emanuel on board / obama wins nc
from the netroots point of view this hardly signals a progressive agenda but i think its a pretty reasonable selection. the guy is familiar with the inner workings of the whitehouse and congress and isnt afraid to crack a few skulls to get things accomplished nor do i expect hell be cowed by the morons in the press when they suggest via rightwing talking points that hes too partisan. kind of makes me think hell be the bobby kennedy like enforcer of this administration.
sounds like hes a good manager. its not so much a policy position. right?
i think its a fair amount of both.
just in case you didnt know, bill, the ari gold character from entourage is based on his brother.
cummon' i knew. the emanuel bros entourage. aris the one with the sun glasses. good casting all around.
oh yeah, this just in, repub wardrobe dept heading back to alaska to retrieve their stuff
sounds like they all deserve each other, the repugs that is.
Rahm Emanuel, David Axelrod, and Robert Gibbs are heading to Washington to be, respectively, chief of staff, senior adviser, and White House press secretary in the Obama administration.
mark schmidt on the evolution of emanuel.
fun fact: He graduated from Sarah Lawrence College and is a classically trained dancer.
i kept hearing daschle was a prime candidate for the job. im surprised he didnt want it.
"Many in the movement left are having a heart attack that the first major move of President-elect Barack Obama is the appointment of Congressman Rahm Emanuel as White House Chief of Staff. Emanuel has accepted.
I preferred Senator Tom Daschle for the job. Daschle has vision and implementation skills that many will never be able acquire -- but Daschle didn't want the position in the end.
The Rahm Emanuel I know is tenaciously focused on results and will do nearly any thing to win -- and if winning for the Obama administration and the American public is what we are putting forward here, then his appointment can be a good thing.
My greatest fear about Emanuel is that he might perpetuate a "false choice" orientation towards Israel in Middle East affairs that he's going to have to compensate for and get under control. There are no rational alternatives in the Middle East than actually delivering on a Palestinian state and finally putting the Middle East peace business out of business.
Emanuel needs to prove his judiciousness by not preempting serious progress in Israel/Palestine affairs and not encouraging Barack Obama to make the mistake of trying to define his presidency by exploiting some national security conflict. There are downsides to the JFK comparison."
-- Steve Clemons
heres clemons on the candidates for treasury.
firedogger on clemons scuttlebutt.
"We've been hearing Larry Summers name floated as Treasury Secretary. Bad idea. Not only did he not call the financial crisis, but he has foot in mouth disease. What a Treasury Secretary says can move markets in a big way, and Larry is simply too frank, and too unable to control his mouth for the spot. And while yes, he's brilliant, but he's also brilliantly abrasive and his brilliance is primarily in the details, not in the big picture. Such a bad choice for Treasury Secretary and I find it odd that he's even being considered.
According to Steve Clemons, there are others in the running: Tim Geithner of the NY Federal Reserve Bank; Paul Volcker, the Fed Chief who wrestled inflation under control in the 80s; FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair; Laura Tyson, who was chair of Clinton's council of economic advisers; and Jon Corzine.
I'm going to ignore Corzine, I don't think he'll make it. Volcker was a great Fed chairman and he saw the crisis coming. I think he's a bit too inflexible to deal with the current crisis, but he wouldn't be a bad choice overall. I suspect his preferred policy tools would not work.
Geithner was talking about the possibility of a bubble and about risk premia being way too low back in January of 2006. That differentiates him from both of his bosses, Greenspan and Bernanke. Not a bad technocratic choice.
Laura Tyson has been on the board of Morgan Stanley since 1997. After our experience with Paulson, and given Morgan Stanley being caught flat footed by the crisis, that's not exactly a recommendation. Thumbs down.
Sheila Bair seems to be emerging as a progressive favorite because of her plan to rewrite mortgages to fixed interest mortgages at the initial rate in order to allow people to stay in their houses. Unfortunately, without also rewriting the mortgages to a lower face amount, this is actually a profoundly bad idea, since it will lock people into mortgages based on home valuations that are unreasonable. Honestly, many people would be better handing the keys back to the banks and walking away. The plan leads to Japanification, by saddling people with mortgages that eat up all their disposable income, turning them into economic zombies. Good regulatory plan, bad for the overall economy, though better than doing nothing.
Of the bunch, I'd have to give a very reluctant nod to Geithner or Volcker, with Bair as a distant third.
But the list itself is pretty awful. Here's the question—why aren't people like Roubini, Krugman and Stiglitz on it? Why aren't people who got it right, early, and who are actually reasonably progressive, on the list? Or even Robert Reich, who called it in 2005?
Yes, I know Obama and Krugman, for example, have history, since Krugman preferred Clinton. But Obama's been big in talking up the whole "team of rivals" and reaching out. Time to put it in play.
As for Summers, just no. He can be an undersecretary for something, and I'm sure he'll do a great job. But he's not the man you put out front, he simply does not have either the judgment or social skills for the job."
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- bill 11-06-2008 6:02 pm
from the netroots point of view this hardly signals a progressive agenda but i think its a pretty reasonable selection. the guy is familiar with the inner workings of the whitehouse and congress and isnt afraid to crack a few skulls to get things accomplished nor do i expect hell be cowed by the morons in the press when they suggest via rightwing talking points that hes too partisan. kind of makes me think hell be the bobby kennedy like enforcer of this administration.
