Geithner Tells Reporters: "I'm Very Confident You... Will Do A Good Job Of Framing This Thing"
The press conference began with an appearance by The One, who unironically expressed confidence in "the team that we've got assembled" despite not actually having a working economic team or more than one confirmed Treasury official. Then there was this chummy moment:
Q: Do you think a person outside this room, outside the Beltway, looking at that would feel like that's a -- you know, you've gotten a good deal by getting someone to kick in $6 for a loan that is valued at a $100, that's being purchased for $84.SECRETARY GEITHNER: I'm very confident you and your colleagues will do a good job of framing this thing -- (laughter) -- but let me just come back to the basic point. Okay? The point is, relative to what? What our job is, is to try to fix this problem in our financial system at least cost to the taxpayer and ways to get the incentives right so we can have private capital come in and not have the government do all of it.
Yeah, I'm not sure he meant that. Geithner coverage has been so brutal lately that Obama had to compare AIG execs to suicide bombers just move the topic away from his incompetence. Which was still an upgrade from the end of January, when it was Joe Biden covering for Geithner. How embarrassing must that have been?
But isn't it nice we've reached this point? The press is now openly choosing between reverting to their early "greatest transition team ever" hagiography or whipping up more pitchfork outrage. If only someone could have predicted that Obama's campaign of personality-centered utopianism would create impossible expectations, leaving his media disciples locked between unblinking worship or populist scapegoating. That would have been so helpful.
That CNN story about staffing, by the way, has this encouraging tidbit:
Tim Geithner may be the latest political piñata in Washington these days, but -- policy aside -- there may be another reason he is the one fellow everyone is picking on at Treasury: He's there alone. Believe it or not, Geithner is the only confirmed official at his department. Some top nominees, even those who have served in government before, have decided to withdraw. Others are still pending as they go through arduous background checks that one pro-Obama Democrat calls "maddening vetting hell." Sure, this is about extensive scrutiny to make sure no one has a tax problem after Geithner's own embarrassing unpaid tax bill. But the staffing problem is not just at Treasury, and it goes way beyond the time-consuming nature of extensive background checks.
I don't know why they're so concerned about the tax thing. TurboTax mistakes happen. The whole thing was just a distraction. Just like the AIG bonuses were a distraction.
UPDATE: I probably could have been a little clearer at the beginning of this post. Major media outlets are of course more than willing to spin economic news for the left's electoral purposes. It's just that in this case Geithner was half-joking half-apologizing for basically forcing the media to acknowledge that Obama's in over his head. The scandal is that everyone's in on the joke, not that he somehow let slip a conspiracy between the media and the government to boost Obama. Think of it as more of the economic gallows humor that this administration's so famous for.
Although if you want to run "this White House works hand-in-hand with journalists to buttress The Cult Of The One," it's not like that's an impossible story to spin.
References:
* What the heck does Treasury do? [Hot Air]
* Borger: Obama staffers in 'vetting hell' [CNN]
* 'Complete confidence' in Geithner [Politico]
* Obama: AIG Is Like A Suicide Bomber. One Of Those Bad Suicide Bombers. [MR]
* Geithner as good at job as he is at taxes [Hot Air]
* Breathtakingly Stupid VP Candidate Very Lucky The Media's In The Tank For Obama [MR]
* Obama Transition Team Within Reach Of Official "Worst Transition Ever" Record [MR]
* Figures: AIG Forced To Issue "How To Avoid Lynch Mobs" Memo [MR]
* Obama Treasury nominee: Hey, sorry for being a tax cheat [Hot Air]
* Rahm: Obama Believes AIG Mess Is A "Big Distraction" [The Plum Line]
Previously:
* Dems: We'll Finance Health Care With Cigarette Tax That Will Cause People To Stop Buying Cigarettes
* Rham Emanuel: You Know What The US Needs? Higher Energy Prices.
* Could It Actually Be That Dems Have No Idea What's Trashing The Economy And No Coherent Plan To Fix It?
