Thanks for posting this. It’s always nice to hear Obama speak the English language properly after all these years of W.

I like the format and now will be be more inclined to watch/listen to the weekly address.

it was just announced Robert Gibbs as press secretary, and Ellen Moran (EMILY’S LIST) as director of communications. I thought Gibbs was already announced.

Gibbs name had been leaked but not officially announced.

Citizen Loo Hoo:

I could listen to that man read the phone book.

question: does anyone know for sure what economic team is obama referring to? the transition team or something else?

the reason i ask is that there are so many economists saying that waiting until after jan 20 is a big mistake. i’d like to know who is advising obama otherwise.

1) roubini testified before congress in oct that “A stimulus package legislated only February or March of next year when the new Congress comes back will be too late.” does obama (or his economic advisors) reject that?

2) there are now 387 signatories to the economist’s letter to congress, “…it is important that Congress move quickly and decisively. Delay can only deepen and prolong the recession.”

The country needs and, unless I mistake its temper, the country demands bold persistent experimentation. It is common sense to take a method and try it: If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.
–Franklin D. Roosevelt

Lets hope that Obama can deliver, of course the republicans are still trying to gum up the works. They have only one thing in mind, to make the Democrats and Obama’s task as difficult as possible and try to block as much as they can. They have no real loyalty to our country. Those who continue to block the much needed reforms should be targeted for massive influx of well qualified candidates to replace them. The Democrats should use every tactic in the book to defeat them at the polls.Point out daily that they always take the position of the rich and have never ever done anything to help all the rest of the 98%+ people who truly make up this country!

It’s more than just questions about his “economic team”. What is the program? Is “saving or creating 2.5 million jobs” in an economy of probably 150 million workers over a span of two years going to be an effective action? Given that GM alone is given credit for providing three million jobs? Inquiring minds want to know!

Book Salon up at the Mothership

FDR’s grandson, Curtis, was on Book-TV a couple of hours ago. Mostly it was memories, but one firm evaluation he had about FDR is that he had no beliefs, no ideologies. In his first beig test: against the Depression, he just tried to do what he thought would make life better for ordinary people. Contrast that with Reich’s evaluation of why he thinks the powers-that-be are willing to bailout U.S. financial corps, but not U.S. auto industry. It’s the unfortunate triump of theorying over a clear-eyed view of what’s good for people. Real people are always at least one step away from the core of economic policy these days.
http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsme…..ll_street/

uh how about next weeks paycheck paying last weeks bills…

Selise, what’s happening is pretty much a replay of the 1932 transition: Bush/Hoover wants to lock Obama into the Bush/Hoover program, which would harm more than help. Obama, as FDR did in 1932, is having none of that. The problem, of course, is that something major needs to be done and soon.

Yup.

I always find myself wanting to believe him, then I have to remember that actions speak louder than words.

Obama, as FDR did in 1932, is having none of that.

that’s not what i looks like to me so far. obama pushed paulson’s wall street bailout and the person he’s chosen to replace paulson is at least not a GS clone, but seems ideologically not much different.

from your link:

Citi is about to be bailed out while GM is allowed to languish. That’s because Wall Street’s self-serving view of the unique role of financial institutions is mirrored in the two agencies that run the American economy — the Treasury and the Fed. Their job, as they see it, is to keep the financial economy “sound,” by which they mean keeping Wall Street’s own investors and creditors reasonably happy.

Because the public doesn’t understand the intricacies of finance, it’s easily persuaded that this is definition of “soundness” is the same as keeping savings flowing to the banks so that the banks can lend to them to Main Street. That’s why the public and its representatives have committed $700 billion of taxpayer money to Wall Street and another $500 to $600 billion of subsidized loans to the Street from the Fed — bailing out the investors and creditors of every major bank, including , any moment, Citi — only to discover, at the end of this frantic and unbelievably expensive exercise, that American jobs and communities are more endangered than they were at the start.

Have we heard the word “change” pass his lips since he was elected?

Obama’s riding in the lead car of the rollercoaster that’s hurtling us all into the bowels of the capitalist hog carcass we’ve been feasting off. The fat cats have butchered it and sliced off the juiciest choice cuts, but there’s still a living to be made off the bones and entrails that are too raw and gnarly to turn a quick profit.