Sam Stein: Obama Administration Has To Cut Its Wall Street Ties (VIDEO)

Sam Stein appeared on The Ed Show Wednesday to discuss Martha Coakley's defeat in Massachusetts and what it means for President Obama and Democrats.

Sam believes that the special election in Massachusetts was about an anti-establishment, anti-incumbent sentiment among voters. To overcome that, he believes that the Obama administration has to cut its ties to Wall Street and adopt a populist tone.

WATCH:

 

Comments

[lightbulb10]

08:48 PM on 01/21/2010

Had to. Had to.

[jdeckard]

06:05 PM on 01/21/2010

Geithner and Summers are cancers on the Obama presidency. I won't begin to regain my hope about Obama until I see him pitch them overboard.

[Billl]

01:57 PM on 01/21/2010

Financial reform should start with immediately calling a weekend emergency session to reinstate Glass-Steagle, which successfully protected banks and their customers for fifty years before its repeal in 1999, repeal Grahm-Leach-Bliley which allows the unbridled use of financial schemes of mass destruction, repeal the unlimited Christmas guarantees given to Fannie and Freddie, enact the pending legislation to audit the Fed, and make AIG’s records available for public review.

Tough hard nosed audits and investigations must be undertaken which will ascertain what roll criminal activity had in the destructive behavior which has decimated the wealth of hundreds of million of citizens and government at all levels.

Eliot Spitzer or an equally tough prosecutor, who can’t be bought, cajoled, or scared off leading an agency of investigating Untouchables, could perform miracles sorting out this mess.

[dakotawoman]

11:52 AM on 01/21/2010

Can someone PLEASE explain to me?

A majority of Americans (according to the polls) WANTED a public option health care reform bill.

The party proposing this reform occupies the presidency AND has a majority in both houses of Congress.

WHAT the F***?!!!!!!

The Republican MINORITY and Big Business are clearly the real power brokers here. And have apparently ALWAYS been. The concept of America as a representative democratic republic is a farce.

Why try to change anything, when the best, most hopeful and altruistic of efforts smash like insects on the windshield of a juggernaut called "corporate special interest married to theocratic fundamentalist oppressors determined to strangle every individual's personal choices in the name of a desert nomad god'.

We are f*****.

A whole country held hostage by reactionary Neanderthals determined to keep us mired in their fantasy vision of an America that never existed in the first place.

More years of deadlock.

More generations owned and kept chained up to minimum wage lives without benefits as wage slaves to the corporations that very obviously and clearly are the REAL government.

I'm done.

Been fun talking with you all.

Goodbye.

I'm going home now to bunker down and entrench for the coming American Dark Ages.

[jmpurser]

11:22 AM on 01/21/2010

On day one Obama might have been able to turn this around. It would have been hard but maybe doable. Now, a year later, after a year of surrender on all fronts and formulating a solid Clinton/Bush agenda, and blowing the super majority, I doubt Obama can do much more than fund raise for the next three years.

[lvdragonlady]

10:44 AM on 01/21/2010

It is NOT Obama's administration that has ties to wall street it is CONGRESS and they are the ones causing all the issues with trading money for backing.

[noradunn]

11:29 AM on 01/21/2010

But the electorate does not collectively vote for congress. We expect the president to set the tone and lead the way. President Obama is not a superficial grand stander, he takes a smart and academic approach to things, but that doesn't work when it comes to changing the mood and reading what exactly the people are pissed off about. Tax the banks, tax the rich, and go after regulating health insurance companies. And he ought to stop playing golf. We elected a quirky guy who doesn't eat junk food, loves the basketball court, and was one of us. Not one of them. Though I see his presidency and very successful this first year, America and stupid and image is everything. We don't see Change We Can Believe In, we don't see the big picture, and we have a very short memory.

[aofh]

07:05 PM on 01/21/2010

By definition, the President's job is to execute the laws Congress passes. There are lots of people in Congress who are more than willing to tell the President (no matter who he is) "you can't tell me what to do" including those from his own party. In great part, that is by design, but also tradition. Probably since FDR the public's view of the President's role has changed giving him a more prominent role in the government. That wasn't the design. I suppose that that means that when we vote for representatives we need to be cognizent of not only what the candidate will do for our district or state but also for the nation.

