Could AIG Cause Obama To Fail?

At this point, I would say it is a very real possibility. The JournoList drones are all singing the same refrain as the White House, calling it a “distraction”. Which means there is highly coordinated activity to try to downplay the entire mess.

Don’t think of the JournoList as an echo chamber – think of it as a time saver!

Let me suggest one enhancement – why couldn’t they just designate one message as the JL Theme of the Day and post it at a dedicated blog.  That would save us even more time since we wouldn’t be seeing the same message kicked around in non-echo chamberish fashion at multiple blogs.  Of course, the downside is that we would miss the pleasure of seeing different artists present their cover version of the tune of the day.  Tough call.

The Weekly Standard looks at just how bad this is for Obama:

At his bizarre town hall last night, President Barack Obama joked that “Washington is in a tizzy” over AIG and the $165 million in bonuses to be paid to its executives. The New York Times yesterday quoted White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel complaining that the whole affair was a “distraction.” At Tuesday’s press briefing, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs could not even provide a rough timeline of the administration’s handling of the AIG affair.

Yes, it’s true that the bonuses represent less than one percent of the total bailout money that has gone to AIG. And yes, there are legitimate points to be made about retention bonuses in general and (though less persuasive) retention bonuses for these AIG employees. But it has been clear for a while that something — an event, a comment, a cable news tirade, a speech — was going to focus the growing public anger over bailouts and government giveaways.

Not only that, our “sober” and “serious” President has a rather odd schedule of events planned. Odd, at least, when you consider that the public is mad as hell and not likely to take much more screwing around with their money:

Mixed messages, indeed. As his economic team is full meltdown, President Obama is holding campaign-style town halls in California, filling out NCAA brackets on ESPN and doing “The Tonight Show” with Jay Leno.

Fiddling while Rome burns appears to be a recurring theme in history.

I rather suspect Obama has a real, growing problem right now. He and his team are still in campaign mode and cannot seem to get the governing part of their jobs down. The inappropriate affect of joking with Leno while the economy is faltering is a mixed message with enough power to torpedo the new administration.

On the bright side for Democrats, all this is making the Carter presidency look like a resounding success.

Via Memeorandum and Real Clear Politics.