So how is Team Obama handling their first crisis? On the face if it, they seems to be in a good position.
In the wiretaps, Gov. Blogo is heard railing against Team Obama because he would get nothing but appreciation from them, and he wasn’t looking for “thanks” but cold hard cash. ABC’s George ‘Stephy’ Stephanopolous is out front defending Team Obama,
The Illinois governor is just so angry on all of these tapes about the fact that he’s not going to get anything from the Obama team, even resorting to calling him a “mother******” and saying of the president-elect”F*** him.”
From a crisis communications standpoint Team Obama is still in training wheels. It started with Obama’s comment that there had been no communication between he and the governor, contradicting what his top advisory David Axelrod told a local radio station a week or so earlier. Now, his chief of staff Rahm Emanuel has been avoiding the press all week, raising many questions. Here’s Chicago’s top columnist John Kass,
Man behind curtain is wizard of Rod, Rahm
When it comes to being the guy behind the guy, there is no one more conspicuous than Rahm Emanuel.
As chief of staff for President-elect Barack Obama, he’s usually at Obama’s news conferences, standing off to the side, glowering like some fiercely loyal mini-me.
But Emanuel wasn’t there Thursday when Obama faced reporters to answer questions about federal charges against Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D-Dead Meat), accused of trying to sell Obama’s Senate seat to the highest bidder.
Ed Morrisey at Hot Air is speculating (that’s what happens when you go silent) that there are two reasons for the Silence of the Rahm’s. 1.) He was listening and perhaps playing ball with Blagojevich; 2.) He learned of his dirty intentions and tipped off or worked with the feds, who are now asking him to keep quiet. I think option 2 is much more likely. Emanuel is a lot of things, but stupid isn’t one of them. The problem is that even option 2 raises some questions. In a scandal, silence breeds suspicion. Based on what we now know, there are lingering questions. Here’s Ed,
It’s still possible that Emanuel was working with the feds, but why stay silent about it now? They’ve already arrested Blagojevich. Emanuel could now say, “I helped Patrick Fitzgerald when I saw something wrong and worked with them to get him to make explicit statements,†rather than spend this week ducking reporters. The “sources within the investigation†would hardly want to make a cooperating witness look bad, either. Emanuel has been acting like someone advised him to keep quiet to keep from making incriminating public statements, and this may be the reason why.
Or it may not. One thing is for sure, the longer there is the Silence of the Rahm’s, the more suspicion and questions about what he knew and did will be asked. Remember Team Obama, it is rarely the crime that kills, but how you choose to handle it.
Yesterday Gary Sinese was recognized for his enormous contributions to those in uniform. From the White House,
Gary Sinise is a humanitarian and a patriot. Working alongside our military and reaching out a compassionate hand to Iraqi children, he is helping a society once brutalized by a tyrant to rebuild and realize the great blessings of liberty. He has also travelled the world to show America’s gratitude to our service members. The United States honors Gary Sinise for his efforts to improve the human condition and his strong commitment to the selfless men and women who devote their lives to military service.
Another mind blowing stat of the day from the outstanding blog Crossing Wall Street,
In 2007, Toyota sold 9.37 million vehicles.
In 2007, General Motors sold 9.37 million vehicles.
In 2007, Toyota made $17.1 billion.
In 2007, General Motors lost $38.7 billion
A managed bankrupcy is the only solution that makes sense.
Sociologist Robert Brulle’s graph tracking network news coverage of global warming, via NY Times Dot Earth blog. Yes, that final arrow is pointing to the release of Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth”,
How sad it is the level of hyperbole, fraud and intimidation that have been put upon the American public world in the name of Global Warming Climate Change. Talk about a crime against the humanity.
Photo: John Thain, CEO of Merrill Lynch
In one of the most tone deaf and arrogant moves of all time, Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain went to the board of directors and demanded that he receive his $10 million bonus. In this environment? Unbelieveable.
What makes it even more disgraceful is that John Thain was the highest paid CEO in the S&P 500 in 2007, taking home $83.1 million last year. I know, that’s only about $40 million after taxes, but still! To be asking for a $10M bonus right now is about the most arrogant thing I have ever heard. Let’s not forget, during his time at Goldman Sachs, he accumulated more than $300 million in stock. What a pig!
This move was so stupid he made Senate Majority leader Harry “The War is Lost” Reid sound smart,
“While American families struggle to keep their jobs and their homes, I question the chutzpah of asking for a $10 million taxpayer-subsidized bonus.”
Because of public pressure, Thain is not getting his bonus, but it’s not for lack of trying.
And what exactly had John Thain done this year to demand his $10M bonus? The image below comes from an April New York Post article. As you can see, the stock was then in the high 40’s. At the time of the fire sale, it was in the teens and heading for the big donut.
On Thain’s watch, Merrill Lynch lost $52 billion in mortgage related investments. He laid off found synergies and reduced the workforce by thousands of employees. Finally, he was forced, after 94 years of independence, to sell the legendary firm in a fire sale to Bank of America.
“Thain” should become a verb to describe somebody who is greedy, tone deaf, arrogant and indifferent to the suffering of those around them.
Greg Maddux retired yesterday with 355 wins, four Cy Young and 17 consecutive seasons with at least 15 wins. He did his job, treated those around him with respect and went back to his anonymous life. How athletes treat the game and those around it matters to me as a fan. Some players just don’t get it. Maddux always seemed to get it. He was the anti-Clemens, as a personality and as a pitcher. I find it sublime that he finished with one more career win than the grounded Rocket.
SI’s Tom Verducci is appreciating the genius of Maddux
Every time I talked with Maddux I learned something, and not always about pitching. He understood hitting as well as any position player I ever met.
Think about the genius of that. If you want to catch a crook, you must think like one rather than a law-abiding citizen.
He is baseball’s beautiful mind, and yet Maddux kept his gift covered with a thick blanket of humility. Never in sports will you find this kind of greatness accompanied by such an utter lack of ego and entitlement. In 2004, when I asked him how much longer he might pitch, he told me, “I’m not worried about it. I’m already on extra credit.” I replied, “Greg, you’ve been telling me that for years.” He replied, “I’ve been meaning it for years, too.”
ESPN’s Tim Kurkjian,
Alice Schroeder has scored one of the most coveted assignments in financial journalism, writing the first authorized biography of the world’s greatest investor and one of its richest men, Warren Buffett. This is an incredible score, especially considering Schroeder is not a journalist but a noted insurance industry analyst and former managing director at Morgan Stanley. This is no fawning profile of a sainted figure. This is the warts and all story of a very complex human being. As much as there is to admire about Warren Buffett the investor, his personal life leaves a lot to be desired.
This is a great book and one that I highly recommend. Alice was great and stayed for about 40 minutes. We started with the personal side of Buffett because that was most revealing in the book. Fifty odd books have been written about Buffett the businessman. Buffett may be the most written about individual in American business in the past 30 years. It is safe to say that nobody has ever had this kind of access to him, his friends, family and business associates.
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