Geitner and 2. what about that $100,000.00 in contributions you received from AIG. He spent a lot of time on Geitner, but never mentioned the $100,000 in contributions. Hmmmmm.
Laura in Maryland on March 18, 2009 at 3:45 PM
Add to that that his boss is a lunatic, and yea, I feel a tad bit sorry for the guy.
scalleywag on March 18, 2009 at 3:46 PM
The only way Tim gets sympathy from me is if he goes on TV and says something like, “I know how bad it looks but he’s making me do it.”
Guardian on March 18, 2009 at 3:47 PM
“Teeny tiny bit?”
Yeah, I do. This public confidence in Geithner’s competence meme is distracting us from the public confidence in Obama’s competence. Where’s Geithner’s deputies? Does anyone really think that Treasury, in the state that Obama has left it, could do anything competently?
I’d do a sports team analogy, whether baseball with a manager or football with the head coach, but these fail in that the owner, who selected the top guy, then gives that guy the authority to “appoint” his support team. Geithner has no such luxury.
Geithner may be incompetent, but Obama is not giving any allowance for Geithner to disprove it. He’s too busy being a public relations totem for himself.
Dusty on March 18, 2009 at 3:48 PM
These bonuses were made public a year ago. If Geithner really didn’t know about them until last week, which I do not believe, then he is most definitely incompetent. I mean, is the man a mushroom or something?
ladyingray on March 18, 2009 at 3:49 PM
So when Geithner goes noone will be running the Treasury?
Methinks Geithner is really Wesley Mouch.
Jamewah on March 18, 2009 at 3:50 PM
Bwahaahaa
Did you expect different? Come on girly, Cold Cash Jefferson is walking around confident that he too will never be held accountable.
Seriously, you’re gullibility can be disturbing at times. How old are you anyway?
Guardian on March 18, 2009 at 3:52 PM
ladyingray on March 18, 2009 at 3:49 PM
Geithner was in charge of oversight for AIG when the contract was written providing the bonus clause. Complete smoke and mirrors, with the MSM refusing to report the truth-facts..
Keemo on March 18, 2009 at 3:53 PM
ladyingray on March 18, 2009 at 3:49 PM
Nah, just a man trying to clean up a mess and keep the economy from crashing.
So far so good but a long way to go.
getalife on March 18, 2009 at 3:55 PM
Ok, I knew this was going to bad, but he is getting downright scary…. does he even have any sense of what he is doing. Yesterday bitching about AIG bonuses and today it is a distraction??? He is showing himself to be inept (which everyone already knew was going to happen), but he is in addition showing he is not even a good politician.
I told my husband 5 weeks ago when he said that we were in a “crisis” and a “collapse” that the leader of the free world and the most wealth generated in the world CAN’T say things like that and not cause a huge reaction in the markets. I am sick and tired of people saying he is only speaking the truth, I don’t care. Shut the hell up and fix it and stop bellyaching about it.
momof2 on March 18, 2009 at 3:55 PM
Barak Obama has exactly the same amount of experience in running a business as he has at leading troops.
logis on March 18, 2009 at 3:58 PM
I still want to know about the stimulus provision that grandfathered these bonuses. There’s a Democratic congressman from Maryland who’s been on TV saying that he’s been writing Geithner about the bonuses since November or December. Doesn’t Geithner read his mail?
GOP in Congress, with good reason, first blamed Dodd for the grandfather provision, but he pleaded innocent and pointed to the administration saying that someone in the administration had the grandfather provision included in February. The New York Times say so.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/19/business/19bailout.html?_r=2&hp
From the NYT:
BuckeyeSam on March 18, 2009 at 3:59 PM
Obama won’t ask Geithner to resign. He’ll never be able to get anyone else to fill the job, and there are still hundreds of positions to fill. We’re stuck with the Tax Cheat. I still think TurboTax should sue Geithner’s @ss for slander.
RickZ on March 18, 2009 at 4:05 PM
What a bizarre thing to even argue about. Congressmen make carreers of covering their own asses and hiding behind the other 99 guys. A President’s ONLY job is to take executive responsibility for whatever he does or does not sign into law.
Chris Dodd knows exactly what his job is supposed to be. Barak Obama doesn’t have the faintest clue.
logis on March 18, 2009 at 4:07 PM
Doin’ an awful lot of grant-writing, aren’t you, Allah?
Actually, I don’t envy the guy his position one bit…and I’m not entirely convinced he wasn’t sent in as sort of an emergency speed bump – someone to toss under the bus at just the exact moment to divert attention from the real issue. It’s not his fault he can’t live up to TOTUS’ PR campaign. Doesn’t mean he shouldn’t be sh!tcanned, though.
uncivilized on March 18, 2009 at 4:07 PM
No sympathy here.
We had to have this guy, only one who could do it, must overlook everything else, this is a crisis and he is the only one for the job……
No executive experience in the private sector, obviously no experience at staffing, no pragmatic business experience whatsoever running a large organization. Another empty suit they had to have….choke on it.
Starlink on March 18, 2009 at 4:09 PM
Did you even listen to any of the hearings? Please explain how exactly was he “cleared”?
Oh right, the stock market closed up a teeny bit, so that must be your reasoning.
Knucklehead on March 18, 2009 at 4:09 PM
What the heck are you smoking? I want some for next Tuesday, 8:00 PM, EDT.
ladyingray on March 18, 2009 at 4:10 PM
I am sure Tim wants more gop with their fake outrage to keep running their mouths.
They were for the bonuses and executive pay.
Hyporites.
Suddenly McConnell is concerned.
getalife on March 18, 2009 at 4:11 PM
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