Andy McCarthy in 2004 discussing the 9/11 commission:
Analyzing the intelligence failures attendant to 9/11 is a twofold process. First, the counterterror system designed during the Clinton administration, which was at the helm for eight years while we were under attack by militant Islam, was a prescription for disaster: reducing counterterrorism to a strict law enforcement matter, putting the Justice Department in charge of it, and institutionalizing, as official government policy, a wall that forbade criminal and intelligence investigators from pooling information. Second, that counterterror system was largely maintained by the Bush administration during the eight-month run-up to the attacks. As to the latter, Bush officials have been aggressively questioned for actions they took, or failed to take, between January and September 2001, including the failure to tear down Gorelick’s wall prior to 9/11. This is entirely appropriate. Indeed, it is essential if the commission is to be at all a useful exercise in helping us avoid future 9/11s.
But for a sizable faction of the commission, that exercise is not what this is about. It is, instead, about myopic focus on the eight Bush months as if the preceding eight Clinton years had never happened.
Andy McCarthy today, discussing the stock market:
Veronique, with due respect, it is absolutely preposterous to blame our president for the nearly 3000 point plunge in the stock market. I don’t know how you or Businessweek can sleep at night after repeating such a baseless, slanderous canard.
He is, of course, responsible for today’s rally …
Putting aside the fact that 2000 of the 3000 point drop that McCarthy is attributing to Obama happened under PRESIDENT BUSH (not to mention the entire cause of the collapse and the several thousand point drop during the rest of 2008), a pithy observer might remark that it is almost as if he wants to pretend the preceding eight Bush years had never happened.
Any luck uncovering Obama’s birth certificate yet, Andy?
bago
Don’t worry, Carter caused the 82 depression.
Lev
These fools never stop…I remember listening to Rush during the boom Clinton years (probably ’95 or ’96) and he was talking about how the good economy was Reagan’s doing, and that Clinton had nothing to do with it.
MikeJ
Forget comparing Bush and Clinton on intel. The dow peaked in 2001 in March, yet they still blamed the downturn on Clinton.
Clinton leaves office in January, causes stock downturn in March. Bush leave office in January, isn’t responsible for the downturn that happened moths before.
Cris
…I’m confused. When McCarthy says "it is absolutely preposterous to blame our president for the nearly 3000 point plunge in the stock market," isn’t he agreeing that it’s not Obama’s fault?
Dennis-SGMM
"This is the operative statement. The others are inoperative."
–Nixon Press Secretary Ron Ziegler, April 17 1973
John Cole
@Cris: He was being sarcastic, responding to the Veronique post.
Balconesfault
I thought that while the Clinton boom was occurring – the cry from the right was that Presidents don’t have anything to do with the economic conditions in America.
They changed that for awhile during the 00’s while the stock market was running up … but they brought it back during the waning months of the Bush Presidency. Of course, it’s gone again now.
Another common cry I hear these days when Republicans are whining is that their economic arguments are being described by the media in cartoon form.
Well … yeah.
scruncher
Just had to, uh, insert this somewhere —
Democratic dick of the day: Chuck Schumer.
http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/middle-east/schumer-takes-credit-for-getting-chas-freeman-ousted/
Balconesfault
Chuck Schumer – the man who brought us Mike Mukasey.
Thus ended his credibility.
Comrade Stuck
When you head is up your ass, myopic focus becomes a friend.
Dennis-SGMM
Schumer is the East Coast’s version of the execrable Diane Feinstein.
mellowjohn
george w. who? never heard of him.
btw Balconesfault, iirc the wingers attributed the clinton boom to the policies of the reagan administration 10 years earlier.
Josh Hueco
I blame it all on the Enlightenment…or at least the sixties.
Margaret
Maybe the discussion about the link between a market plunge and the current administration is being taken seriously because we only just acknowledged the recession.
