Opologists Cheered by Startling Reappearance of Campaign-Mode Obama

President Obama gave a speech yesterday in Osawatomie, Kansas, the site of Theodore Roosevelt's New Nationalism Address on August 31, 1910. (Full text at the Guardian.)

And now for some shorters.

Bob Reich: The Barack Obama for whom we voted in 2008 IS BACK!!!

The New York Times: Obama promises change if elected President.

The Washington Post: All very well, but let's hear more about cutting Social Security.

Glenn Kessler, Fact Checker at The War Criminal Post: OMG Obama is so mean to rich people!

And now for something completely different: A dose of facts from Yves Smith at naked capitalism:

The misdirection is blindingly obvious. The claim is that the Administration needs new tools to get tough on banks. No, it has plenty of tools, starting with Sarbanes Oxley. As we’ve discussed at length in earlier posts, Sarbox was designed to eliminate the CEO and top brass “know nothing” excuse. And the language for civil and criminal charges is parallel, so a prosecutor could file civil charges, and if successful, could then open up a related criminal case. Sarbox required that top executives (which means at least the CEO and CFO) certify the adequacy of internal controls, and for a big financial firm, that has to include risk controls and position valuation. The fact that the Administration didn’t attempt to go after, for instance, AIG on Sarbox is inexcusable. The “investigation” done by Andrew Ross Sorkin in his Too Big To Fail (Willumstad not having a good handle on the cash bleed, the sudden discovery of a $20 billion hole in the securities lending portfolio, the mysterious “unofficial vault” with billions of dollars of securities in file cabinets) all are proof of an organization with seriously deficient controls.

But more broadly, it’s blindingly obvious this Administration has never had the slightest interest in doing anything more serious than posture.

Finally, a blood pressure-reducing video:

UPDATE: Here's a couple of items I forgot to include yesterday, and one from today.

Tengrain suggests changing your registration to a third party or Independent.

Last, from Micah Sifry's Twitter:

(Posted by ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© and cross-posted at my place. Mouse over pics for captions, and click them for larger versions.)

~