Teleprompters, Persistence and A Defense of AIG FP

So how do we insert a link on each page that references the teleprompter, taking people to an account of Dubya having a little earbud connected to a radio receiver during his first debate with Kerry?
Anybody here versed in the how-to's of rickrolling?

Yes, the President speaks well, but it's also true that some amusing teleprompter incidents have occurred in his time with the device. Is the right blogosphere obsessing too much? Yes.
.
That AIG op-ed is well-timed and needed more now than ever. Those morons in Congress probably don't even know WHY they're grandstanding. See Dodd.

Where does this idea come from that we have a finite amount of outrage and that we must conserve it lest we run out? This seems to be a popular sentiment that I do not understand.
.
Can I not be outraged at BOTH Joseph Cassano AND the greedy, reckless bastards he left behind? Can I not be outraged at BOTH AIG-FP AND their counterparties? Can I not be outraged at BOTH Bernie Madoff AND the SEC? Can I not be outraged at BOTH George Bush for creating the economic mess AND Barack Obama for perpetuating it?

The 'teleprompter' obsession certain qualifies as graping at straws I'm not sure what to make of the blog but this made me laugh out loud:
.
Huffington Post: Wait. He's about to say something. It sounds complicated. Apparently he is predicting we are going to have a "Good evening." See? The Obama Administration's policies are working already. One good evening begets another, and another.

MS –
.
1. sgwhiteinfla directed our attention to the DeSantis whine about two hours ago, where we discussed it at some length. It would help if you read the comments in your own blog.
.
2. It's "affecting," not "effecting."
.
3. The archaic Middle English term you meant to use is "methinks. "Me thinks" is just misuse of a pronoun and a verb.
.
C-

"Obama and his teleprompter."
.
Here is how this works Michael. The teleprompter thing is Rush's idea of a line of attack. Whether it makes sense as a line of attack is really beside the point. This is something for the portion of the American people who can easily disgest the soundbite journalism that the tv press has so efficiently prep them for over the years. This portion of Americans really don't want to think for themselves. They just know they want a reason to dislike or even hate the guy they see as a threat.
.
Rush knows that the conservative blogs will pick up on this meme and that way too many mainstream reporters follow what's being discussed on conservative blogs even if they don't listen to his show. That's were these so-called mainstream reporters get their memes to follow in the first place. They don't go to lefty or progressive blogs or even mainstream blogs and get their memes because this will get them into trouble and open to attack by the right. They have no fear of attacks from the left. Never had never will. Rush also knows that the press suffers greatly from group think. So he does not need a lot of mainstream reporters to pick up the stream. Just 1 or 2 will do the trick. Rush also does not need that many Americans to fall for this obvious manipulation either. He just needs a few to call in or ask reporters about it and the ball rolls from there.
.
RON FOURNIER is exhibit 1. An example to prove my point:
.
What kind of politician brings a teleprompter to a news conference?
.
A careful one.
.
President Barack Obama took no chances in his second prime-time news conference, reading a prepared statement in which he took both sides of the AIG bonus brouhaha and asked an anxious nation for its patience. . . . .
.
It was a carefully modulated statement, and Obama — relying on a familiar crutch — read it off a flat-screen monitor perched at the back of the East Room.
.
The teleprompter was no help during the question-and-answer session (reporters don't signal their intentions), but Obama was no less careful during that give and take. . . .
.
One of the few times he summoned raw emotion came after a reporter demanded to know why it took him so long to express outrage over the AIG executive bonuses.
.
"It took a couple of days because I like to know what I'm talking about before I speak."
.
Even better, he likes to have it up on the teleprompter.
.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090325/ap_on_go_pr_wh/obama_analysis

Michael Scherer:
.
...here we all are raging at the employees he left behind...
.
We're not "raging at the employees", that's the thing that the Beltway press corps keeps getting fundamentally wrong about the nature of the current outrage.
.
You are assuming something about peoples' anger that just isn't so, even though CEO Liddy would like you believe that these are the dynamics in question, and holds up printed death threat emails in supposed proof. But "raging at the employees" is not at all what is in the minds of people regarding AIG bonuses. You've subconsciously adopted the idea that "outrage" and "the mob" are synonymous. They're not.
.
Please read my letter for an exposition on what I believe are Americans' true sentiments:
.

