Obama is calling for bonus restraint

and these asshats let the media convince them he's cheering on big bonuses. It's unbelievable. I understand the media, especially business media, doing anything they can to bring this President down. But how can people who pride themselves in their intellect and analytical minds, how can they be duped so easily, every single time.

"an extraordinary amount of money" for Main Street, "there are some baseball players who are making more than that and don't get to the World Series either, so I'm shocked by that, as well."

"I do think that the compensation packages that we've seen over the last decade at least have not matched up always to performance. I think that shareholders oftentimes have not had any significant say in the pay structures for CEOs."

"That serves as a restraint and helps align performance with pay," he said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/10/AR2010021003863.html

I could not think of a more artful subject line, because that's what it is. Obama says something that might be interpreted in a way that pisses them off, and certain people are ALL over it. He does or says a million things that don't piss them off, and there's silence.

I partly blame Krugman. I respect him as an economist and for most of his opinions, but his one, huge blind spot is politics. He doesn't get politics, and what's worse is that he thinks he does.

Anyway ... here's another link with a different take on Obama's remarks.

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/political-media/what-obama-said-about-those-bonuses/

It seems like there’s a bit more of an emphasis here than the initial story suggested on his support for specific measures to check the long-term trend of inflated bonuses, and the thrust of his comments seem aimed at combating the perception that such policies are anti-business.

And wouldn't you know it ... the original story seems to have come from Politico.

One of the first paragraphs of the Post article has Obama addressing that directly. Clearly he is trying to get the lobbyists, from all corners, to stop going to such extremes to destroy every piece of legislation that is proposed. I don't know how he keeps from going on television and telling the entire country we're all fucked in the head and deserve the shitpile we've got.

Quote from the WaPo article I linked to above.

"The irony is that on the left we are perceived as being in the pockets of big business, and then on the business side we are perceived as being anti-business," Obama said in an interview this week with Bloomberg BusinessWeek. "You would be hard pressed to identify a piece of legislation that we have proposed out there that, net, is not good for businesses," he added. He predicted that legislation he will sign this year would cut corporate taxes by about $70 billion.

Asking for "bonus restraint" is like asking for cooperation from the Republicans in Congress.

Not gonna happen.

People believe what they want to believe. If an article or story supports their worldview, they'll most likely accept the story with little hesitation or thought. On the other hand, if an article challenges their worldview, they'll most likely dismiss it, challenge it, or attack the source.

tell us a lot about where we are with Corporate America. That's the point that Obama is getting at. Dry stuff like this <http://www.boardmember.com/Article_Details.aspx?id=4470> should be hotly debated, and he will hopefully lead the discussion.

Business v. government is a false debate. Corporate boards v. their own shareholders is more like it.

to Pres Obama.

Oh, wait. You said BONUS restraint. My bad. Nevermind.

:spank: :spank:

I'm just drawn that way.....

and then when you point out that the media is mischaracterizing what he said, they blame Obama for it.

:)