Margaret
… I use the term "we" extremely loosely…
Zifnab
@MikeJ:
Dude. Enron didn’t spring up overnight. I’m not going to be naive and blame the entire mess on Clinton any more than I can blame the Bubblenomics of the 21st Century on Bush when Graham, Frist, and DeLay had just as much skin in the game, but to claim that the tech bubble popping in ’01 didn’t have anything to do with the laux regulation in the previous eight years is epically blind.
All that said, the problem with the various bubbles has been a decided LACK of regulation. Remind me again which party supports government regulation and which one opposes it? All this talk of whose President’s fault it is misses the forest for the trees. Tell me which policies failed over the last eight years?
Comrade Dread
Why would you expect anything different?
When it comes to politics, principles only exist as long as you’re in power.
Balconesfault
Has anyone else noticed that since we first started radically cutting capital gains taxes back in 1978, we’ve gone through *3* big investment bubble-busts in 3 decades?
Shiva
Obama is trying to put America on a solid long-term footing. Of course, it is possible that soon, perhaps within a few months, a majority of Americans will come to agree with Rush Linbaugh that Obama is the enemy, and that Obama is responsible for our economic difficulties. I hope this doesn’t happen, but it might. But this doesn’t affect what Obama is trying to do. Obama is a former lecturer in Constitutional Law at the well-respected and conservative University of Chicago. His book The Audacity of Hope has an entire chapter on the Constitution. The book ends with a statement of how much he loves America. Obama is trying to restore us to Constitutional principles, and of course to fix the economy. He will leave behind a legacy of someone who left America better than when he found it. Whether or not Americans will appreciate this remains to be seen, but I’m optimistic.
Davis X. Machina
In Andy McCarthy’s world, obstetricians, not sex, causes babies.
Bill
McCarthy is such an idiot he doesn’t realize he’s mortally damaging his argument with this post. If Obama is responsible for every single decline in the stock market, then of course he’s responsible for every upswing. In other words, It’s a stupid and reductive way of looking at things, but that’s the National Review for you.
MobiusKlein
Didn’t the handling of capital gains on house sales change somewhat recently too? I thought you used to have to pay tax on house gains, but that changed too.
Zak
This is from my favorite wingnut, local edition in the intro to a video that shows how much the economy shrank under Bush —
"An unsatisfying attempt to lay blame for the recession/depression on Bush. I think blaming Bush is fair up until, oh, June. After that, Obama’s on his own."
http://www.phillyburbs.com/opinions/blogs/courier_blogs/jd_mullane.html
June?
demkat620
These people are fucking exhausting. It’s like dealing with a group of toddlers.
ACK
In the Washington Post a few days ago it was reported that in the past 17 months, since the peak of the market in October of 2007, about $11 trillion in wealth has vanished.
So, where did most of this loss occur, in real money terms? About $10 trillion was lost during the end of Bush’s term and about $1 trillion since Obama’s inauguration.
Someone should tell Andy.
dslak
If Andy thinks the president has so much power over the value of stocks, why not just suggest the elimination of stock exchanges and empower the president to make everything as valuable as necessary?
You know, take out the middle man!
John S.
Fuck that. MY toddler is far more easy to deal with than these clowns. Not only is he more rational, but he’s a hell of a lot more consistent.
Comrade Stuck
Or a stampede of Chuckies.
Ed Drone
The Rethugs call the Democrats "socialists," but which party is treating our "greatest" president as an "unperson?" Isn’t that the ultimate Communist treatment of a person?
Ed
Zifnab
@Balconesfault:
~ wiki
I don’t think you can just wave your hands and point to tax rates. I’m not seeing much of a correlation between tax rates and market performance, and I honestly think there’s nothing there.
Markets respond to the perceived strength of the economy. I’m not going to invest less cash in equity just because you take a higher fraction of my gains. If I project soybeans will grow 10% year over year for the next decade. It’s the same John Galt argument you hear when people talk about how higher taxes will mean people won’t want to make as much money. I mean, are you really going to take a $50k haircut if you’re making $300k / year because – zounds! taxes are higher!