- dave 11-06-2008 6:08 pm
sounds like hes a good manager. its not so much a policy position. right?
- bill 11-06-2008 6:13 pm
i think its a fair amount of both.
- dave 11-06-2008 6:27 pm
just in case you didnt know, bill, the ari gold character from entourage is based on his brother.
- dave 11-06-2008 9:48 pm
cummon' i knew. the emanuel bros entourage. aris the one with the sun glasses. good casting all around.
oh yeah, this just in, repub wardrobe dept heading back to alaska to retrieve their stuff
- bill 11-06-2008 10:21 pm
sounds like they all deserve each other, the repugs that is.
- dave 11-06-2008 10:27 pm
Rahm Emanuel, David Axelrod, and Robert Gibbs are heading to Washington to be, respectively, chief of staff, senior adviser, and White House press secretary in the Obama administration.
mark schmidt on the evolution of emanuel.
fun fact: He graduated from Sarah Lawrence College and is a classically trained dancer.
- dave 11-06-2008 10:48 pm
i kept hearing daschle was a prime candidate for the job. im surprised he didnt want it.
"Many in the movement left are having a heart attack that the first major move of President-elect Barack Obama is the appointment of Congressman Rahm Emanuel as White House Chief of Staff. Emanuel has accepted.
I preferred Senator Tom Daschle for the job. Daschle has vision and implementation skills that many will never be able acquire -- but Daschle didn't want the position in the end.
The Rahm Emanuel I know is tenaciously focused on results and will do nearly any thing to win -- and if winning for the Obama administration and the American public is what we are putting forward here, then his appointment can be a good thing.
My greatest fear about Emanuel is that he might perpetuate a "false choice" orientation towards Israel in Middle East affairs that he's going to have to compensate for and get under control. There are no rational alternatives in the Middle East than actually delivering on a Palestinian state and finally putting the Middle East peace business out of business.
Emanuel needs to prove his judiciousness by not preempting serious progress in Israel/Palestine affairs and not encouraging Barack Obama to make the mistake of trying to define his presidency by exploiting some national security conflict. There are downsides to the JFK comparison."
-- Steve Clemons
- dave 11-06-2008 11:50 pm
heres clemons on the candidates for treasury.
- dave 11-07-2008 12:18 am
firedogger on clemons scuttlebutt.
"We've been hearing Larry Summers name floated as Treasury Secretary. Bad idea. Not only did he not call the financial crisis, but he has foot in mouth disease. What a Treasury Secretary says can move markets in a big way, and Larry is simply too frank, and too unable to control his mouth for the spot. And while yes, he's brilliant, but he's also brilliantly abrasive and his brilliance is primarily in the details, not in the big picture. Such a bad choice for Treasury Secretary and I find it odd that he's even being considered.
According to Steve Clemons, there are others in the running: Tim Geithner of the NY Federal Reserve Bank; Paul Volcker, the Fed Chief who wrestled inflation under control in the 80s; FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair; Laura Tyson, who was chair of Clinton's council of economic advisers; and Jon Corzine.
I'm going to ignore Corzine, I don't think he'll make it. Volcker was a great Fed chairman and he saw the crisis coming. I think he's a bit too inflexible to deal with the current crisis, but he wouldn't be a bad choice overall. I suspect his preferred policy tools would not work.
Geithner was talking about the possibility of a bubble and about risk premia being way too low back in January of 2006. That differentiates him from both of his bosses, Greenspan and Bernanke. Not a bad technocratic choice.
Laura Tyson has been on the board of Morgan Stanley since 1997. After our experience with Paulson, and given Morgan Stanley being caught flat footed by the crisis, that's not exactly a recommendation. Thumbs down.
Sheila Bair seems to be emerging as a progressive favorite because of her plan to rewrite mortgages to fixed interest mortgages at the initial rate in order to allow people to stay in their houses. Unfortunately, without also rewriting the mortgages to a lower face amount, this is actually a profoundly bad idea, since it will lock people into mortgages based on home valuations that are unreasonable. Honestly, many people would be better handing the keys back to the banks and walking away. The plan leads to Japanification, by saddling people with mortgages that eat up all their disposable income, turning them into economic zombies. Good regulatory plan, bad for the overall economy, though better than doing nothing.
Of the bunch, I'd have to give a very reluctant nod to Geithner or Volcker, with Bair as a distant third.
But the list itself is pretty awful. Here's the question—why aren't people like Roubini, Krugman and Stiglitz on it? Why aren't people who got it right, early, and who are actually reasonably progressive, on the list? Or even Robert Reich, who called it in 2005?
Yes, I know Obama and Krugman, for example, have history, since Krugman preferred Clinton. But Obama's been big in talking up the whole "team of rivals" and reaching out. Time to put it in play.
As for Summers, just no. He can be an undersecretary for something, and I'm sure he'll do a great job. But he's not the man you put out front, he simply does not have either the judgment or social skills for the job."
- dave 11-07-2008 1:26 am