The Little Green Blog: Obama

Showing posts with label Obama. Show all posts

April 24, 2012

Geithner turned down Dartmouth Presidency?

According to whispers published in Britain’s Daily Mail, the father-in-law of U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner ’83 was overheard saying “Obama nominated [Kim] for the World Bank - so that there’d be an opening. 'They offered [Geithner] the presidency of Dartmouth. But now he doesn’t want it. He wants something else.'” This bombshell has, of course, attracted a bit of media attention.

Geithner has been on ruminated short lists of potential replacements for the short-serving and now World-Bank-President-elect Kim. He (along with Hank Paulson, who is also mentioned in the same breath) would make a great choice and would be a present-day Larry Summers in every sense: famous, technocratic, and politically controversial. His selection would help him gracefully out of a job he no longer appears to take much pleasure in and would also be a worthy capstone to his very impressive career.

I don’t doubt that Bill Helman ’80 or one of his representatives on the Presidential Search Committee has already reached out to Geithner, and they may have even hinted at special treatement for his candidacy, given his stature and history with the college. It’s an intriguing, if distant, possibility that President Obama chose JYK for his World Bank job in small part because it would give Geithner a position to assume post-treasury. What I severely doubt is that any “offer” was extended to Geithner, or that such any offer could be given so quickly to anyone. This point was probably a product of loose words from a proud father-in-law in casual conversation.

I’m curious though. What was the other gig that Geithner wanted? Something more… corporate? How Dartmouthy of him.

January 27, 2010

Liveblogging Obama's State of the Union

9:09pm Obama has arrived... seems to be hugging an abnormal number of people.

9:11 Obama defines what the State of the Union is and why we have it. Lots of comparisons to past SotU given during really crappy times.

9:13 Remember that things were really bad when I took office. My policies have made things better. The worst is over but "devastation remains."

9:15 Yeah, why is Wall Street rewarded for bad behavior?

9:17 [Patriotic platitudes]

9:18 We all hated the bank bailout. "Like a root canal." (Oh, Obama, how can I stay mad at you?)

9:19 (Geitner looks like he's trying to act like he's not responsible for all the policies they're shitting on right now.)

9:21 Don't forget that we cut a ton of taxes on students 95% of families. "I thought I'd get applause on that one." (Oh, Obama,
9:24 The Recovery Act helped boost domestic productivity. I want a new jobs bill.

9:27 End capital gains on small businesses. More business tax credits.

9:28 Use the recovery act to build up infrastructure: rail, clean energy. Cut tax breaks on companies shipping jobs overseas.

9:29 Senate- pass the jobs bill and have it on my desk, pronto. Other countries are not competing for 2nd place.

9:35 Go nuclear energy!

9:36 We cannot ignore the "overwhelming evidence" of climate change. (I wonder whom he is talking about). Regardless, the U.S. needs to be a leader in this field in order to become a leader in green industries.

9:37 We should export more. (But how?) Subsidize farmers(?) Be more aggressive in seeking markets(?) (what does that mean?). We should increase free trade.

9:41 Highschool GEDs just aren't cutting it. Promote community colleges. Give more grants for college/more money for Pell Grants. Students will pay back only 10% of income a year, debts forgive in 20 years, 10 years if they pursue a career in public service. "No one should go broke for going to college" (bravo!)

9:48 Republicans- if you have a better plan for healthcare, "lemme know. lemme know. lemme know." Do not walk away from healthcare reform.

9:50 It's pretty hard to bring down the deficit when you have to pay for 2 wars, tax cuts, a prescription drug plan, all during a recession.

9:51 starting in 2011, federal spending freeze for 3 years.

9:56 "Let's try common sense, a novel concept."

9:59 Congress should publish all earmark requests online before there is a vote so Americans can see where their money is going.

10:00 Politics today is binary competition. Everyday is election day. Confirmation of civil servants should not be held hostage to grudges or pet projects of a few individual senators.

10:02 If Republicans require 60 votes to get anything done, you have responsibility to govern as well (GOP all sitting).

10:06: All combat troops out of Iraq by August. (!!)

10:09 Control loose nukes.

10:16 Repeal don't ask don't tell.(!!)

10:19 America is doing good work in Haiti.

10:20pm (end)

REPUBLICAN RESPONSE (note: full text pre-posted online)
10:30pm (I'm a little surprised to see the republicans' staging device. The speech is given by Bob McDonald in the Virginia Legislature, which is full of adoring people. McDonnell sometimes looks at the camera, as per tradition, but often looks around as if he is giving the state of the union).

10:31 Sports center joke. Polite, planned laughter.

10:32 OMG FIRE ALARM IN FAHEY/ MCLANE!! EVERYONE RUN OUTSIDE!!

(blogging discontinued)

December 2, 2009

Afghanistan: A Vietnam?!

To those who claim that Afghanistan is President Obama's next Vietnam, consider this:

Vietnam was a war that the United States entered into without justified reasoning. The United States, fearing the spread of communism around the globe, entered Vietnam with the hopes that they could subdue the communist movement. We entered Afghanistan 8 years ago because of 9/11. This time there was a clear and definite reason for our entry.

Perhaps the truth is that Iraq was President Bush's Vietnam. Where was the justification? Why was 2003 the opportune moment to enter Iraq? If anyone understands, please explain.

And why focus on the comparison at all? I found that the most interesting part of President Obama's speech was that we have been in Afghanistan for 8 years. In March of 2010, the Afghanistan war will have become the longest in American history. Rather than comparing, let's talk about what can be done. Let's reassess our goals-- can we still catch Osama Bin Laden? Is that our current goal?

For more information visit: http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/12/01/afghanistan.vietnam/index.html

July 22, 2009

I am a Real American

The issue continues to come up.........

Is Barack Obama a natural born American citizen?

He absolutely is...........unless you believe that the State of Hawaii, Kenya, Honolulu Advertiser and Star Bulletin (two different newspapers) are all in on a conspiracy theory to somehow put a Kenyan in the White House. After all, Hawaii would have had to authorize a false birth certificate then the Honolulu Advertiser and Star Bulletin would have had to announce a birth that took place thousands of miles away then the Kenyan government would have had to figure out how to smuggle young Barack out of the country without any paperwork to prove that he was there AND then they would've had to hope that America elects a black man with name Barack Hussein Obama to the presidency. Yes, I am aware that that is the world's most convoluted run on sentence but the point is that if Kenya and Hawaii wanted to share the White House, surely there had to be an easier way to do it.

The right wing nutjobs (known as "Birthers") who continue to spread this theory seem to have no concept of how difficult all of this would be to pull off. The world isn't some summer popcorn flick where the bad guys pull off seemingly improbable feats, it's real life where something like this would leave a paper trail a mile long. It's incredibly sad that there are people out there who support this theory and use it as a means to demean our President and question the legitimacy of his work.

That video makes me sad. Not because I support Obama (which I do) but because I'd like to believe that stupidity like this doesn't exist in the world. Wouldn't it be a wiser use of our time to support our President (whether you agree with him politically or not) as he tries to get us out of this recession? After all, Obama has proven that he is a natural born American citizen. Instead of tying up the court system with lawsuits over our President's legitimacy, it'd probably be wiser for these people to brush up on their analytical skills or at very least stop watching so many espionage movies.