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You are here: Home / Summers out

Summers out

by | 194 Comments

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Didn’t see this coming:

Former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers called President Obama to say he is pulling out of the contest to succeed Ben Bernanke as chairman of the Federal Reserve, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Said Summers: “I have reluctantly concluded that any possible confirmation process for me would be acrimonious and would not serve the interest of the Federal Reserve, the Administration or, ultimately, the interests of the nation’s ongoing economic recovery.”

Reader Interactions

194Comments

  3. 3.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    Oh my.

    In other news:

    on Friday his spokesperson, Brian Rogers, said McCain had accepted an offer from Pravda to write an op-ed response to Putin’s. Time Magazine and Politico [also reported it]

    It turns out that The Cable, Foreign Policy’s website, in its attempt to set up the deal, did not contact Pravda. They contacted pravda.ru, a website which has nothing to do with Pravda or with the Communist Party (Joshua Keating at The Slate calls it “whose content is a kind of cross between WorldNetDaily and the National Enquirer”) instead of gazeta-pravda.ru, which is where you will find THE Pravda.

    McCain never could keep track of the truth.

  5. 5.

    Spankyslappybottom

    Further comment from the NYT article:

    “My understanding is that there would be women involved in this process, and the prospect of listening to those little bees buzzing around in those otherwise empty skulls was simply too much for me. Also, I was a co-architect of the enormous clusterf*ck that was the 2008 financial meltdown. So there’s that, too.”

  9. 9.

    spudgun

    I hate to use this word because it clearly doesn’t mean what the kids think it means, but I believe it fits in this case:

    AWESOME!!

  10. 10.

    dmsilev

    Presumably this was either Summers or Obama (or both) recognizing the inevitable, that with three Democratic Senators on the Banking committee already announcing their opposition, getting his nomination through was rather unlikely. Obama doesn’t tend to pick fights that he knows he’s going to lose, so that was that.

    Doesn’t necessarily mean that the nominee will be Yellen, of course.

  12. 12.

    srv

    Suspected death toll rises from Colorado floods as nearly 500 unaccounted for

    Where is the President in this disaster?

  13. 13.

    IowaOldLady

    I don’t care what politician is winning or losing. Between Syria and this, I feel like I’m winning.

  18. 18.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    @dmsilev:

    Doesn’t necessarily mean that the nominee will be Yellen, of course.

    Republicans basically told Obama who they wanted as Secretary of State (and who they didn’t want), and got it. So I certainly can’t see any problem if “the left” has a preference, and gets listened to just as much. Will be interesting to see if it does.

  20. 20.

    GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)

    Another chew toy taken from the emoprogs.

    Poor things.

    Guessing Obama asked him to remove himself.

  21. 21.

    PsiFighter37

    Pretty sure Obama is playing 1000-dimensional chess at this point. Next up: he tesseracts his way into killing both the debt ceiling and sequestration simultaneously.

  22. 22.

    Jeremy

    Why is it that when the President says he hasn’t made a decision the usual idiots in the media go right ahead and say that he is going to pick Summers ?

    You would think after they got the World Bank pick wrong that they would shut up and wait.

  24. 24.

    Ben Franklin

    So another in-bred insider has grown extra digits on feet and hands and couldn’t hide his genetic defect. Does it really matter who leads the atavistic FED? Time to re-boot the entire system.

  28. 28.

    Dead Ernest

    @efgoldman:

    Clearly its Obama’s Katrina.
    (Too soon?)

    And another ‘Applause’ for both content and, especially for, very rare apt use of the ubiquitous ‘too soon?’
    Bravo.

  30. 30.

    Jeremy

    @Bill E Pilgrim: Yeah but we really don’t know if Susan Rice was going to be picked for SOS. John Kerry was talked about for some time dating back to the first term. I doubt the republicans influenced his decision at all. If Obama was concerned about republicans not liking his picks he wouldn’t have nominated Hagel, Tom Perez, and Richard Cordray to name a few.

  32. 32.

    Ash Can

    @srv: “Unaccounted for” doesn’t necessarily mean “dead” or even “feared dead.” It’s a disaster, all right, but don’t get carried away.

  35. 35.

    jl

    @Bill E Pilgrim:

    Sounds about right. I also heard McCain say that he doesn’t like the agreement because it requires the U.S. to trust the ‘Russian people’. And also heard him say that the deal is bad, basically because it supposedly restores Russia’s stature in the Middle East.

    I’m sure those quotes will get some play in Russia, and make his editorial on the fake pravda site even more convincing.

    Putin is not a nice guy, but at least he has the wits not to pull goofs like that. And the neocons and warmongers profess to fear that the inadequate blah president, and actually any U.S. leader at all, will surely get cheated and taken to cleaners in diplomacy with the Russians, or actually any country at all that will not automatically do what we say asap.

    Yet these same people support Daddy Wargrumps McCain.

    Who would you rather have negotiating with Putin? Obama and his team, or McCain and the insane out-of-it and out-of-date demented cold warriors he’s put on his staff? Maybe McCain would be good if you’re hankering for another WWIII scare.

  37. 37.

