"Obama Brings On the "B-Team."

[KoKo]

By Maureen Tkacik
January 11, 2011 | 8:03 p.m
Obama Brings on the B-Team

Last week Barack Obama named the pair of white male veterans of Wall Street and the Clinton administration who will be replacing the pair of white male veterans of Wall Street and the Clinton administration who had largely defined his first two years in office. The Professional Left did not take the news well. Gene Sperling, who replaces Larry Summers as chairman of the National Economic Council, a post he also held during the Clinton administration, garnered similar reviews. "He's just totally oblivious to the issues facing our financial system and the economy," said the economist Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Analysis, who greeted the news of Mr. Sperling's appointment with a blog post lamenting his "horrible track record" during the 1990s. "But the bottom line is that that's just not their priority. They do know what they're doing, in that they don't really want to do anything."

And in 2010 they voted out the party of endless war and corporate bailouts."

Gene Sperling, who replaces Larry Summers as chairman of the National Economic Council, a post he also held during the Clinton administration, garnered similar reviews. "He's just totally oblivious to the issues facing our financial system and the economy," said the economist Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Analysis, who greeted the news of Mr. Sperling's appointment with a blog post lamenting his "horrible track record" during the 1990s. "But the bottom line is that that's just not their priority. They do know what they're doing, in that they don't really want to do anything."

"These people are as clueless as World War I generals," wrote Harper's Magazine columnist Thomas Frank to The Observer in an email. "They have no idea what's going on in the country or how to deal with it. They just take the advice of long-discredited Washington experts and political scientists. There is nothing original or inventive about them, and I am almost ashamed that I ever thought there was."
Much More that reads like Matt Taibbi outrage at........


http://www.observer.com/2011/politics/obama-brings-b-team

EDITED: I repeated a paragraph in the first post...just edited to replace. Sorry about that...:-(

[Skink]

1. Actually I think Sperling's a good call.

I base that on having seen interviews he's done. I don't know much about his track record but Clinton must have done something right.

[KoKo]

3. If you read the article it goes into more detail about Sperling than I knew reading

about him from "sources" who conveniently left out his history with Goldman and others. The article is in the Taibbi Style...but I'm sure it's "fact Checkable from Google."

It's stunning how we on the Left have been told how good Sperling is. Read about his "micro-economics" for the "Third World Women" is really financed by Goldman-Sachs and other tidbits.

Agree or not...do your own fact checking and see if the article is lying about Sperling. Until you read the article and check it out...your post seems very ill informed...and just some "push back" to a title without doing work of really reading.

[Skink]

I just said having seen him interviewed I liked what I saw.

[KoKo]

6. It's a female who wrote the article I just posted...

[Skink]

5. I just said having seen him interviewed I liked what I saw.

[FiveGoodMen]

2. "the party of endless war and corporate bailouts" DOES apply to both Rs and Ds

Why isn't EVERYONE at DU against that?

[KoKo]

4. These Days? I don't know...I have no idea about the collapse of

ethical/non-partisan information...THE FACTS...THE FACTS...then let THE PEOPLE decide. I don't know....it is what it is.

[QC]

7. Because some people approach politics like a team sport,

rather than the moral issue that it actually is, and as long as their team is winning, not much else matters.

[FiveGoodMen]

8. That's a severe problem right here at this site.

[yurbud]

9. as noted by the repetitive replies above

[DCKit]

10. Good info. Thanks.

While I don't agree that it's necessary to appoint as many women and minorities as possible to every advisory, cabinet and oversight position simply to appoint "minorities", it would be nice to hear that some "others" had, at least, been considered for these positions.

[KoKo]

11. This article reveals things we didn't know...and I think "shining light" is a good thing

so I'm giving this another kick so it doesn't get lost. It was an "eye-opener" for me about some of things I didn't know. It's good to know those things. We get so little info these days.