To the Editors of the New York Times:
.
I read Mr. Jake DeSantis' resignation letter that strangely found its way onto the editorial pages of your newspaper, and I was puzzled and intrigued by the sentiments expressed in that letter.
.
Mr. DeSantis doesn't seem to take into account that his continued employment at AIG didn't simply depend on his willingness to work there, it depended on an unprecedented amount of taxpayer dollars injected into the company --without which, there would be no AIGFP.
.
While I certainly sympathize with Mr. DeSantis, in as much as that I take him at his word that the financial products with which he and his fellow employees at AIGFP were associated were not the cause of the company's misfortunes, it's very difficult to imagine another situation in which a firm that is one foot in the door of bankruptcy would continue to pay millions of dollars in bonuses to their employees as if nothing at all was happening to the company's cash flow.
.
It is this strange myopia with respect to the firm's financial situation, that seems to point to a disconnect between Mr. DeSantis' frustrations and the realities of a normally functioning labor market in a capitalist system. Perhaps this is our fault, as taxpayers, for not insisting that our government completely take the firm into receivership, dispose of its debts as safely as possible, and then put that firm back on the market for sale to its competitors.
.
Nobody who has previously worked for a profitable division at a company in desperate financial straits, and then who has been laid off with the rest of that division's workforce due to the firm's condition as a whole thinks of writing the New York Times to complain about the treatment they've received --unfair as that outcome may be. Neither does anyone who works their hardest right up until the very day that their entire company closes its doors due to the disastrous results of poor executive decision-making write to the New York Times to complain of the injustice inherent in that situation.
.
And yet, these two scenarios in which people, through no fault of their own, are suffering the unjust rewards of the asymmetrical nature of our capitalist system --a system in which we accept a certain amount of unfairness as necessary-- don't seem to enter Mr. DeSantis' mind as being comparable to his own.
.
Obviously, two wrongs don't make a right. It is not that taxpayers are insisting on deliberately visiting another unfairness upon Mr. DeSantis and his fellow Financial Products employees in retribution for the sins of others. .
It is, however, that taxpayers insist on AIGFP (and AIG the parent) function as if they were any other company whose continued existence was not the result of the commendable fruits of Mr. DeSantis' and other employees' daily efforts, but the result of an emergency redistribution of wealth. That means, in practice, that compensation must not be lavish at the expense of the company's bottom line, must necessarily be below prevailing wage standards, and must be as frugal as possible --commensurate with the firm's new struggle to escape taxpayers' debt. In short, taxpayers insist on AIGFP starting to behave as if they were any other company in this situation.
.
If, because of these eminently normal steps with respect to limiting compensation during a company's financial hard times, Mr. DeSantis chooses to leave AIGFP for greener financial products' pastures, he will re-enter a labor market that is the result of such proper --and unfair to him personally-- actions on the part of his employers. It will be one in which there exists recent downward pressure on wages for jobs like his, certainly. I can't imagine that any person familiar with our system of capitalism wouldn't agree that this is all as it should be.
.
I fail to understand how Mr. DeSantos' situation is more unfair, or significantly unfair in comparison to what happens in a contracting economy to millions of other individuals whose fortunes rise or fall sometimes with those of the organizations for which they are employed. The two exceptions, perhaps, being the gross injustice of AIGFP employees' jobs being saved by tens of billions of dollars of taxpayer dollars, and the odd lack of recourse for those millions of unemployed to the opinion pages of the New York Times.
.
Stuart Zechman, Manhattan

Michael, I checked your presser story:

Do you consider his "ocean liner" remark to be a gaffe? Speaking of which, the Top 10 Gaffe link is an embarrassment.

Then there's Ed Henry's question. I guess it must be something in the DC water system. Maybe you can explain how the AIG Bonus story represents Obama's "greatest public relations bungle"? This seems to be villager conventional wisdom, but it is not reflected in polls.