    SmallAxe

    Summers would have been horrible for sure but the whole process seems to have the meet the new boss same as the old boss feel to it.

  40. 40.

    dmsilev

    @Jeremy: We really need a Pundit Accountability Project. Like tracking accuracy of predictions and running a banner underneath their face with their current statistics. “Last electoral season, Peggy Noonan had an Average Predictive Accuracy of 0.180 and a Stupid Statement Rate of 4 per paragraph; at that rate, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Journal cut her and hire Meghan McArdle instead. McArdle does have a similarly high SSR of 3.8, but she compensates with her improved word salad skills on the field.”

  41. 41.

    MaryJane

    @srv:

    He’s right where he should be, declaring a major disaster and letting FEMA do its thing. Would you like for him to fly over Colorado then appear on teevee asking us to pray?

  42. 42.

    jl

    Oh, right this post is about Summers bowing out.

    Good.

    Better be Yellen now. I think she would be better than Summers anyway.

  44. 44.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    @Jeremy: Uh, well you can doubt all you want but there was more than enough that leaked out to know that that’s exactly what happened. Obama definitely wanted Rice, that part was no secret. Then there were articles quoting McCain saying that he told Obama that Kerry would be “an easy confirmation”. Then Kerry was nominated. So you can imagine that Obama didn’t want Rice, and preferred Kerry all along, but not many others will do so with you.

  47. 47.

    karen

    @srv:

    So you’re blaming Obama for the floods or for not being there right away? Why don’t you blame Obama if you get a cold while you’re at it PUMA.

  50. 50.

    jl

    I think in macroeconomics and trade policy, Obama is basically a moderate conservative, who still believes some of the more and more discredited Washington Consensus and Great Moderation foo-fah.

    So, it wouldn’t surprise me if Obama sincerely believed that Summers was the better choice on the merits. I don’t know about the rumors Obama wanted a team player, but I’ve heard enough Bill Clintonesque wrong headedness from Obama to think it likely he thought Summers was best choice.

  51. 51.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    @jl: Yes, I’m not a fan of the “11-dimensional chess” silliness, but I do prefer it to someone like McCain beating his 11-dimensional chest all over the place. Which he still gets to do even though he lost in 2008, because the news media never gets tired of swinging to the right.

  52. 52.

    MomSense

    Wow, I just told a friend of mine on Friday that I thought Summers would withdraw. Once Warren said she wouldn’t support his nomination I guessed that he would want to avoid an embarrassing confirmation kerfuffle.

  53. 53.

    fuckwit

    @dmsilev: Get a Kickstarter/Indiegogo going for that motherfucker. I will help set up the website if you want to manage the content. I think it could be done like PolitiFact. It’ll take time and money though.

  56. 56.

    jl

    @Ben Franklin:

    ” Does it really matter who leads the atavistic FED? Time to re-boot the entire system. ”

    What are the chances of a reboot in the right direction any time soon? In the meantime, I will take what I can get, and Yellen would be an excellent choice.

  57. 57.

    El Tiburon

    So, awesome news and Sis-boom-bah Rah Rah team and all of that.

    But here’s the rub: Obama WANTED to nominate Summers. Why? And is it not confounding and frustrating?

    Take Syria. Please. Now Obama seems to be getting the credit for choosing peace. Didn’t he just kind of ass-backwards his way into this via a John Kerry fuck-up?

    Seems to me without this pesky fucking thing called the internet and blogs and people power, Obama would send some missiles over and have Summers as Fed Chief.

    WTF? Is it just me?

  58. 58.

    Jeremy

    @Bill E Pilgrim: I don’t doubt that he wanted Rice to take a higher post in foreign policy/ National security matters. There were rumors that she could be picked as National Security Advisor as well. My point is that John Kerry was talked about dating back to the first term and was picked as the front runner after Obama won re-election.

  59. 59.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    @Dee Loralei: Why thank you.

    I was disappointed that no one got my truth/Pravda joke in the one before that, but then that’s me, focusing on the negative.

  61. 61.

    fuckwit

    @nineone: If it wasn’t for Elizabeth Warren and good-size chunk of Democratic Senators sending a letter stating that they wouldn’t confirm him, yeah.

    It’s not chess, it’s Obama just being a decent guy. He defended Summers when he was attacked. Summers did his duty during the crisis, and Obama wasn’t going to turn his back on him. He just let the situation run its course. Summers eventually said he decided of his own will– and I take him at his word that it was because he knew the confirmation battle would be ugly– to back out. Now Obama has a free hand to nominate someone else, and yeah it could be Yellen, or it could be some Wall Street toolbag, who knows.

    I sure hope it’s Yellen though.

  63. 63.

    JPL

    @El Tiburon: Kerry did not say he made a gaffe, the news media did.
    As for Summers, I assume he was notified that he would not be picked. I never heard the President say he was the nominee. The news media is funny about reporting facts and all. .

  66. 66.

    Jeremy

    @El Tiburon: Yeah because the negro was forced by emo bloggers on the internet. Okay !

