Really.
I think Ed Henry's question needed to be asked. And we - not just Ed Henry - needed to hear the answer.
Yes, Ed Henry needed to hear that answer. And so did the press, and not just the MSM press.
Congress (especially the House) needed to hear that answer. And so did we.
The AIG bonuses certainly upset a lot of people. And there's plenty reason for the outrage. But the outrage was such that this issue dominated the news for an entire week. Nothing else was discussed, despite there being a lot of other things that deserve our attention.
(I've been keeping a haiku diary with haiku devoted to news events of each day and last week I fell behind because I could not write more about AIG.)
Politicians spent all their time on this issue. One even suggested suicide (he later said he didn't really mean it). The House responded to the populist rage by passing a bill of questionable constitutionality. One that would, if it set precedent, would make other countries nervous about doing business here.
The AIG personnel were receiving death threats. And many of them are truly innocent. Many of them are doing their best to work at undoing the damage done by a few colleagues.
I personally went through something similar. I worked for another insurance company several years ago that went through difficult times. A division did stupid things, and our CEO weakened our reserves. We finally stopped the division, put it into runoff, and managed to oust the CEO. The company was in desperate straits, and if it had not been for the retention bonuses - whose value are not just monetary, but symbolic, because they tell you that yes, people value what you are doing in this risky situaion - many key employees would have left, including me. I put in a lot of twelve-hour days myself, helped keep the company afloat (it recovered beautifully) and helped save, oh, let's say, sixty-thousand jobs. (All done without taxpayer bailout money, too.)
Obama was right not to react too quickly. Nearly everyone else - including many people here - were ready to pillory these employees, to call for blood. In a way it's fun, a spur for creativity, and we, in the public, can indulge in populist rage.
But haste in policy-making makes waste and often bad law.
I think Ed Henry's question needed to be asked. And Obama's answer was an answer, not just to Ed Henry, but to the entire country.