[marley22]

01:16 PM on 01/21/2010

Take a look at his team of economic advisors and tell me they don't have ties to Wall Street.

[spottery2k]

10:21 AM on 01/21/2010

The United States of Amnesia:
It never ceases to amaze me how most people are so clueless about politics. Ya see, its all about timing. Obama has only served 1 year of what may be an 8 year stint in office, and that will depend on his diplomatic skills in dealing with the financial sector. No one reading this comment can say how they will vote in 2012 or 2016. Any notable politician will tell you how this works. As we get closer to the 2012 electoral season there will be notable improvement in the economy, because even if the people have Obama by the short hairs Wall Street has the people by the short hairs. The relationship between the office of the president and penthouses of Wall Street reminds me of the joke about the man who sat in the dentist's chair and promptly grabbed the dentist by the crotch, "We're not going to hurt each other, now are we?"

[ywcachieve]

10:18 AM on 01/21/2010

Brown is a Wall Street man.

[Puller58]

10:12 AM on 01/21/2010

It ain't happening.

[jaschrod]

09:59 AM on 01/21/2010

Yeah, don't hold your breath. There have been so many back alley deals made that there is probably no way to back out. Obama had the bull by the horns, but he was just to timid to make a steer out it. Disappointed to say the least. Same old crap from our worthless federal government.

[ratcityreprobate]

09:47 AM on 01/21/2010

I doubt that Obama can change. I think what we have seen in the last year is the real Obama. He is very uncomfortable with any confrontation and simply will not take a principled stand, he will always compromise and retreat. It is unrealistic to expect him to take on the banks. He will say he will, but when they push back he will back off.

[AndyWright68]

10:07 AM on 01/21/2010

Of course he will back off. They are his bread and butter for 2012. His only job is to be reelected. When we get a president that does not care about that and does what needs to be done things will finally start to change.

[senorlou]

09:06 AM on 01/21/2010

Obama needs to go after the banks, Wall Street, and the GOP who caused this whole disaster. So far, he's given the banks and Wall Street everything they wanted, kept the big banks together, and made his base stay home on an election day in MA. I still love the guy, but he needs to hammer the three enemies of the American people: Wall Street, big banks, the GOP. Sugarcoating it or dealing with them as if they were rational and reasonable is a mistake.

[ywcachieve]

10:20 AM on 01/21/2010

Would like for the banks and Wall Street to fail?

Besides the president has out a new tax on the banks.

[den1953]

08:51 AM on 01/21/2010

Geithner and Summers job is over they helped pull wall street out of the financial doom and gloom now it's time to move on and get people in there that want to run America not wall street!

[noradunn]

11:33 AM on 01/21/2010

Yes. Geithner is a huge negative. He can't look anybody in the eye when he speaks and he can barely speak. Ted Kennedy's seat got taken as a backlash against the banks and the brokers. And it is a wave that will sweep the nation if Axelrod doesn't figure it out.

[Cookie100]

08:14 AM on 01/21/2010

I do know one thing, O can't do anything about wars. The only thing a president can do is start wars, but to end them, ha. The military industrial complex Eisenhower warned us about is in full bloom.
The financial industry, well, the only chance he has is to stand up in the state of the union and tell everyone it's over. Then mention if anything happens to him we'll all know where to look, right at the banksters!

[LeaderofMen]

08:02 AM on 01/21/2010

Look, the moneyed interests in this country will never allow any sort of meaningful reform to take place.

The American Empire is crumbling. We are witnessing its decline.

[noradunn]

11:37 AM on 01/21/2010

The people elected Barack Obama last year, remember? So, the populace voted in a guy whom they thought could change things. He has been in office one year, handling the toughest job in the world. America has no empire, so to say it's crumbling is absurd. We don't need witnesses, we need ideas and action. People who say "never" get exactly that.

[dakotawoman]

11:53 AM on 01/21/2010

Succinct analysis. And heartbreakingly true.