    Well we don’t know if he was going to be picked. The President said many times that he hasn’t made a final decision and that both candidates were qualified. I recall the media saying that that Obama is going to pick Summers for the head of the World Bank and the emos went along with it. When he picked someone from left field the same people who were howling said nothing.

  67. 67.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    @Bill E Pilgrim:

    Obama may have wanted Rice, but I didn’t see a whole lot of evidence that Rice wanted the job. She said all along that the job she really wanted was National Security Advisor, and she got that after publicly saying she did NOT want to be SoS.

    Are the wishes of the people involved no longer important and they have to take the jobs we want them to because we know better?

  68. 68.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    @Jeremy:

    Maybe all of the people from the Administration leaking that Obama had made his choice, and it was Susan Rice, and that he withdrew the idea after the Republicans shut it down, were just making it up. Or all these people who they leaked it to just made it up. Possible. Not likely though, in my humble opinion anyway.

    Kerry’s name being floated long before that doesn’t affect whether she was his choice when the time came. And it was more than clear that she was. Just saying.

  70. 70.

    Jeremy

    @JPL: The guy is going along with old talking points. It’s been reported over and over again by numerous news agencies that Obama and Kerry have talked about this chemical weapons proposal for some time. Even the Russians confirmed it.

  71. 71.

    Sly

    @MaryJane:

    Would you like for him to fly over Colorado then appear on teevee asking us to pray?

    Obama must resign, throw himself in jail, and toss the keys to the White House to a patriotic defender of liberty like David Duke or the reanimated corpse of George Lincoln Rockwell. Anything less is unacceptable.

  73. 73.

    askew

    I think it is pretty obvious that Obama told Summers he wasn’t getting the nod and let him withdraw his name to save face. Same thing happened with Susan Rice. Obama may like Summers but I am not sure that he was going to get the nomination. It looks like Janet Yellen, Donald Kohn and Roger Ferguson seem to be the frontrunners now. After reading about each, Yellen seems like the best choice.

  75. 75.

    Villago Delenda Est

    To say my heart is broken would be an overstatement.

    To say my heart is in danger of overextending itself due to doing the conga is more accurate.

  76. 76.

    Keith P

    McCain: “What happened to the red line?”
    Obama: “What happened is, you lost the election, while I get to do whatever the hell I want. And I wanted to give peace a chance, so get off *my* lawn, old man.”

  77. 77.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone): Huh? Susan Rice went on a widely-reported “charm offensive” designed to get the Secretary of State job, and made it perfectly clear how disappointed she was when she had to withdraw.

    I swear, some of you will twist anything, even the most obvious and well-documented things, to try to make every single decision that Obama ever made into something wise and flawless. It’s just amazing.

    And now, off to sleep.

  78. 78.

    jl

    @El Tiburon:

    ” Didn’t he just kind of ass-backwards his way into this via a John Kerry fuck-up? ”

    I don’t think anyone who was not involved directly knows.

    Putin surely did not come in and ‘rescue’ Obama for charity’s sake.

    Unless some one believes that the deal is bad because diplomacy is always worse than dropping bombs because the U.S. will always get cheated in diplomacy, so far the developments have been swift and good.

    Maybe Obama was pursuing dual tracks in hopes one of them would pan out.

    How could Obama know how Putin would respond to suggestions about getting a diplomatic deal done? If Putin and his people are sincere, they made a positive response because they think there is some reason to try to get the Syrian mess under control, maybe by keeping as much of it as possible under Assad’s regime, if not Assad himself. I wouldn’t make any bets that such on outcome will be worse than continuing civil war or some or the rebel factions winning out in post-Assad Syria.

  79. 79.

    Yatsuno

    @SFAW:

    Give the left have someone they want?

    ]

    Might as well, but it won’t keep them from bitching about it.

    @Sly: You fergot nullifying every law signed by him since January 2009. Only then can the rightful order be re-established.

  81. 81.

    different-church-lady

    Dammit, another hyper-liberal chew toy taken away! Is there no end to this man’s cruelty?

  82. 82.

    srv

    @karen:

    Why don’t you blame Obama if you get a cold

    Aren’t liberals entitled to everything?

    @AxelFoley: Did not quite derail a thread of Obots dragging the President down over the Summers inanity.

    @Bill E Pilgrim: I find it quite ludicrous that anyone could possibly think that John Kerry’s BFF in the Senate would ever cravenly try to derail a President’s first choice for SoS over such a serious issue as Benghazi.

  83. 83.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Well, Obama’s done it now. He’s put actual results ahead of “style points”, and said so to Villager dimwit George Stephanopolous.

    In Georgetown, there will be much gnashing of teeth as the tiger shrimp and cocktail weenies are served.

  84. 84.

    Fair Economist

    I don’t understand why Summers felt he needed to make this announcement. Yellen is the best-qualified candidate ever, based on her outstanding track record in difficult circumstances, so for Obama to pick her over him would handly be disrespectful to Summers. There’s no need for Summers to protect Obama from a sense he doesn’t stick up for his friends. In what way does Summers need to protect Obama from some obligation to pick him? Or is this some variant of “you can’t fire me, I quit?”

  85. 85.

    The Dangerman

    @fuckwit:

    That’s the most artistic trolling I’ve ever seen. Well played.

