Frank Rich and Adam Moss Talk About What’s Really in Ron Suskind’s Revealing New Book About the WH

[kpete]

Economic Quagmire: Frank Rich and Adam Moss Talk About What’s Really in Ron Suskind’s Revealing New Book About the White House
Frank Rich and Adam Moss
New York Magazine (nymag.com) Blog
September 17, 2011 4:38 PM

Adam: Hi, Frank. So there’s a little commotion about this new book Confidence Men, by Ron Suskind, which is being published on Tuesday. And as it happens, you and I have actually read it! So let's talk about that this week. To give readers a super-fast overview, it’s a book, essentially, about Obama’s economic team during his first two years in office. The news of the book, according to some reports, is that Tim Geithner was insubordinate to the president, pursuing his own pro-banker agenda. Or, according to other reports, that Larry Summers was insubordinate to the president, pursuing his own — well, monomaniacal agenda. I’d add that it’s also about Rahm Emanuel being insubordinate to the president, just because. Basically, it’s about the presidency being hijacked by these three guys. And the guys thing is important because they’re pretty awful to women. Anyway, they’re the villains. Paul Volcker, Christina Romer, and Elizabeth Warren are the heroes. Bankers win, America loses. Did I get that right?

Frank: Hi, Adam, and yes, you did! I would point out that among the other heroes are more women (Sheila Bair, Brooksley Born, Maria Cantwell) and at least one man, the Princeton economist Alan Krueger, who also seems to be a serious Suskind source and who has now returned to the White House to succeed Austan Goolsbee and Romer as head of the Council of Economic Advisers. Not that that will do any good. I think the portrait of Geithner is devastating — his countermanding of the president's wishes to make a Wall Street object lesson of Citigroup, his nasty "Elizabeth Warren strategy" to silence and neuter the administration's rare genuine reformer. And yet Geithner is the only member of the original economic team still standing in the White House, poised to countermand any other rare independent voice that might yet speak up, like Krueger's…

....................

But the buck stops with Obama. There's a poignant moment of sorts in December 2008 when the North Dakota senator Byron Dorgan implores the president-elect not to go with his economic team. "I don't understand how you could do this," he tells him. "You've picked the wrong people!" As indeed Obama did, under the tutelage of Robert Rubin, who also tried to finagle a White House guru role for himself, not unlike the perch from which he helped wreak havoc at Citigroup during its subprime orgy. So Suskind's book often reads like Halberstam's "Best and the Brightest," with Summers and Geithner as McNamara and Bundy. But the quagmire isn't a neo-Vietnam like Afghanistan — it's the economy, and the casualties are measured in lost jobs. After the stimulus bill passed in February 2009, Suskind writes, "little else happened on the jobs front for a year and a half," with proposals being "talked to death without resolution."


MUCH MUCH MORE:
http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2011/09/obamas_economic_quagmire_frank.html

[xchrom]

1. recommend

[Demeter]

3. Second that

Morning, xchrom

[xchrom]

4. morning, Miss Demeter!

:hi:

[Enthusiast]

35. Me too..nt

[CarmanK]

2. I am so glad this book is coming out!! What bravery for WH!

To allow a writer to come in and do the research about what is really happening around the WH. It is so good, to know that the President had no problem letting Suskind in. Let's hope this is a learning moment for Obama and friends and begin anew with determination to make things better for the country. This book reinforces, the ideas that GEITHNER and SUMMERS were INSUBORDINATE and that the President was too distracted by the wars, that he did not hold these guys full accountable. Another rude awakening is that S & G were more interested in the well being of WALL STREET, than the rest of the country.Pathetic.

[Roland99]

34. I haven't bought a book in a while. I see this one in my hands tomorrow evening.

[UnrepentantLiberal]

41. Will you marry me?

With you're outlook I could do just about anything and you'd forgive me and even put a positive spin on it. My girlfriend could learn a lot from you.

[mistertrickster]

5. DUers far from power get it right while the MSM sitting in DC totally blow it.

Kinda like that "tons and tons of Weapons of Mass Destruction" thing that no one with two brain cells could rub together would have believed . . .

[Skittles]

28. MSM is corporate-owned

they serve their corporate masters, not WE THE PEOPLE

[dkf]

6. "little else happened on the jobs front for a year and a half"

That is pretty much the entire point. The failure of the economic team was their inability to recognize jobs came first.

