This is refreshing:
On Obama being a socialist:
I don't agree with it * * * If you go out and interview these people working on this road in Maryland... these people are thrilled. They are thrilled that they are working in March on a good paying job building roads, which is what they were trained to do. That's going to be happening all over America. So the idea that this is socialism -- it is not socialism, it is economic development. It is going to provide an economic engine around communities all over American for jobs; good paying jobs; and help people pay their bills. I don't call that socialism.... We are the model for the world when it comes to infrastructure. We are the model for the interstate system. I don't call that socialism. Our $40 billion [for the Department of Transportation]: not socialism. It is good paying jobs that is going to drive the economies in a lot of states and a lot of communities."
(emphasis mine)
and what about the new "fun thing to do" in the pundit class, blaming Obama for the recession:
"This is not an Obama recession * * * He inherited all of this. He inherited a $1 trillion dollar debt. He inherited the recession. He inherited the lousy stock market. All of this was inherited. The guy has been in office a little over a month and what he has tried to do is listen to every economist he could listen to. And he put in place some opportunities to get people to work quickly through the transportation bill portion of it, to help the banks, and to help the real estate industry. And it is going to take time."
I for one am thrilled to see someone in the administration really coming out and telling the press to STFU on these two issues. We joke about it, but the idea that President Obama is doing too much to save the country, and should only focus on one thing--the banks-- is ridiculous. If he were to only focus on the banks, people would be complaining that he's ignoring all of the other issues out there like home foreclosures (which was supposedly the cause of the mess initially). This morning on Morning Joe I heard them complaining about Obama trying to do to much as well as abusing the house on fire analogy. I literally heard one of the CNBC people (this may have been on the Today Show) say that we should let the fires smolder in the back while we worry about putting out the fire in the front of the house. That is a really jacked up strategy. Eugene Robinson tried to inject some common sense to the "debate" they were having, and they just didn't want to listen to rationality.
What we need in the media is a little less Veruca Salt, and a little more patience. Is it really that difficult to understand that we didn't get into this mess in two months, so we won't get OUT of this mess in two months?
Particularly distasteful is the notion that Obama is responsible for the fluctuations of the stock market. I'm not even someone who watches the markets constantly, but even I know that the market has been tanking since before Obama got in office. When bad stuff happens in the market it's because Obama isn't positive enough, when good stuff happens, it's just for a day and Obama gets no credit for that.
So Kudos to [Republican] Secretary LaHood for putting it out there.