    A perfect Triple (Frank) Luntz in the Ass Dancing competition.

  90. 90.

    Cacti

    I think the POTUS should propose legislation to abolish the government and name Janet Yellen our philosopher queen, seeing as she’s the most qualified person in the history of anything anywhere.

  92. 92.

    different-church-lady

    Didn’t see this coming:

    After this week isn’t time for a whole bunch of people around here to admit there’s a whole lot of things they don’t see coming on a regular basis?

  93. 93.

    jl

    @Cacti: Absolutely. We could get it done by having Obama oppose her for any position, even dog catcher in East Nowwherevtown, and then try to get her kicked off the FED Board of Guvs.

    The House GOP would pass a bill making her absolute dictator philosopher queen.

    Then Obama could secretly ask Reid to get it through the Senate, sign, and then resign and turn himself at the county jail for his incarceration for breaking every law on the books.

  94. 94.

    Ben Franklin

    @Cacti:

    Now the emo progs will have to imagine a new outrage.

    Christ. We only have three more years of lame-duckery. Is there time?

  95. 95.

    Cacti

    @different-church-lady:

    After this week isn’t time for a whole bunch of people around here to admit there’s a whole lot of things they don’t see coming on a regular basis

    If they do, it will be in the most petulant way possible.

    See Betty Cracker’s post from yesterday for reference.

  96. 96.

    gogol's wife

    @Cacti:

    Yes, why is she such a progressive savior? I haven’t seen anything to indicate that, other than her being female.

  98. 98.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    @Bill E Pilgrim:

    There were stories at the time that Rice really wanted the NSA job — she originally wanted it in 2008, but Obama asked her to take the UN Ambassador job instead. But, hey, you’re going to live inside your little anti-Obama bubble no matter what the facts are, so I probably shouldn’t bother.

  99. 99.

    jl

    I have been studying the Obama 11D chess grandmaster method of reality management since he was nominated. Now I plan everything out in detail far ahead of time. Sometimes it looks like total chaos, serial fiasco, and bathetically poor life management skills on my part. To mere humans.

    But I am never surprised and always get what I want.

    Look for a BJ ad soon linking to my video infomerecial for it.

  103. 103.

    Jeremy

    @Cacti: They can’t. Too many liberals live to be disappointed even when we win. Always looking for betrayals which is why they are never happy with a democratic president.

  105. 105.

    different-church-lady

    @jl: As far as I can tell, most of the people who use the chess analogy have no idea how to play chess. Because if they did, they’d realize it’s utterly impossible to plan out an entire game of chess ahead of time.

  106. 106.

    dogwood

    For a group of people who bitch and moan about the incompetence of the MSM all the time to rely on stupid inside the beltway quasi reporting to affirm their narratives about what Potus wanted to do or is going to do is really telling. People believe what they want to believe, and the tea party sure isn’t alone when it comes to this kind of magical thinking.

  113. 113.

    The Sheriff's A Ni-

    @different-church-lady: The first and most heinous sin is admitting that Your Tribe is wrong. If Obama is right, therefore the Obots are right, and thus I was wrong. If I was wrong then I was not Fucking Right and since I am always Fucking Right then it must be Obama and the Obots that are wrong despite what reality tells me.

    Conversely, if Obama is wrong, therefore the Emoprogs are right, and thus I was wrong. If I was wrong then I was not Fucking Right and since I am always Fucking Right then it must be the Emoprogs that are wrong despite what reality tells me.

    This sums it all up:

    Seems to me without this pesky fucking thing called the internet and blogs and people power, Obama would send some missiles over and have Summers as Fed Chief.

    Reality? Viable solutions? Finding common ground? Fuck you, its all about My Tribe Being Fucking Right and Your Tribe Being Fucking Wrong. You could replace 90% of the discussion with that and nothing would change.

  114. 114.

    Ahh says fywp

    The luckiest man in America and fortunes favored, and I don’t refer to his marrying Michelle….

    Yes, some guys have all the luck. Obama’s a more ferocious mad jobber than Batman. God is fixing the dice in his favor.

    &so on, &so forth @Baud:

  115. 115.

    nineone

    @fuckwit: Well, if it was (soon to be) President Warren then it’s okay. I love her fire, and the way she breeds uncertainty in the hearts of conservatives everywhere. She’ll be torturing those bastards for years to come, FSM willing.

    As for the President of the present, I’m sure whatever he decides it’ll be just fine. :: ducks tomatoes, hissing cats ::

  117. 117.

    Anne Laurie

    @El Tiburon:

    Seems to me without this pesky fucking thing called the internet and blogs and people power, Obama would send some missiles over and have Summers as Fed Chief.

    Wouldn’t it be nice to believe we had that kind of power? Or any kind of power?

    I do (obviously) think that the uproar around Summers’ unsuitability affected his choice to withdraw. But I don’t want to overstate “our” influence, and come off as silly as the perpetual cheerleaders who act as though failing to hosanna every political twist in the Great Strategery will cause the crops to fail and the cattle to die of a murrain.

  119. 119.

