Should Obama Be More Involved NOW?

Are some Democrats growing impatient with President-elect Barack Obama's refusal to inject himself in the major economic crises confronting the country?

I have been hearing more and more of this lately. To be honest I would love to have Obama take over now, but I am not sure if Obama can or should.

Obama has sidestepped some policy questions by saying there is only one president at a time. For some this is not good enough.

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank has been dealing with both the bailout of the financial industry and a proposed rescue of Detroit automakers is reported to have said that President-elect Obama needs to play a more significant role on economic issues. Frank is reported to have said:

"He's going to have to be more assertive than he's been."

Obama has maintained one of the most public images of any president-elect. He has held half a dozen press conferences, where he has entertained question after question about the economy, the mortgage crisis, and the flailing auto industry. Frank though makes the argument that this may not be enough. He was quite serious as he stated that President-elect Obama needs to play a more significant role on economic issues.

"At a time of great crisis with mortgage foreclosures and autos, he says we only have one president at a time."

"I'm afraid that overstates the number of presidents we have. He's got to remedy that situation."

Is Barney Frank is right?

He may be. There is a compelling argument. Yes we don't have two presidents. But do we even have one president now? Currently Bush is doing nothing, but that actually is okay because when Bush does come out and speak the markets plummet. But can we wait for Obama. Is treading water enough? Are we treading, or are we slowly sinking?

Two Democratic senators involved in trying to salvage the auto companies are reported to have said President-elect Obama could help move the process along and should become more engaged in this debate. Senator Chris Dodd is the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee and one of the lead negotiators of the auto industry bailout. He has recently said:

"The Obama team has to step up. In the minds of the people, this is the Obama
administration. I don't think we can wait until January 20."

Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, who obviously is a point man in helping his state's main industry to get this bailout has, called on President-elect Obama to help resolve the dispute over money for the auto loan package. He has said:

"It would be very helpful if the president-elect would become more involved in resolving the issue over the source of the funds. I want him to offer his assistance. He is a person who can really bring people together."

It might be appropriate for Obama to be even more outspoken about what he wants and the direction this nation is going to take with him as president.

House GOP - Irresponsible Cry Babies

House Republicans realizing that they are going to take the blame for today's failure, have come up with a novel defense; blame Nancy Pelosis. Yes I know this is completely new, we have NEVER seen House Republicans blame Nancy Pelosis before. This one takes the cake though. House Republican are now claiming Nancy Pelosi torpedoed any spirit of bipartisanship that surrounded the bailout bill with her scathing speech near the close of the debate.

"We could have gotten there today had it not been for the partisan speech that the speaker gave on the floor of the House," House Minority Leader John Boehner said. Pelosi's words, the Ohio Republican said, "poisoned our conference, caused a number of members that we thought we could get, to go south."

Rep. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., the whip, estimated that Pelosi's speech changed the minds of a dozen Republicans who might otherwise have supported the plan.

First you can read Pelosi's remarks for yourself and judge if it was so scathing that it could have poisoned the Republican conference, and is worth risking the entire US economy.

During the largest financial crisis in this country's history since the Great Depression, the House GOP has decided to characterize itself as a caucus of cry babies who will not support this country if someone hurts their feelings. Talk about irresponsible cry babies.

Barney Frank has an offer for them:

"Give me those twelve people's names, and I will go talk uncharacteristically nicely to them, and tell them what wonderful people they are, and maybe they'll think about the country."

Here's video of the Republicans whining about Pelosi, and of Frank telling them to grow up:

LibertyAir Blog

Steve Benen of the Washington Monthly Political Animal has the best slogan for the Republicans to describe there stand:

"Vote Republican -- We're More Concerned With Our Feelings Than Your Future."

Don't be fooled people, what we saw today in Congress was a complete failure of the Republican Party leadership, and it was a failure of historic proportions. When needed, the Democratic leadership was able to deliver the votes on an unpopular rescue plan, while Republicans voted, 2-to-1, against it, and they voted against for purely political reasons. This had noting to do with Pelosi's harmless speech, but a last gasp of a Party trying to stave-off a blood bath in the congressional elections in November.