Many of us here have treated the task force Obama set up with a sounds good, but lets wait and see approach...even with the appointment of Schneiderman. The reason is simple, the administration has, up until now, not only been unwilling to investigate what caused the crisis but has in many ways has been an obstacle.
So as a sceptic, I was pleased with Obama's speech on housing today because not only did he mention the task force and its purpose, he made sure to link holding the banks accountable to American values. Now the reason why this is important is because once this task force has the president in campaign type events talking about it as him holding those who caused the crisis accountable, the task force has basically become to big to fail, I.e. Obama will look pretty stupid if the thing is a dud, in an election year no less
THE .beauty of this reality is that it should even be a positive thing for Obama critics, since political expediency now suggests the presidents better off with this task force producing results.