    Ahh says fywp

    Cacti:

    You know, I think he used the progs. By floating (leaking) Summers’ name, he could gauge how much hes actually hated, while sticking up for his old buddy, old pal in public.

    Ultimately the opposition was real and severe (serious ppl were involved).

    Obama has learned from his opposition and uses their moves to his advantage.

    Had reaxtion to Summers been minor or meh he would have sailed right through.

  120. 120.

    askew

    @Anne Laurie:

    Ah, there is the bitter PUMA. No wonder you are bummed you have to find another reason to attack Obama now that he isn’t picking Summers as Fed Chair.

  125. 125.

    dogwood

    @The Sheriff’s A Ni-:

    Well said! While I would never discount the racism that energizes so much of the Republican Party, I think a lot of it is tribal. They can’t defend George W, so the only thing they can do is try to convince themselves and others that Obama is worse. When the leader of your tribe has been disgraced and you can’t rehabilitate him, you turn all your energies into disgracing the opposition.

  126. 126.

    jl

    @different-church-lady:

    But you haven’t seen my infomercial yet…

    But I was just joking around with that comment.

    I don’t see how it is humanly possible to successfully plan out difficult diplomatic problems in advance. Unless Obama is a mind reader, how could he know Putin’s response to some proposals in an off-the-record meeting?

    And with Kerry (and Biden’s) supposed gaffes, it’s hard to know what was really going on. If you wanted to send a hint or send up a trial balloon, using a known gaffer to gaffe it out might be a good strategy. On the other hand, Kerry can gaffe.

    Like one commmenter said a few day ago, it will make interesting reading in 20 years.

    Edit: but as Eisenhower said, more or less ‘Plans mean nothing, but planning is everything.” I have no doubt Obama thought things through as thoroughly as possible.

  127. 127.

    El Tiburon

    @JPL:

    The news media is funny about reporting facts and all. .

    You know that is fair enough.

    But with all of the radio chatter it sure seemed Summers was Obama’s man. And no doubt Obama was certainly taking a very Bushesque posture towards Syria – not to mention Kerry and all of their supporters were definitely set on missile strikes.

    Perhaps Kerry didn’t gaffe, I don’t know. But why didn’t the administration come out day one with that proposal of turning over all chemical weapons? And while we are at it, if chemical weapons are the Big Red Line, then why don’t we go after every single manufacture of chemical weapons across the planet?

  128. 128.

    The Sheriff's A Ni-

    Back to the discussion at hand, I don’t think it got past this Oval Office that Liz Warren would be leading a charge against Summers. Whether Obama was doing his old buddy Summers a solid or having him thrust upon him by the Village, who knows. Whatever the situation, I believe he was dead candidate walking all along and I’m very glad he won’t be running the Fed.

  130. 130.

    El Tiburon

    @jl:

    How could Obama know how Putin would respond to suggestions about getting a diplomatic deal done?

    That’s not the point. I’m not saying Kerry said what he said hoping Putin would go along. In fact I doubt anyone thought Putin would go along. Kerry said it – Putin accepted – therefore Obama pretty much HAD to accept up to some point or otherwise totally be painted as a warmonger.

  131. 131.

    different-church-lady

    @El Tiburon:

    And no doubt Obama was certainly taking a very Bushesque posture towards Syria

    “We don’t have to bomb right now” is not a Bushesque posture.

  135. 135.

    Starfish

    Guys, can we stop with being politically belligerent over the relief effort that is ongoing? Some of us live in the affected area.

    FEMA money was available for the municipalities affected by the floods yesterday, and people are able to apply for help today. That seems pretty fast compared to what went on with Katrina.

    Some of us actually live in the area affected by this storm.

  136. 136.

    El Tiburon

    @Anne Laurie:

    Wouldn’t it be nice to believe we had that kind of power? Or any kind of power?

    Perhaps not directly. But the fact remains if we had to rely on the traditional media to “remind” us of all of the truly horrible things Larry Summers has done, we wouldn’t know shit. The traditional media would do the normal blow job of this guy and most of middle America wouldn’t know the difference. Perhaps even a lot of members of Congress wouldn’t know either.

    Look, I may be overstating it, but I think when you have the liberal blogosphere uniting on these issues, I think the echo reaches the halls of Congress and I think it matters. A Lot.

    Before blogs, only the truly comitted and tuned in wouild think to call their congress person. Now you have blogs reminding their daily readers to CALL RIGHT NOW and giving out the phone number.

    So, don’t sell yourself short Judge Smails.

  139. 139.

    rp

    It is truly amazing that the sight of liberals celebrating Obama’s victories pisses off people like AL and BC on some deep, emotional level. I just don’t get it.

  140. 140.

    Bill Arnold

    @PeakVT:

    Here’s the letter Summers sent to Obama.

    That was an elegant and concise withdrawal letter. And I think sincere, though opinions will differ.

  141. 141.

    danielx

    “I have reluctantly concluded that any possible confirmation process for me would be acrimonious and would not serve the interest of the Federal Reserve, the Administration or, ultimately, the interests of the nation’s ongoing economic recovery.”

