Poor Barack Obama can't do anything right.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/...
Read the transcript as this poor fool stumbles all over himself.
Barack Obama: "I, I, would say that, er ... pause [I HAVEN'T A CLUE] ... if you look at ... pause [WHO IS THIS NICK ROBINSON JERK?] ... the, the sources of this crisis ... pause [JUST KEEP GOING, BUDDY] ... the United States certainly has some accounting to do with respect to . . . pause [I'M IN WAY TOO DEEP HERE] ... a regulatory system that was inadequate to the massive changes that have taken place in the global financial system ... pause, close eyes [THIS IS GOING TO GO DOWN LIKE A CROCK OF SHIT BACK HOME. HELP].
It is so immensely helpful of John Crace to channel BO's innermost thoughts from half a world away so that we can know what he's really thinking...
Or maybe he's just a right-wing hack who wanted to bang out an article so he could start his weekend early.
Let's take a look at the points BO made and once again be grateful we have a President whose words and thoughts don't step on and trip over each other:
Reporter Nick Robinson asked President Obama which country was at fault for the global economic crisis, and suggested that assigning culpability was key to repairing the damage (something I half-agree with).
Obama was obviously thinking as he assembled his reply, and I'll do the opposite of Crace by removing the extraneous content:
(The US') regulatory system... was inadequate to the massive changes that have taken place in the global financial system. [It] is also true... here in Great Britain...in continental Europe... [and} around the world.
We were seeing the same mismatch [globally as was in the US].
So at this point, I'm less interested in identifying blame than fixing the problem. I think we've taken some very aggressive steps in the United States to do so, not just responding to the immediate crisis, ensuring banks are adequately capitalised, dealing with the enormous drop-off in demand and contraction that has taken place. More importantly, for the long term, making sure that we've got a set of regulations that are up to the task, and that includes, a number that will be discussed at this summit. I think there's a lot of convergence between all the parties involved about the need, for example, to focus not on the legal form that a particular financial product takes or the institution it emerges from, but rather what's the risk involved, what's the function of this product and how do we regulate that adequately, much more effective coordination between countries so we can anticipate the risks that are involved there. Dealing with the problem of derivatives markets, making sure we have set up systems that can reduce some of the risks there. So, I actually think there's enormous consensus that has emerged in terms of what we need to do now and I'm a great believer in looking forwards than looking backwards.
Stripping out BO's pauses in speech and Crace's disrespectful and unnecessary insertions (which also fall far short of making BO sound as bad as Bush), we are left with a cogent, satisfying answer to the question which is also consistent with what Obama's been saying all along.
Hey Crace, making that answer hard to read didn't make it wrong. Better show up early Monday to make up for wasting time at work!