Walker
@Balconesfault:
As I said over at Big Media Matt’s place: If the Republicans run someone who is not completely bat shit crazy against Schumer, then I will vote for that Republican. I have had it with Schumer. The ball is in the Republican’s court.
Tsulagi
He’d have an easy answer. The market shed $10T when it came to tearful recognition it would be without Bush’s golden touch and vaunted business acumen when he left office. The tears continue. If only we’d repealed the 22nd Amendment this all could have been averted.
Jim
At the risk of roaming off topic, but in the same vein, via Sully comes Jonathan Chait’s nuking of that simpleton Amity Shales’ The Forgotten Man. The arguments the wingnuts are coming up with these days are so transparently absurd, you really wonder why they aren’t laughed off the public stage immediately. I’ve said it before, but Andy McCarthy is pretty much the worst of the worst that NRO Online has to offer. He’s dumber than a bag of rocks (with apologies to all those bags of rocks out there).
John Cole
Chait can go piss up a rope as far as I am concerned. Until he stops channeling Michael Goldfarb on all things Israel, he is dead to me.
joe from Lowell
On top of everything else, McCarthy can’t even get his facts right about counter-terror policy.
reducing counterterrorism to a strict law enforcement matter, Clinton didn’t reduce counterterrorism; he upgraded it, putting more resources into it than any other president had ever done
putting the Justice Department in charge of it, Richard Clarke, the occupant of the Director of Counter-Terrorism office (which Clinton elevated to Cabinet level) was not from the Justice Department, but from the intelligence community
and institutionalizing, as official government policy, a wall that forbade criminal and intelligence investigators from pooling information That was done in the 1970s by the Church Commission.
Second, that counterterror system was largely maintained by the Bush administration during the eight-month run-up to the attacks. No, it was not "maintained" in the first eight months of Bush’s presidency; it was significantly eroded. Dozens of FBI agents were shifted from counter-terror to obscenity investigations. Richard Clarke’s position was downgraded from cabinet level to subcabinet.
Jon H
@Zak: "June?"
That’s when Steve Jobs’s medical leave ends?
NonyNony
@Walker:
So that means you’re voting for Schumer?
Or perhaps you’re not voting?
I can’t imagine that the Republicans will run someone not-crazy. Bloomberg was the one I thought would have a go at it, but he changed his party status, didn’t he?
You’d think there would be enough fed-up progressive New York Dems to get a primary challenge against Schumer. Even if just to rattle him up a bit. Though I’ve heard it’s much harder to mount a primary challenge in NY without the party blessing than it is in CT or PA.
RSA
Funny how Bush wasn’t given that same consideration. That would have been a couple of extra months to ignore UBL…
TenguPhule
Corrected for accuracy.
anonevent
@John Cole: Just because Chait has to deal with Peretz doesn’t mean he’s wrong about Shales. You go all groupie every time someone disagrees with how McCain has used his time as a POW for political gain, but I’m not going to hold that against your arguments about pharmaceutical grade wingnut.
Left Coast Tom
Doesn’t the title of this post pretty much provide it’s own answer?
mclaren
Okay, this one threw me. NRO. You guys must automatically think of National Review Online. But to anyone with more than a passing familiarity with our government, NRO means National Reconaissance Office — that giant deep black organization that puts up and monitors feeds from all America’s spy satellites.
I’m thinking "Hacks?" And wondering about a bunch of clueless wardheelers sitting in some deep black mission control reading Hustler instead of monitoring the telemetry…
Brick Oven Bill
Consider this to be my application: Here begins the fall. Obama had led all summer and McCain surged in mid September.
14SEP (McCain +3); Federal Reserve declines to bail out Lehman Brothers and they file for bankruptcy.
15 SEP (McCain +2); Stocks drop sharply.
15 SEP (McCain +2); Electronic run on the banks.
16SEP (McCain +1); AIG declares liquidity crisis.