    Shorter: I’m not going to be pilloried and have rotten produce thrown at me by my intellectual inferiors, not even for my Wall Street asshole buddies.

  142. 142.

    El Tiburon

    @different-church-lady:

    “We don’t have to bomb right now” is not a Bushesque posture.

    Obama wasn’t going to Congress to ask for permission for tea and crumpets. The only rhetoric I seemed to hear was about bombing Syria.

    They were using ‘secret’ intel from our intelligence sources that had a lot of questions swirling about. The UN had not completed their inspection. They were in a rush. Bill Richardson even called for a ‘coalition of the willing’ on the Chris Hayes show.

    Obama wanted (or at least that was his intended position) to bomb Syria. Period.

  145. 145.

    askew

    @rp:

    It is truly amazing that the sight of liberals celebrating Obama’s victories pisses off people like AL and BC on some deep, emotional level. I just don’t get it.

    I wouldn’t lump BC and AL together. Anne Laurie is a full-on PUMA who has never gotten over Hillary losing to THAT ONE, while Betty’s pretty reasonable but has her nose bent out of shape because she was wrong on Syria.

  146. 146.

    Cacti

    @El Tiburon:

    Look, I may be overstating it, but I think when you have the liberal blogosphere uniting on these issues, I think the echo reaches the halls of Congress and I think it matters. A Lot.

    You’re overstating it by a mile.

    If the internet left had the sort influence they imagine themselves having when they piss in the wind and whine on their blogs, we’d have President Howard Dean, Senator Ned Lamont, and Congresswoman Darcy Burner.

  147. 147.

    Bill Arnold

    @El Tiburon:

    WTF? Is it just me?

    Politics, as it is played, involves giving your representative players something to work with. FDR is famously quoted as saying “I agree with you, I want to do it, now make me do it.” (There is some argument about whether the meeting and statement actually happened).
    In the Summers case, the outcries (which were spread across the spectrum) plus (mainly) the Senate nays were deciding.
    I have no clear idea yet what went on with the Syria gas attacks response, and most of us don’t. Arguments that it was blundering by a feckless Obama administration are speculation, without detailed knowledge of whatever private negotiations were happening. Similarly, it is speculation that it was a well-choreographed good-cop/bad-cop routine. (My intuition suggests the later but it feels unreliable.)

  148. 148.

    Cacti

    @askew:

    Anne Laurie is a full-on PUMA who has never gotten over Hillary losing to THAT ONE,

    Before Miss Hilly, she was sucked in by Johnny hedge fund Edwards and his duplicitous two americas drivel.

  149. 149.

    Elizabelle

    Relieved it’s not Summers.

    Saw NYT alert on my iPhone and breathed a true sigh of relief.

    Thank you immensely, Senators Elizabeth Warren, Sherrod Brown and Jeff Merkley. You did good.

  150. 150.

    askew

    @Anne Laurie:

    But I don’t want to overstate “our” influence, and come off as silly as the perpetual cheerleaders who act as though failing to hosanna every political twist in the Great Strategery will cause the crops to fail and the cattle to die of a murrain.

    You are overstating it. The liberal blogosphere is made up of a small number of people spread across the country most of whom are too damn lazy to do more than bitch on blogs about politics (myself included). The liberal blogosphere may have had some minor influence with the Democratic Party back in 2007 before the Obama campaign went around them to build their own internet network. It showed the party that the blogs were irrelevant and there was no point even pretending to listen to them anymore. That plus the rise of Facebook and twitter usage for politics made the blogs even more irrelevant.

    On a side note, the liberal blogs were not united in opposing Summers. Brad DeLong and The People’s View for example both wanted Summers to get the nod.

  152. 152.

    askew

    @Cacti:

    Before Miss Hilly, she was sucked in by Johnny hedge fund Edwards and his duplicitous two americas drivel.

    Ah, that along with some of her questionable posts regarding ABL explains so much.

  153. 153.

    Bill Arnold

    @Ben Franklin:

    Imagine the ease of elebenty-dimensional checkers.

    Checkers actually has quite a bit of depth. Strong players are often thinking 15-20 moves ahead (roughly; I’m not a strong player; wrote a decent program once). It was only recently solved (from the starting position, though not from all starting sequences as far as i know), and only then because the board is small.
    Now, 11 dimensional Go, on a 23**11th board, that would be very difficult for a god-like intelligence.

  154. 154.

    Anne Laurie

    @Bill Arnold:

    Now, 11 dimensional Go, on a 23**11th board, that would be very difficult for a god-like intelligence.

    Ah, the notorious “Hand of God” move! (I am not a gamer, but Hikaru no Go is a great anime series even for those of us who have no other exposure to the world’s oldest board game.)

  155. 155.

    Jeremy

    El Tiburon doesn’t understand that this deal to remove chemical weapons from Syria came from the administration. It was talked about last year and this year including at the G20. The fact that you compare Obama to Bush shows that you are not serious. Obama used the threat of force to bring the parties to the table and he got a deal. Why do you think he delayed the threat of a strike by asking for a vote from Congress which would have come after the G20 ?