[Skittles]

29. these guys serve coporations, who LOVE high unemployment

they get to slash benefits, pensions, paychecks, etc

[femrap]

7. I love Political/Economic

Soap Operas. What always strikes me is that these 'leaders' are such buffoons and a local Bank Manager could do a much better job.

[me b zola]

8. K&R

I'm beginning to think that Obama is writing 'sos' or 'help me i've been taken hostage' on the oval office window panes with breath & finger.

[mazzarro]

13. Whether sending S.O.S. or not

Obama has to take the blame for this debacle - period. He chose these people and he was warned about the people right from the beginning - according to the book. The excuse that Obama was distracted by war has no ground. Obama was comfortable with them and for him to be disrespected and hoodwinked so brazenly without him imposing any repercussion on them shows either his complicity with them or his abject weakness in running his own administration.

[me b zola]

24. I totally agree and am in no way making excuses for him. n/t

[Bluesbreaker]

27. I have to disagree . . . a little

Yes, "the buck stops here," but I felt some sympathy for Obama. As Frank Rich notes, he was inexperienced and depended on Robert Rubin for advice. Now, that seems gullible and naive, but remember that Rubin was Clinton's Treasury Secretary and the Clinton economic performance looked very impressive in 2008.

It was only later we found out that Rubin guided Citibank's disastrous investment policies and was part of the Clinton brain trust that repealed Glass-Steagal and collaborated with Phil Gramm to enact the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000. Perhaps Obama would have chosen more wisely if he knew now what he knew then. On the other hand Geithner is still on his team, so maybe the president feels he needs to be in bed with the bankers. You know, campaign contributions and all that.

[markmyword]

50. The Buck Stops Here!

Wait a minute, I don't feel sorry for Obama, not having
experience for the job.

He knew right from wrong. He made a LOT of PROMISES to CHANGE
this country and HELP the middle class and poor in America.

Please don't tell me he inherited a mess from Bush. We all
know that he did. 

What he should have done, was to ALWAYS lay the blame where it
belonged, at the feet of the REPUBLICANS AND THE BUSH
ADMINISTRATION. 

If he had put the RIGHT people in, and STOOD UP to these
BULLIES, the economy might not be in such bad shape as it is
today.

Instead, he CHOOSE to surround himself with RICH REPUBLICANS
FROM WALL STREET. We the people didn't tell him to do that, HE
DID.

A decision like that is very basic and NO EXPERIENCE IS
NEEDED! These people he surrounded himself with, where the
ONES who caused this financial crisis in the first place, SO
WHY WOULD YOU PUT THEM IN POWER TO DO THE SAME THING ALL OVER
AGAIN???????

NO ONE NEEDS EXPERIENCE, to know who would give GOOD advice on
issues so near and dear to your heart. Especially, when you're
talking to voters ALL DAY LONG for two and a half years on the
campaign trail.

How can you TURN YOUR BACK on what you STAND FOR???? Why would
you surround yourself with people who are giving you advice,
the complete OPPOSITE to what you believe and stand for??

He's been a community leader, he knew how to get things done
for the poor in Chicago.
He either HELPED the people who elected him or he went with
people who were REPUBLICANS and WALL STREET INSIDERS.

He choose the BANKERS AND WALL STREET over the people who got
him elected.

Obama is VERY SMART and he put in who he wanted.

Question: who advised Obama to pick DEMOCRATIC GOVERNORS to
fill positions, which in turn left their seats open to
REPUBLICANS????? It weakened the states, by putting in power
people who were AGAINST his policies. It also allowed the
Republicans to change voting rights, bust unions, and destroy
the middle class.

Obama should STEP DOWN and allow a DEMOCRAT with a BACKBONE to
run for office. All the tough rhetoric
on the campaign trail doesn't impress me.

I'd be impressed if the Justice Department ARRESTED BUSH,
CHENEY, RUMSFIELD, RICE, GONZALEZ,YOO AND the other officials
in the administration who are WALL CRIMINALS. 

[tblue37]

30. He still has Geitner on his team. That is an ugly truth that cannot

be explained away.

[trumad]

9. Geithner needs to resign or be fired.

[trumad]

10. Geithner needs to resign or be fired.

[mod mom]

33. worth being said twice!