On a side note, I nominate NBC's Chuck Todd as the person who asked the dumbest question. I guess job loss, mortgage forclosure, state and local budget cuts don't represent suffering.

The AIG op-ed is a crock of bullsh*t. The guy who wrote his resignation letter and decided to publish it in the NYTimes works for AIGFP where the house of cards originated. Now he can say he had nothing to do with it, but really did you expect him to say anything less? Are we REALLY believe that Joe Cassano did EVERYTHING all by himself? Scherer seriously I don't expect much from you at this point but I would have at least thought you would have done some rudimentary ground work or maybe just use "teh google" to see of DeSantis is the saint that he claims in a self serving out of touch quote unquote "resignation letter". Maybe then you would have noticed that he actually got a promotion last year after the sh*t hit the fan.

.
http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS235753+24-Oct-2008+BW20081024
.
Am I really supposed to cry crocodile tears that the son of a b*tch that got a promotion after the house burned down is now mad because he didn't get a bonus for helping to clean up the ruins? Ruins that are being rebuilt with MY tax dollars? Especially when the same ass hole ADMITS that he has made such a sh*t load of money working for a company that imperils our whole financial system that him not having a job won't hurt him at all. PHUCK THAT MUTHAPHUCKA. And I mean that from the bottom of my heart.

Michael,

What to say to a totally erroneous blog about last nights "Press Conference". Can we spell B-O-R-I-N-G? Please correct me if I am wrong, but all I heard were the same campaign slogans and remarks from Obama that he has spewed out of his mouth for the past 2 years, nothing new. "Education, Socialist Healthcare, and Energy". Why didn't he answer the question posed "what if Cap and Trade is not included in the budget you propose, will you veto it?"
"What if Congress does not approve a large healthcare spending in the budget?" Will you veto the bill?
.
Simply saying you do not know what Congress is working on so far as the budget doesn't give me much hope that you DO know anything at all Mr President. It actually scares me to death to think we are in the greatest economic crisis of our lives and you Mr President do not know what is going on at all. Geithner doesn't specifically spell out his plans, and only speaks in generalities. All we get are Democrat talking points left over from the campaign.
.
No Michael. The Press Conference I witnessed was full of nothing. I suspect that the real reason Obama, who can be very eloquent in his talks, put on this show to get the people to turn off the TeeVee to a different channel, and watch "Hunting with the Herberts" on the Outdoor channel. The only channel not pre-empted for this farce. I think Obama is putting all of this time in front of the camera for the past 60 days simply to say, "I have been out there working on all of this and we cannot solve the banking problem. We will just have to "Nationalize" the banks now". "The stimulus just didn't work".
.
Hello Socialism. Hello Communism. Hello American People, wake up before it is too late!!!
.
Can impeachment hearings start before the 1st 100 days are completed? I hope there isn't a constitutional amendment that says we cannot.

Joe Bftsplk –
.
Here's your teleprompter link, and here's one for the earbud.
.

Heh heh heh.

[...] This weirds me out a little:  Michael Scherer of all people nails the teleprompter “issue”. I don’t really get all this gabbing about Obama and his [...]

Just FYI, Joe Klein just responded in the comments section of his thread. No, really, he did. Just go check it out. Im still in disbelief myself.

I'd also like to add that while AIG's Mr. DeSantis makes a good point about relative culpability within AIG-FP, I'm not willing to absolve him to the extent he seeks. Mr. DeSantis was an executive vice president at AIG-FP. He has a sophisticated understanding of financial products. Mr. DeSantis may not have been trading in credit default swaps, but did he have no idea that such trading was occurring? Did he not understand the extent of the trading? Did he not understand the exposure of the company? The risk to the country if there was failure? The impact that massive defaults would have on his own units?
.
I don't claim to know the answers to these questions. And clearly, by any measure, players like Joseph Cassano bear the lion's share of the culpability. But as we move forward as a country we need to make important decisions about regulations, oversight, etc. If Mr. DeSantis is telling us that companies like AIG cannot police themselves when units go rogue, then that is an important fact to know when we are discussing how to clean up this mess.