    It’s not rocket science and if you read the reporting from top news agencies you would know that this idea was on the table. But I guess hating on that dumb, shiftless negro Obama (snark) is more important.

  157. 157.

    Joey Maloney

    @different-church-lady:

    As far as I can tell, most of the people who use the chess analogy have no idea how to play chess. Because if they did, they’d realize it’s utterly impossible to plan out an entire game of chess ahead of time.

    It’s possible, if your opponents are ignorant fools, who don’t really understand the rules and can only repeat the same series of moves by rote. To quote C.J. Cregg, “Does this sound like a job for the U.S. House of Representatives?”

  158. 158.

    MomSense

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Summers is one of those guys that is going to be on the short, short list because of all his ties with the Dem party, because of all the people he mentored over the years, and because there aren’t that many people in serious contention for that post.

    As soon as Warren said no, I figured he would not want to go through the humiliation. He is actually quite thin skinned.

  159. 159.

    dogwood

    @different-church-lady:
    Fair point. Some of the hyper-progressive anti-Obama left are ideologues, and ideologues only care about being right. There is one thing to do and one way to do it; outcomes are irrelevant. It’s a fairly small tribe and their leaders tend to be people who never have power, but they are loyal nonetheless. Some of the anti-Obama left simply don’t like the president for a variety of reasons and especially disdain those who do. They seem like run of the mill contrarians to me.

  160. 160.

    Jeremy

    @jl: The problem with the gaffe talk is that it wasn’t a gaffe. It has been talked about and reported numerous times that the President and Kerry have talked about this proposal several times. So can we stop with the gaffe talk when it’s been confirmed by everyone.

  161. 161.

    boss bitch

    @Keith P:

    Obama hasn’t said ONE WORD about Ray Kelly since that ONE TIME. Just like with Susan Rice and even Larry Summers. Ask Obama a question, he answers. Then the media goes and speculates with ABSOLUTELY nothing else besides that ONE comment.

  162. 162.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @El Tiburon: Seems to me without this pesky fucking thing called the internet and blogs and people power,

    O, congratulations. Now go get Boehner out of the Speaker’s office.

  168. 168.

    dogwood

    @MomSense:
    One of the things people seem to forget is that Elisabeth Warren is not an anti- Obama Democrat no matter how fervently some might want to believe it. She is a product of this administration. Summers was a part of this administration but not a product of it. This idea that Summers is Obama’s good buddy and Warren is a complete outsider seems ridiculous to me. I assume she wrote the letter to the President expecting him to take it seriously because he actually does take her seriously. There is a certain kind of irony in the fact that the woman who republicans thought they could run out of town by refusing to confirm is now doing the same to Summers. Lucky for us he couldn’t get elected to the town council, let alone congress.

  170. 170.

    MomSense

    @dogwood:

    One of the things people seem to forget is that Elisabeth Warren is not an anti- Obama Democrat no matter how fervently some might want to believe it.

    Such a great point. They work well together and her message is very much the same message of his campaigns–especially 2008.

  172. 172.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    @different-church-lady:

    Primarily Pre-Code.  I will probably also occasionally talk about the independent producer/directors who were able to operate outside of the Code (like Samuel Fuller and Oscar Micheaux) and I’ll probably do some comparison of Pre-Code and Production Code versions of the same story (like the two versions of Imitation of Life).  But I think there’s plenty of coverage of Production Code movies out there already, so I probably won’t talk about them often.

    @Honus:

    I’m a she, so maybe not.  :-)  Though I will definitely be covering some of the more scandalous scenes and images from Pre-Code for others to enjoy on a different level.

  173. 173.

    dogwood

    @Jeremy:
    All good points, but you’re wasting your time. Anyone who thinks that over the last two years the international community and especially the US, Russia and Iran haven’t been taking about the problem Syria!s CW’s had the potential to impose is a complete moron or simply a political hack wedded to his or her own narrative. Do you think when Obama talked about the red line when it came to the use of CW’s the diplomatic community was shocked or.thought it came out of nowhere? Americans have a tendency to believe that world problems all begin when we start paying attention. You know, like WWI began in 1917 and WWII with the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

  174. 174.

    Keith G

    @El Tiburon: Gaffe or not, it was not part of the administration’s message at that point. We know that because the message people at the White House immediately began to downplay and walk it back. The best reporting is that it was probable a sarcastic type of “Yeah, let’s try that. I’m sure that (silly idea) will work.

    I hope it does work, but it does seem to be a four cushion bank shot on a warped table kind of thing. The one immediate result is that Asad (he who must go) gets more time to move , hide, and secure things. I think Asad’s and Putin’s plan is to borrow from the NRA playbook. Draw it out. make sure a lot of time passes. Let the emotions cool as Americans focus on the new season of Duck Dynasty and then depend that by November the American will for any vigorous response will be totally vaporized.

    The Syria issue has not been a shining moment for this administration, but it still may be able to get something okay for us – not for the poor fuckers who are the children of Syria since no one seems to give enough of a shit.

    That’s life.

  178. 178.

    Ted & Hellen

    Wow. This place becomes ever more bizarre.

    In what world is Betty Cracker denounced as an Obama-hater?