17SEP (McCain +1); 18SEP (even); 19SEP (even); 20SEP (Obama +1); and it went from there. Was this our October Surprise? Why would Wall Street want Obama in the White House? You know, those guys from Columbia.
Perry Como
@Brick Oven Bill: FAIL.
Brick Oven Bill
As president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Mr. Geithner was a key decision maker last September when the government let Lehman Brothers fail and then, two days later, bailed out the insurer American International Group for $85 billion.
Those decisions proved cataclysmic. The markets and the economy have yet to recover from Lehman’s failure.
– 15DEC08 NY Times
Oops. Sorry George.
jrg
Clinton used missile attacks on the terrorists that ultimately would carry out 9/11 to distract the country from the Lewinsky Affair. Just ask Arlen Specter.
Every problem the U.S. has had since 1960 has been due to either liberal penises and vaginas or the negroes – why should the state of the economy be any different?
Kyle
Why would Wall Street want Obama in the White House? You know, those guys from Columbia.
BOB, I’ve noticed in multiple threads you try to make something sinister out of the fact that Obama went to Columbia University for a couple of years of his undergrad studies. WTF?
I have relatives who went to dental school there – should I check my toothpaste for secret transmitters?
To quote Dieter from Sprockets, "Your story has become tiresome".
Brick Oven Bill
From the New York Times link above:
“You can probably see I’m a little defensive about Geithner. I was involved in picking him”
-Peter Peterson, Blackstone Group
Who else helped pick Geithner Mr. Peterson? Mr. Peterson does not appear to have done anything wrong to me as his company lost 30% of its assets in 2008.
But why are our Federal Regulators selected by those they will regulate?
Here it explains that hedge funds are only required to report their long positions. You can apparently short a stock
without public record. Was Soros involved in picking Geithner? I cannot find Soros Fund Management financial results to submit. I remember hearing that he made a profit.
kay
@Brick Oven Bill:
Why don’t you go read Geithner’s own words? Wall Street were upset with Geithner because he wouldn’t agree to their terms for the bank bail-out. They demanded complete capitulation. He didn’t blink.
You’re a dupe, Bill. You miss the obvious. Zebra-horse.
When Wall Street is holding a gun to the Treasury Secretary’s head, and he doesn’t blink, he isn’t working for them. You must have missed the part where Wall Street sung his praises, and then did a 180 when he announced his plan. They were looking for "clarity" all right. They were looking for a hand out.
You’re going to end up owing him an apology.
handy
@Brick Oven Bill:
This "analysis" proves why our parents were right when they warned us not to inhale paint thinner.
Brick Oven Bill
The transparent Obama has sealed his records from Columbia, Kyle, which, as the theory goes, would show him applying as an Indonesian. This theory goes on to say that the people in positions of power have these records and are using them to blackmail our President.
Columbia looked pretty bad on the Sopranos. You might want to find a new dentist. No offense to your family.
Cain
@Brick Oven Bill:
I love you. I love you so much.
cain
Brick Oven Bill
You are observing shadows in a cave kay.
I love you right back Cain, but in a cook-out with the families manner.
Perry Como
One of my clients is a company run by three guys that went to Columbia. And — dun dun DUN — two of them are JEWS!
Oh shi-
handy
Brick Oven Bill reports, you decide. And the hits just keep on coming.
Brick Oven Bill
Do not tar me with the Jew-hater brush Perry Como. Jews make up a miniscule percentage of the world population but fifty percent of my heros. I have even generated a web-site dedicated to a Jew.
As an aside, there is included on this web-site something sent to me from a black guy who I respect and work with. He does not live in the US. I have been invited to his home for supper. We get along fine, as far as I can tell. See, so I have black friends too, just like you.
These were just things I thought were worthy of archiving. But I do note a distinct difference between the writing styles between my hero and my friend.
