Where is Obama's Leadership?

As the markets plummet and the value of my house and investments disappear where is my
candidate? Like everyone else, my anger is mounting with plenty of blame to go around. But where is Obama's leadership?

Fine, he should keep his calm and collected demeanor, but nonethless work furiously to bring the Democratic rebels in Congress in line and pass the compromise rescue plan without the need
for those fringe Republican ideologues. Why doesn't Obama go round up Bill and Hillary -- the other most influential leaders of the Democratic Party -- mobilize his enormous e-network and for good measure bring on board the gurus of high and low finance -- Warren Buffet and Suze Orman -- for a full court press?

Thanks to the hard negotiating of the Democratic Congressional leadership, the Paulson plan has a large investment element where the public gets equity warrants-- the government would be buying assets at rock bottom prices likely to make a profit later. For this reason Suze Orman calls it an "investment plan" not a bailout. Its what Sweden did in their banking and credit crisis just over a decade ago, and the taxpayer has made out fine.

There are many reasons we are where we are -- low interest rates, macroeconomic stability, plenty of global capital sloshing around, the deregulation regime since the Reagan days and, it must be said, the American consumer out of control.

But you can't fix 20 years worth of Wall St. manipulation and consumer indiscipline overnight. And yes the plan is not a panacea and has problems, etc.

Politics is the art of the possible. This deal just voted down is what's possible. The only
possibility now is to revive it with the requisite votes from the Democratic side.

Obama needn't drop his campaign to focus on the crisis. Rescuing the rescue plan ought
to be his campaign. Its leadership the country is looking for. Let's see some.

Comments

[PumaAnn]

Good question.....

[EricR11]

All you need to answer your question is to read the Washington Post account of the Big Bush White House meeting that McCain tried to hijack for his own purposes. Obama quietly and effectively turned the tables back on Mac's power grab - with the full support of House Democrats who had him do the talking, leading to Mac's departure and sullen appearance at the debate he tried to avoid. Obama clearly has the eyes and ears and respect of the Democratic contingent right now - the same cannot be said at all for Bush or McBush.

[HulaHula]

Can you explain to me why the burden of bailing out the economy should fall entirely on the Democrats? Was it a Democratic administration that is responsible for this mess? Was it a Democratic President or Democratic Treasury Secretary who introduced this bailout plan and pleaded for its passage?

Give me a break, it is the Republicans who would rather let the economy collapse than have the courage to vote for a politically unpopular bill.

The Democrats have done their part, it's time for the Republicans to man up.

[Faith101]

Obama did talk to Bill and Hillary about this, they all agree that pan must go forward to shore up markets and main street.. I think the vote should be split evenly between both houses.

[rscott4079]

As I understand it, Sen. Obama hasn’t actually been elected to highest office yet.

As the old maxim goes “to many chefs spoil the broth.” Had his opponent not tried to use this issue to highlight his leadership last week when congress was already on the brink of an agreement, and when the glare of public scrutiny was not so intense, perhaps this bailout would be a done deal by now.

[GuyFawkes]

Why oh why does everything always come back to Billary? Has anyone even heard what they think of the bailout? She's gonna have to vote on this, eventually.

[renatam]

Leadership requires knowledge of ALL THE FACTS, which Senators Obama and Biden -- and the Democrats in Congress, Republicans in Congress do not have. Repubs don't TRUST their President, Cabinet, SEC and FED leadership.

Senator Obama is wisely a) putting his full commitment behind the Bailout, including a commitment to vote for it on Wednesday; b) worked behind the scenes w/out grandstanding and/or manipulating the parties -- or the PROCESS- in this delicate matter while simultaneously being provoked by Senator McCain and Republicans who helped create and voted for this uber-laissez-faire madness along w/George W. Bush et al -- for 8 years, advised by Phil (UBS/ENRON) Gramm.

Today Senator McCain a) bragged this morning about having SUCCEEDED in forging a consensus, irresponsibly and a LIE; b) had his surrogates say later he MIGHT attend the vote on Wednesday - leaving it open to speculation; c) goaded Senator Obama during a lunchtime/Andrea Mitchell covered (as usual, daily) speech w/Sarah Palin -- to do what he was doing -- while Republicans were preparing to vote AGAINST THE BAILOUT. Campaigning when he said he would not, publicly doing whatever he could to destablize and manipulate the PROCESS and PARTIES -- has been his hallmark of "leadership" since paroting George W. Bush and Phil Gramm 9/15/08 that "the fundamentals of our economy were strong."

Americans are STRESSED and EXHAUSTED, needing less grandstanding, gun toting, machinations from self-proclaimed "mavericks" & more of what we are getting from Senator Obama.

Thank you.

[Glenn1441]

Well said!

[Jezreel]

Ditto!

[sphinxy]

I'm no economic expert. I'm the exact opposite. I like movies. I liked the title of your article, but for none of the reasons you gave. I want to see Obama, my movie hero, round up his economic advisors, gather at a summit, somewhere pretty, and pound out a true recovery/innovation plan. They should do it in a few sleepless days. They should emerge from the meeting all sweaty and disheveled, to hundreds of cameras and flashbulbs, and announce their plan to pour billions into the infrastructure, renewable energy industries, mortgage assistance, and banking reforms. Congress doesn't pass it, but Obama takes it directly to Bush, convinces Bush to declare a state of emergency and enact the plan, completely bypassing the congress. The plan would have no immediate effect, but in a few short years, and god knows they pass quickly, we would have the tools, industry, and infrastructure in place to take us into the new century. I don't think convincing Bush, at this point, would be impossible. Right now, he's floundering around like a mackerel. I want a hero. Not a politician. I want "Indianna Jones Goes to Washington."