:hi:

[MannyGoldstein]

11. K&R. I can't imagine appointing Summers, Rahm and Geithner unless

Obama had mischief in mind from the start. They were well-known quantities, accomplished enemies of working Americans.

[lunatica]

12. This supports the idea that Obama was threatened when he took office

A few days ago there was a story about being threatened if he pursued the previous administration for their crimes and why he backed off from that.

[seabeyond]

14. agreed. nt

[bemildred]

15. If he won't fire their asses, then he owns them and all they do.

A President that can be intimidated is no President at all. We already had 8 years of that with Little Bush.

[senseandsensibility]

16. K and R

Mind boggling.

[ironrooster]

17. this book would have us believe that Obama is weak - although I think

that is just a charitable way of looking at it. Obama knew what he was doing!

[Hydra]

39. You know, I have that problem with this too

Obama could be totally inexperienced and weak, but everything I see on issues that are important to him show focus, skill, discipline(both of himself and his administration) and that Ndimensional chess his supporters often refer to.

I don't see a weak and uncertain Presidency. I see a Presidency that holds goals that are discredited by all available evidence. This isn't new- during the Bush Administration, they claimed that they were creating a new reality. That by destroying laws, lives and entire nations, a new world could be created that was not answerable to current rules.

What both of them forgot is that there are laws of man and laws of nature. Laws of man are optional, laws of nature are not.

[Name removed]

18. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[FredStembottom]

19. As I have stated again and again to a certain contingent....

...nobody who has simply noticed what has gone on with this Administration (and mentioned it here at DU) is guilty of anything.

We want Obama to do better . Much better. And that type of turn-around begins with acknowledging there is a problem. And this book seems like it confirms the exact problems that get people who speak of the problems viciously spammed here at DU.

Call those of us who have merely been observant "haters" - insist that we "want to take Obama down" - that we want "rainbows and ponies from day one". And on and on and on. We will still notice what this administration is like. And we will still speak of it here at DU.

[ProSense]

20. W.H. pushes back hard at Suskind

W.H. pushes back hard at Suskind

[ThomWV]

21. I believe that was the Headline of a NYT story this morning.

I recall seeing that as a head line in an article in the New York Times that was shown on Washington Journal this morning. Of course it had to be expected. I was just wondering how hard they would push and what it would look like.

[Hissyspit]

23. delete nt

[JDPriestly]

47. Procents, I can't wait to read the book.

Sounds like an accurate analysis of Obama's White House to me.

And you know, I have told you many times, Geithner was picked by a committee headed by Pete Peterson to lead the NY Fed. Peterson is the ultimate anti-Democrat, up there with the Koch Brothers, Karl Rove and Rupert Murdoch -- not a guy I like. And Geithner is no Democrat. He should not be serving in a Democratic administration. Obama should be ashamed of himself for keeping Geithner on. Geithner and Summers made a mess of our economy.

How many families lost their homes? How many marriages broke up? How many kids can't go to college? And all because Obama hired a team that made a mess of the recovery.

Did Bush leave Obama with an extremely difficult job? Yes, but not as difficult a job as Hoover left to FDR. And FDR gained the utter love and respect of Democrats. Obama -- nice guy but not performing well in office and mostly thanks to the likes of Summers and Geithner.

[WorseBeforeBetter]

22. Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) who was right re: the repeal of Glass-Steagall.

Obama should have listened to him.

Glass-Steagall Act: The Senators And Economists Who Got It Right

Ten years later, Dorgan has been vindicated. His warning that banks would become "too big to fail" has proven basically true in the wake of the current financial crisis. He seems eerily prescient for claiming then that Congress would "look back ten years time and say we should not have done this." But he wasn't entirely alone. Sens. Barbara Boxer, Barbara Mikulski, Richard Shelby, Tom Harkin and Richard Bryan also cast nay votes.

As did Sen. Russ Feingold, who, in a statement from his office, recalled that "Gramm-Leach-Bliley was just one of several bad policies that helped lead to the credit market crisis and the severe recession it helped cause."

The late Sen. Paul Wellstone also opposed the bill, warning at the time that Congress was "about to repeal the economic stabilizer without putting any comparable safeguard in its place."