'As most of us have done nothing wrong, guilt is not a motivation to surrender our earnings. We have worked 12 long months under these contracts and now deserve to be paid as promised. None of us should be cheated of our payments any more than a plumber should be cheated after he has fixed the pipes but a careless electrician causes a fire that burns down the house.'
.
Should people that appear to have no understanding of the real workings and consequences of free-market capitalism really be given 'retention bonuses' at a financial institution? Mr DeSanto's company went BROKE. He seems to think that should only affect people who shower AFTER work.
.
SZ - nice letter. Your post led me to read the comments on Mr DeSanto's letter at the NY Times site. The gulf between the 'masters of the universe' and the rest of us is remarkable to see. One side is filled with a sense of entitlement while the other side is resentful and angry.

BREAKING!
.
Joe Klein becomes part of the solution to journalism's --and therefore America's-- problems by commenting directly in his own posts for the first time ever.
.
Dogs n cats living together!

The letter writer makes a perfectly rational argument except for one thing, his company is bankrupt. He was told his part of the business was shutting down, and then was offered a bonus to delay looking for a new job. Perfectly legitimate in my opinion. Unfortunately, the bomb went off before the exit strategy, and bonuses were paid, and they lost because the people are covering the mess made by all the unsecured bets now.

Contrast DeSantis' letter with this report on TYT
.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63M-rMfjfAU
.
The only difference between DeSantis' situaton and that guy's is that the guy they are talking about on TYT didn't get a bailout for his hedgefund. I have no sympathy for Desantis at all and in all reality his phony resignation letter makes me have a great level of contempt for the man.

The teleprompter obsession is of a piece with the frowns about laughing and filling out brackets - a return to Puritanism and an effort to keep Obama from looking good, in any way possible.
.
McCainFluffer - I thought it was commendable for Obama not to say "well that's the AG's job, not mine."

SG:
The DeSantis who wrote the op-ed was educated at M.I.T. Also, his first name is apparently not Anthony.
.
Beyond that, the issue with the bonuses is that recouping or refusing to pay them is apparently ILLEGAL, and the congressional goofballs attempting to get them back are trying to push what appears to be an unconstitutional law through. IMO, this is an attempt by Congress to make it look like they're doing something and maybe get a petty power grab in the process.
.
The fact that this guy is receiving close to a million dollars is objectionable. But the villain here (as opposed to the ivory tower blind guy) is CONGRESS.

Where is Joseph Cassano? I see him on a regular basis on the pages of TPM Muckraker, for one.
.
Those guys that do real reporting, you know? Reporters?
.

Another set of investigators is hot on the trail of Joseph Cassano, the man who walked away with a multi-million dollar golden parachute after spearheading the credit default swaps that brought down AIG.
.
Investigators for the House Oversight committee intend to interview Cassano about his role in the firm's collapse, and have already contacted his lawyer, a committee staffer told TPMmuckraker.

We need an exo-media to inform the media. They don't seem to know a f@cking thing.

Genuine unseriousness is being displayed on this "teleprompter" business. I don't recall any concern expressed by *anyone* of any political persuasion when conservatism's god-figure, Ron Reagan, read consistently off of his teleprompter. This is another example of how, as in the campaign, the "loyal" opposition has no clue how to campaign against, or deal with, Obama on substance.

I think it is important to praise MS for noting that the teleprompter meme is ridiculous. Although I agree with Cole that it "weirds me out a little" when MS fails to promote a stoopid RW talking point. I mean, I mean, what's up with that?

Look at Sgwhite with his Monday/Friday potty talk. Stay out of county, sg.

And geniuses, you really miss one point about the AIG bonuses. The federal government made its investment in Sept 2008. It said NOTHING about the bonuses. Then, after accepting the benefits of these people working until March, the government (i.e., Obama and the House) is deciding that the government should unilaterally alter the deal. Forget about the breaking of the employment contract entered into before the government took over, the government here is acting unconscionably. Had the people known in September that their contracts weren't going to be honored, they could have made decisions then about whether to continue.