[Glenn1441]

You must also want a man who can be in a hundred places at once. Obama has a campaign to run, and win.

Thus, MY HERO will be traveling to battleground states, pitching to the undecided. MY HERO will be preparing for a debate. MY HERO will be working with his team to keep an eye on voter caging and other disqualification tactics that could lose us this election.

MY HERO is Barack Obama. He's a super human, but not Superman.

[JimPivonka]

Let's not underestimate our candidate, especially the depth and strenght of his leadership style.

Obama leads from the community, and relies on community leadersip in place. His strength is in empowering that in place leadership, and getting individuals to cooperate with one another - not in locking them in a room, a la JP Morgan during one famed financial crisis.

Reid, Pelosi, all have said that he has been there when the needed him; they do't feel he is absent, they don't feel he is uninvolved. They feel, I suspect, that he is supporting them in doing what they need to do, helping them to assure that the broad goals they all share are accomplished.

If his input is needed to ensure effective Legislative Branch action, he, as our candidate for Executive, will provide that input in a way that respects the Legislature, and its leadership, and does not detract from his ability to secure their support for his program after January 20th.

As far as advisors go, I'd suggest varied input, such as might be obtained from Bill Gross, Nouriel Roubini, and Brad Setser. I'd agree that he needs to be getting advice from people other than, or at least in addition to the group attached to the Clinton wing of the party,. Although I'd also suggest he pay close attention to Bob Rubin, who may have been too eager to accede to repeal of Glass-Steagle, but was otherwise one of our all time great Secretary's of the Treasury.

[ThomasDark]

It really perturbs me when a columnist can't get his facts straight.

First Mr. Gardels...the stock would NOT be purchased at 'rock bottom prices'; it would be purchased at above market prices and then our government would hold onto it HOPING the values would rise to meet or exceed what Paulson paid for them. Also, the purchase was not of mortgages but derivatives...which could easily end up being valueless.

In Sweden, the government TOOK OVER the banks, not just received warrants. They were in full control to make the day-to-day decisions. They cleaned up the banks and then 'sold' them back to investors. The Paulson plan would have done nothing of the sort.

What Obama should have done is come out in OPPOSITION to the Paulson plan and helped forge a better one.

[bobsmith]

Thank you Thomas! I was going to say that, but you beat me to it.

[thenextquagmire]

"Leadership": is the art of motivating a group of people to act towards achieving a common goal. McCain attempted to show his "Leadership"during this crisis only to make it worse, his goal being to make himself look good, as a Presidential candidate. McCain screwed it up, anything else done by these two candidates is going to be looked upon cynically.

[LastLiberalRepublican]

We have to keep in mind that, irrespective of who may win in November, the end game has been to keep HRC out of the White House. It is not very relevant as to who wins because the country is strong enough to survive either candidate being in the Oval Office. However, if HRC had gotten there, today no one of us could conceive of the damage and conflicts of interest that she and Bill would have brought to the country.

[sjmarie]

Obama did show leadership. Maybe you should stop watching fox news. The democrats voted for the measure by 2/3 votes compared to republicans 1/3 votes. The republicans don't want take blame for the bail out or bush's failed policies. They want the democrats to take full responsibility for the bail out so the republicans can salvage political careers. it's disgusting.

[GBGB]

sjmarie, you have it completely backwards. You say that the Republicans don't want to take blame for the bailout, they want the Democrats to take responsibility so that the Republicans can salvage their political careers. You have it completely wrong.
The House Republicans never said that they wanted the bill, so of course they aren't voting for it.
Pelosi is the one playing politics. She wanted this bill passed, but late last week she was the one who announced that she wanted Republican support so that the Democrats wouldn't have to take all the blame if the American people didn't like the bill. The Dems didn't need Republican support, they wanted it for political reasons. That is what is disgusting.
Furthermore, if this bill was such a good idea, then none of the representatives would have to worry about their career if they voted in favor of it, would they? If this bill was such a good idea, representatives would be voting in favor of it and then bragging about it during their campaigns leading up to election day. So what does that tell you about this bill? Either its a bad idea or our elected officials (both sides of the aisle) are cowards.

[surfdaddy]

There is a hair of truth to what you say GBGB, except that you have to remember where this bill began - Bush and his Treasury Sec. You can hardly call this a Democratic bill given the origins of it, or the fact that Bush and his cabinet are the #1 guys trying to push it through. So why aren't the Republican's just as much at fault for not passing it? They are!! And clearly they are extremely culpable for the whole mess in the first place.

[desertlover]

Where's MY bailout? If we are going to pay $700 BILLION for toxic assets how about sending me about $5,000 for all the worthless crap I've bought over my lifetime.

I'd spend the money on MORE worthless crap and so help the economy grow.

[1flower]

Where's Obama? Well he's off right now still trying to wrangle up support from those Clintons. What election are you watching Natan. HAHAHA!.