    Holy shit…the Obots have tilted the BJ universe into a parallel dimension of insanity.

    I find it all rather entertaining.

  179. 179.

    dogwood

    @Keith G:
    I’ like to know what a “shining moment” in Syria would actually look like. Shining moments in the Mideast are few and far between, and right now the entire region is a cluster fuck. I’m not sure it’s true that people don’t care about the Syrian people. I think the emotional energy it takes care about people who you have no way of helping is overwhelming so people tune it out. We went through this in Iraq. We essentially freed the Iraqis from SH and freed them up to start killing each other. Even if Assad goes the bloodbath will continue.

  180. 180.

    different-church-lady

    @askew:

    Brad DeLong and The People’s View for example both wanted Summers to get the nod.

    In the case of The People’s View, it was probably for no better reason than they thought Obama wanted him. If anyone actually fits the overused description of Obama-bot, it’s the folks at the The People’s View.

  181. 181.

    different-church-lady

    @El Tiburon:

    Moreover, the Chairman has indicated to me that our capacity to execute this mission is not time-sensitive; it will be effective tomorrow, or next week, or one month from now.

    My theory is going to congress was a stalling tactic. Wind up the sabers, but don’t release the catch, see what happens.

  182. 182.

    Bobby Thomson

    Good. Don’t care why. One of the rare instances when the devil I don’t know (I’m assuming Yellen will be asked to withdraw eventually, also, too, because shutup that’s why) just has to be preferable.

  184. 184.

    Davis X. Machina

    @cckids:

    Everybody do the happy dance.

    U3 at 5% by Christmas! And GDP growth at 4.5% in Q4!

    I mean, this was the only think holding it back, right?

    Borges called the Falklands conflict two bald men fighting over a comb.

    What happened today is the same basic idea applied to fiscal policy, and one of the bald guys bailed.

    Wow.

  186. 186.

    askew

    @different-church-lady:

    You are right about that. I was just objecting to the idea that every liberal blogger was against Summers nomination. That isn’t true. Doesn’t mean that I agree with DeLong or TPV but they do seem to want Summers to get that post.

  187. 187.

    dww44

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: No, Boehner doesn’t need to leave while the GOP majority, with a batsh..t insane Tea Party wing, is still in charge. Any other GOP’er likely to take his place is gonna be to the right of Boehner. and quite possibly an idealogue. Boehner is not an idealogue.

  188. 188.

    Jeremy

    @different-church-lady: I don’t think they (The Peoples View) wanted Summers. I think they were saying that people need to wait an see and stop overrating. But what do people expect when we have morons and children leading the debates in this country.

  189. 189.

    Jeremy

    @askew: I have commented on the Peoples View and many are not in support of Summers. They just didn’t like people buying into the idea that the President was going to pick him when he didn’t

  190. 190.

    serena1313

    I agree that President Obama is moderately conservative.

    From all appearances, President Obama does seem to sincerely respect Summers, but that does justify putting Summers on the Fed as chair given his abysmal record of making decisions on monetary policy and financial regulations that have been consistently wrong.

    Summers was instrumental in the deregulation of derivatives and the repeal of Glass-Steagall — both of which are at the core of the financial crisis.

    Summers also encouraged the bank mergers, now known as TBTF banks.

    And he sided with Ken Lay & Enron. That alone IMHO ought to give anyone pause.

    Those are but just a few examples. Don’t even get me started on Summers’ abrasiveness, arrogance and bullying nature.

    Anyhow, for President Obama to reward Summers whose ill-advised wrong-headed decisions and lack of foresight were part-and-parcel to what got us into this mess is utterly baffling.

  191. 191.

    cat48

    Screw the Dem Banking Comm. Members Whose Fee Fees would be hurt by Summers because THEY DO NOTHING FOR ME EVER & SET ON THEIR LITTLE BUTTS & WHINE CONTINUOUSLY & i GET NO JUDGES, NO NOMINEES, THE GOVT IS WAY UNDER STAFFED; NO JOBS BILL, NO MIN WAGE RAISE FROM THEM; NOTHING!! FECKLESS WHINERS WHO COME ON MSNBC WHEN THEY MIGHT HAVE TO VOTE ON SOMETHING THEY DON’T LIKE & WHINE, WHINE, WHINE. I WOULD WIPE OUT THE ENTIRE SENATE IF I COULD ALONG WITH THE HOUSE B/C NONE OF THEM HAVE DONE ANYTHING TO HELP ANYONE! ALL 535 OF THE BITCHES…………………

  192. 192.

    J

    @El Tiburon: Yes. It is just you. Because in the rest of the world we watched the president resist entering the Syria debacle for two years and then when war was a done deal blow the plans up and get to good w/out firing a single shot anf following up on a negotiated plan that has been in process for up to a year. Meanwhile, liberals totally killed any hope for Summers. I don’t have enough information to say that this is good or bad.

  193. 193.

    Jeremy

    @serena1313: The President said that many times that he didn’t make a final decision. Why do you guys always act like Obama is going to do something when it’s wasn’t clear what he would do. The media said that he would be pick Summers for the head of the World Bank and he didn’t.

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