Outside government, doomsday-ing over the repeal of Glass-Steagall seemed far more palatable a position to take. Edward Kane, a finance professor at Boston College, warned that "nobody will be able to discipline a Citigroup" once the legislation passed, because the banks would be too big and the issues too complex.

More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/11/glass-steagall-act-the-se_n_201557.html

[hulka38]

26. Yes, and these people are marginalized

and ignored instead of being celebrated and listened to by the party leaders. The DLC is alive, in charge and busy fucking things up at an alarming pace.

[WillyT]

25. MUST READ !!! - HUUUGE K & R !!!

:nuke::nuke::nuke:

:mad:

:kick:

[Duppers]

31. K&R

Hope M$M finally listens to someone doing their jobs.....then our Pres. might.....might....

[Hoosier Daddy]

36. +1

[Bluebear]

32. "I don't understand how you could do this" sums up the last three years.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

37. Geithner!

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_fgNunUORMWA/TOrpC36OjcI/AAAAAAAABmk/ZIyvUH3HeMs/s400/rivals+seinfeld+and+newman.jpg

[Beacool]

38. And the band plays on.

So Suskind's book often reads like Halberstam's "Best and the Brightest," with Summers and Geithner as McNamara and Bundy. But the quagmire isn't a neo-Vietnam like Afghanistan — it's the economy, and the casualties are measured in lost jobs. After the stimulus bill passed in February 2009, Suskind writes, "little else happened on the jobs front for a year and a half," with proposals being "talked to death without resolution."

And people continue to suffer........

x(

Some more interesting read:

"I kept flipping back and forth between fury at Obama and — I know I'm easy — sympathy. So much of the damage comes from the initial decision to hire these guys, a decision he had to make almost immediately after being elected. He was inexperienced, he needed help, they burned him, he let them — that's the story in brief."

My argument in 2008 still holds valid. Experience DOES matter in life.

:-(

[democracy1st]

40. K & R

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

42. I'm curious now. I think I'm getting this book. nt

[patrice]

43. It's interesting that PO would take the significant risk of appearing to use an apologist, especiall

y since those accusations will inevitably be made anyway and justified with questions about why he didn't get rid of S/G/E and then those making such accusations absolutely will NOT credit any problems growing out of the Derivative Crash of '08, such as having American EQUITY on the table in some extremely private, even SECRETIVE, boardrooms in Basel, Switzerland, in the midst of which a SERIOUS shake-up in D.C. would be a signal to the vultures circling our economy . . . and not to mention prosecuting 2 wars in which the slightest indication of American weakness attracts jihadists from anywhere/everywhere, like ants to honey, looking to create & build reputations, for themselves and their cohorts back home, by killing *O*U*R* soldiers.

Nope, none of that, nor anything else will matter to those who WILL INDEED take advantage of yet another feeding frenzy, an opportunity to help S/G/E out, to insure the plutocracy that runs this country and thus to perpetuate social and economic injustice in the U.S.A. by suppressing Health Care Reform and further oppressing Labor's right to organize.

.............................................


Solidarity with U.S. Labor!!!

[truedelphi]

44. I love Frank Rich and most of what he says and most of what he stands for.

And Obama ran for office using those ideas.

So he got our votes.

I feel betrayed, and I won't stop feeling portrayed until the Middle Class sits in the seats of power and Geithner, Paulson, Bernanke, Greenspan et al are in jail.

[Tansy_Gold]

45. Ron Suskind is "batshit insane" just like me

Except I was "batshit insane" way before he was, WAAAAY before. Like 11/24/08 before.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=7922946

[JDPriestly]

46. Great article. Explains so much. Thanks for posting. I will try to get a copy of the book.

Sounds like it is worth reading. It confirms a lot that I have suspected.

[Supersedeas]

53. I agree

[hifiguy]

48. Summers and Geithner should get

life in front of a firing squad for their malfeasance and abetting the banksters' criminality.

[Octafish]

49. ''You've picked the wrong people!''

Not from Phil Gramm's perspective.

[Bluebear]

52. +

[jannyk]

51. K&R! Is it coming to 'kindle'? Oh I do hope its coming to kindle.

[Jakes Progress]

54. Kick. Inexperience shows.

In this case it shows by the president's choice of advisors and his steadfast inability to realize just how culpable they are.