What I’ve been saying all along:

This whole AIG fiasco — where the entire political class is suddenly screaming over bonuses paid to derivative traders in AIG’s financial-products division — is just a complete farce. What it really shows is how the government has completely bungled the AIG takeover. Blame the Bush administration and the Obama administration. It also shows, once again, why the government shouldn’t run anything, because it cannot run anything.

Etc., by the eminent Kudlow, who speaks with authority, vs. me, who just speaks.

Our leader has a change of heart:

Washington is by nature an hysterical place. (Remember those who chest-thumped the fall of Saddam’s statue only soon to claim they never supported the war?)

Still, it is quite striking that in the space of a mere 50 days, Obama & Co. have gone from “We are in 1932 and things are getting worse—unless” to “Things are not as bad as we think,” with choruses from the likes of Larry Summers on the dangers of talking down the economy and sowing fear.

That’s Victor Davis Hanson on “one of the most schizophrenic moments in recent memory.”  He asks, “What in the heck is going on?” and suggests three possibilities.

Meanwhile, cartoonist Ramirez has it pictured this way:

Say Rahm E. gave a million to his alma matter, which let’s say is NU (it’s not). Fine.  Say he gave $900G to Adler Planetarium.  Philanthropists do that and get good space in local papers. Say he adopts Milwaukee Avenue, as highway signs urge adopting stretches of highway, and coughs up another $8 million.  All of it would be fine. He did it all, in fact, but not with his own money. With other people’s money in his capacity as a Congress Member!

Writing from Oak Park, I must ask, What about our own man in DC, Danny K. Davis, who in 2006 preened himself and was warmly appreciated in a Village Hall town hall-style meeting, in a very expensive suit, bragging (and later being bragged about, I am sure) that he got us $400G to pay for considering capping the Eisenhower?

In DC, that jumbo ATM for the nation, Davis is the man from Illinois-7th, the entire West Side and beyond, for which he goes begging. For FY 2008, the year whence came earmarks in the just-presidentially-signed $410 billion spending bill (budget), Davis requested $3,935,000 as a solo endeavor, of $41,819,000 in all, including joint requests with other Congress members of $37,884,000.

Where else can a guy like him, who never worked at a for-profit job, get that kind of money to spread around — and preen himself on in a town-hall meeting? To be elected to Congress, ah, such a consummation to be wished! Such a bonanza for the public-spirited citizen in expensive suits!

Davis comes by his not-for-profit status honestly, having joined the socialist New Party by September 1998 and received its enthusiastic support. Indeed, he was praised by Democratic Socialists of America as “an old friend of DSA.” So was Obama, for that matter, who also enjoyed DSA support in his 1996 quest for a state senate seat.

But I digress. The point is that Davis can have no problem with earmarks, having lived off public money his whole professional life.

George Dubya’s farewell to the Marines, vs. Barack Obama’s first appearance as president:

Here we have an illuminating contrast: the United States Marines greeting President George W. Bush on Labor Day versus the Marines greeting President Obama at Camp Lejeune last week.  . . . .

They know who’s on their side.

————-

A day or so later:  A dissenting view of the two presumably telling videos comes from Greyhawk, of the milblog Mudville Gazette, who says it’s a put-up job: Obama’s audience was standing at attention, for one thing, and presumably you can’t get the spontaneity shown in the Bush video.  That and the paste-up nature of the contrasting video made Greyhawk, who is regularly cited by the libertarian Instapundit, very suspicious.

However, from Mrs. Greyhawk comes a link to Amy Proctor — hey, I’m just getting to know these folks myself — who runs the whole CNN video (at “Bottom Line Upfront”) and concludes it was an “embarrassing response” that Obama got.  It was the CNN anchor who called it “tepid,” remember.  I’d just as soon let the Greyhawks argue it out, but I am leaning (back) towards my initial reaction. 

Of course, I do think Obama is a disaster waiting to happen for us all, and that may influence me.  What do you think?

Cocky Locky is finding matters more complicated than he thought:

Sources close to the White House say Mr Obama and his staff have been “overwhelmed” by the economic meltdown and have voiced concerns that the new president is not getting enough rest.

British officials, meanwhile, admit that the White House and US State Department staff were utterly bemused by complaints that the Prime Minister should have been granted full-blown press conference and a formal dinner, as has been customary. They concede that Obama aides seemed unfamiliar with the expectations that surround a major visit by a British prime minister.

Oh that British visit.  There’s hostility to the Brits among staff:

The real views of many in Obama administration were laid bare by a State Department official involved in planning the Brown visit, who reacted with fury when questioned by The Sunday Telegraph about why the event was so low-key.

The official dismissed any notion of the special relationship, saying: “There’s nothing special about Britain. You’re just the same as the other 190 countries in the world. You shouldn’t expect special treatment.”

On the other hand,

The apparent lack of attention to detail by the Obama administration is indicative of what many believe to be Mr Obama’s determination to do too much too quickly.

We know what that is: transform the economy into Euro-style low-growth stagnancy, with comcomitant 30% drop in living standards (says Michael Boskin of Stanford and Hoover Institution in Wall St. Journal).

The Sunday Telegraph understands that one of Mr Obama’s most prominent African American backers, whose endorsement he spent two years cultivating, has told friends that he detects a weakness in Mr Obama’s character.

“The one real serious flaw I see . . . is that he thinks he can manage all this,” the well-known figure told a Washington official, who spoke to this newspaper. “He’s underestimating the flood of things that will hit his desk.”

A Democratic strategist, who is friends with several senior White House aides, revealed that the president has regularly appeared worn out and drawn during evening work sessions with senior staff in the West Wing and has been forced to make decisions more quickly than he is comfortable.

He’s gonna trip one of these days, and the bloom will be off the rose.

Rush Limbaugh wants the president to fail because of how the president defines success — not as rapid economic recovery but as strengthening his Demagog Party by making government grow. 

Of course.  The more the government helps people and institutions, the more powerful is government.  Depend on it.

Some columnizing here on an important subject:

Ladies and gentlemen of the central Oak Park chapter of Catholics and other Americans United for Separation of Abortion and Legality be seated. It’s time once again to engage in our favorite pastime, playing God! (Cheers, applause from small group huddled in church basement.)

We gather as usual to say we know when the unborn acquire rights, even if Obama as candidate has professed ignorance in the matter. Above his pay grade, he said. Let us for the sake of argument say we’re not sure either. Calling on an old but golden argument, let us consider what to do in such uncertainty, asking our president to join us.

. . . .