Cain
@Brick Oven Bill:
Awww.. I want a BoB website dedicated to me!! What do I have to do??! Wait..let me walk that back with some preconditions, I won’t blow. I got standards.
cain
Tironianae
Oh man….you freaking idiotic liberals are out of control. NOT EVEN ONE of you has any concept of history, reality, or economics.
Let’s review, shall we?
After the greatest most historical economic growth in the history of the US came since Reaganomics were put in place (lets remember that is a good thing). Bush inherited a recession (normal after an 8 year term).
What are all you idiots, 12? Or is Bush the only President you ahve ever known….obviously… Morons…. A little research on your own instead of NBC/CNN and the like is WAY in order for
Tironianae
I need to finish my thoughts…but the header must be said again…for obvious reasons…
Oh man….you freaking idiotic liberals are out of control. NOT EVEN ONE of you has any concept of history, reality, or economics.
Since I, obviously, am the only one here who has been through more than one president and actually understand the concepts stated above….Let’s review, shall we?
After the greatest most historical economic growth in the history of the US came since Reaganomics were put in place (lets remember that’s a good thing). Bush inherited a recession (normal after an 8 year (Clinton – thank god we had a Republican Congress to keep him in check) term (remember this is normal). Also remember, Clinton signed an enhancement to the Community Reinvestment Act, one of numerous bonehead liberal policies originally signed into law by that other liberal idiot Carter, after which continued screaming by Bush and others was ignored by Liberals, hence the beginning of the downturn due to that CRA. Throughout the Bush term, we saw more substantial growth, but then all the idiots (liberals) came out of hiding, doing what they ALWAYS do, blaming the Bush Administration for the downturn when in fact it had nothing at all to do with him. Let’s all of us also remember that only 6% of the loans went bad (that should have never been made in the first place due to the CRA policy – and if you know anything about the way banks work…never mind, obviously you don’t) – but the media, oh our unbelieveably intelligent media (note the sarcasm) made it sound like the sky was falling, when it wasn’t. All we heard was their idiocy for weeks, people freaked out and stopped spending, stopped investing…and we are today where we are because of it.
What are all you idiots, 12? Or, is Bush the only President you have ever known?….obviously… Morons…. A little research on your own instead of NBC/CNN (or these moronic know nothing bloggers, for the reasons stated above) and the like is WAY in order for you.
In summary, let’s remember, if it is possible for you to think for yourself (highly unlikely) the economic downturn truly and actually began in October, when the control AND policies of Liberals (they were the ones in control of Freddie and Fannie, lying about their solvency, that is fact – having nothing to do with GWB or Republicans) allowed this ridiculous spiral to begin…add to that the out of control idiotic liberal media (and know nothing bloggers) began their doom and gloom, the sky is falling reporting, and the recipe for disaster ensued. And continues today.
Yes, the last 51 days the markets continue down, except for yesterday. The markets have NO confidence in this president, which is another glaring reason the markets continue down. The policies this liberal is putting in place do not provide confidence, they will NOT spur growth, or provide many jobs, and they never will. The ONLY reason that the market was up yesterday is due to people begining to invest again….NOT because of Odrama. THAT IS ALSO FACT!
Grow up people…
Comrade Stuck
@Tironianae:
You left out that scoundrel Woodrow Wilson causing the great depression and giving us that impotent League of Nations that caused Saddam Hussein to come to power, making GWB invade so liverals could bellyache with the Chimpy BDS shit. And FDR, that rascal, who usurped the Greatness of Herbert Hoover and gave handouts to those slacker seniors.
Wingnut history, the breakfast of chumps.
Chuck
The Clinton years … let’s see, the guy who actually tried to kill Bin Laden? And got accused of "wag the dog" tactics? The guy who was addressing the U.N. on the growing danger of international terrorism while the opposition was busy impeaching him for lying about a blowjob?
No sir, I haven’t forgotten about the Clinton years. I’ll even give you that he fucked up a number of things on his own. But do spare me yet more whining and crying and responsibility dodging.
Let me quote Al Pacino when I address the Republican party: "You fucking child".