The Exquisite Contrarian

Where W has it right: admitting some weaknesses and calling out an old President that made waves while he was in charge.

Where he got it wrong?  Saying it was OK for Dick Cheney to do the same thing.

Is it any wonder why this guy had a hard time understanding that the trees collectively made up the forest when he was the one in charge?

More of 43’s words right here.

From McCain: GOP willing to negotiate on health care | The Daily Caller – Breaking News, Opinion, Research, and Entertainment:

• McCain said “we want to negotiate and we want to get something done, but the majority of American people say we want you to start over.”

Of course “the American people” McCain’s referring to are saying this because they’re parroting almost everything the GOP’s been telling them to think and say.  We agree the bill requires substantial point-by-point review and potential a good amount of overhaul, but calling this a need to “start over” is a ridiculous, time consuming dive into the pool of semantics and marketing rather than a consensual drive toward a mutually acceptable end product.

Get Big Pharma capped, tort reform integrated, preventive care required and covered, and check fraud.  Done.

We definitely agree.  Outside a slightly petty interaction with Senator McCain, the President handled this meeting extremely well, even working hard to focus on key points of contention while avoiding for the most part any sign of conflict or ego in interactions with the GOP leadership.

• “He’s very much what we could call in academic circles a transformative leader,” said Drumm McNaughton, chairman and chief executive of the Washington-based Institute of Management Consultants. “When you have a political environment like ours that has become so difficult because of polarization, you can see he’s the right leader for the right time.  And that’s coming from a lifelong Republican.”

More at The Daily Caller.

And now he’ll be permanently banished from the GOP for even considering such a horrible act.  I guess he saw the writing on the wall when the entire GOP was outraged after he had the audacity to – gasp – hug the President.

Here’s a story regarding his possible next steps: Will Charlie Crist ditch the GOP?.

KeyBank a bailout lovin’ machine is already back to blowing wads of stupid money!  They’re even going to set the Guinness World Record for snuggies.

Do you think most Americans expected to have their health insurance costs hiked 39% in one year?  At best we’re talking poor management.  At worst… these guys are completely out of touch with reality and obviously have no idea what’s happening in Washington right this minute.

The exchange today between the President and Senator McCain seemed rather one-sided in favor of the senator.  The bottom line is this: Big Pharma’s sweetheart deals with the last two presidents are quite possibly going to bankrupt this country.  But hey, Pharma, thanks a bunch for all that ad money you sent our way.  Can’t wait to pay $500 for every prescription we need in the foreseeable future.  Eastern medicine, anyone?

More here: Obama and McCain spar in feisty exchange.

From Slate:

• Cheney lambasted the Obama administration’s efforts to try these sorts of terrorists as criminals in civilian court when they should be treated as “enemy combatants” and hauled before a military tribunal, preferably at Guantanamo.  ”It’s very important,” Cheney said, “to go back and keep in mind the distinction between handling these events as criminal acts, which was the way we did before 9/11, and then looking at 9/11 and saying, ‘This is not a criminal act. … That was an act of war.’ “But, in fact, this distinction has never been so clear-cut or mutually exclusive, not even during Cheney’s time as vice president after the Sept. 11 attacks.  Richard Reid, who tried to blow up a plane with a shoe-bomb three months after 9/11, was found guilty in a civilian court and is now serving a life sentence in a maximum-security federal prison. His prosecution occurred during George W. Bush’s presidency.  Karl asked Cheney how the Reid case was different from Abdulmutallab’s. Cheney replied that Reid “pled guilty,” so there was no need for a trial of one sort of another. This response skirted the issue of whether Reid should have been brought before a federal judge in the first place.

More: Dick Cheney isn’t fighting Barack Obama; he’s refighting his own long-lost battles..

Just when you thought we were past allowing the financial sector to develop risky, economy destroying derivatives the American financial industry is back at it once again:

• “Amid that uncertain state, Wall Street is chugging along as if the last few years were merely a blip. At Citigroup Inc., the financial innovators are readying a new, complex derivative that would act as kind of financial crisis insurance. Citigroup believes the derivative, dubbed CLX, won’t put Citi or taxpayers at risk, but they concede the contracts aren’t foolproof, a story we’ve heard before.”

More from this article: Worse than the US budget: the shadow financial industrial governmental complex.

• Hank Paulson, the former US Treasury Secretary, has apologised for saying the “British screwed” the US in failing to save Lehman Brothers at the height of the financial crisis.

Strong words from the man in charge of pulling the American (and some would say world) financial industry from the brink: more.