Two days ago, Obama was reeling from the loss of Teddy Kennedy’s Senate seat to a Republican in what has been a staunch Democrat seat since before time; one speech and he is back on track. His proposals on bank reform will be universally popular simply because, just everybody hates Wall Street. Commentators were suggesting that these proposals are no done deal as they have to pass Congress, but it is hard to see any members of that august institution standing up for the banks. Let’s not forget the epithet attached to Goldman Sachs: a vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity.
Two days ago, Obama suggested that he had been too focused on policy and not enough on connecting with voters. Wrong, he was too focused on the wrong policies. Voters have been aching for some substantive reform of financial institutions since they first bailed them out and then watched aghast as they declared massive profits and equally huge bonuses. Talk about making yourself a target! Bank reputation managers have done a woeful job of presenting Wall Street institutions as contrite and capable of self control. As the Economist remarked a few months ago it is not pretty seeing a whole sector committing political suicide.
For Obama, mired in Healthcare reform which has become increasingly partisan and confusing, resolving financial services reform is both long hanging fruit and popular with the electorate. Here is something that everybody agrees needs to be done. It could be argued that the administration’s failure to act on financial services was the problem all along. Voters felt that banks had not felt the pain like the rest of country and it even looked as though Obama and his “wonk” regime wasn’t going to do anything about it. Timothy Geithner hardly came across as compelling.
The challenge for Obama is whether he can really push this through. His mandate was change and yet that change has become bogged down in increasingly partisan squabbles. Can he build cross-party support for his plans. Using Paul Volcker was a clever touch: he clearly knows his finance, he has been a stern critic of policy and Wall Street and yet he is no liberal softy. Here is the man who solves the inflation problem in the 1980s.
Obama has chosen his battleground well: now he just needs victory.
Obama – Pure Genius!
Two days ago, Obama was reeling from the loss of Teddy Kennedy’s Senate seat to a Republican in what has been a staunch Democrat seat since before time; one speech and he is back on track. His proposals on bank reform will be universally popular simply because, just everybody hates Wall Street. Commentators were suggesting that these proposals are no done deal as they have to pass Congress, but it is hard to see any members of that august institution standing up for the banks. Let’s not forget the epithet attached to Goldman Sachs: a vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity.
Two days ago, Obama suggested that he had been too focused on policy and not enough on connecting with voters. Wrong, he was too focused on the wrong policies. Voters have been aching for some substantive reform of financial institutions since they first bailed them out and then watched aghast as they declared massive profits and equally huge bonuses. Talk about making yourself a target! Bank reputation managers have done a woeful job of presenting Wall Street institutions as contrite and capable of self control. As the Economist remarked a few months ago it is not pretty seeing a whole sector committing political suicide.
For Obama, mired in Healthcare reform which has become increasingly partisan and confusing, resolving financial services reform is both long hanging fruit and popular with the electorate. Here is something that everybody agrees needs to be done. It could be argued that the administration’s failure to act on financial services was the problem all along. Voters felt that banks had not felt the pain like the rest of country and it even looked as though Obama and his “wonk” regime wasn’t going to do anything about it. Timothy Geithner hardly came across as compelling.
The challenge for Obama is whether he can really push this through. His mandate was change and yet that change has become bogged down in increasingly partisan squabbles. Can he build cross-party support for his plans. Using Paul Volcker was a clever touch: he clearly knows his finance, he has been a stern critic of policy and Wall Street and yet he is no liberal softy. Here is the man who solves the inflation problem in the 1980s.
Obama has chosen his battleground well: now he just needs victory.