As President Obama himself just said in his closing remarks at his press conference:
“You know, it was just a few days ago or weeks ago where people were certain that Secretary Geithner couldn’t deliver a plan. Today, the headlines all look like, well, all right, there’s a plan. And I’m sure there’ll be more criticism and we’ll have to make more adjustments, but we’re moving in the right direction.”
Here’s a story from me about the political lessons learned from AIG going forward. And speaking of Obama’s response to AIG, who didn’t love his smackdown tonight of CNN’s Ed Henry*?
QUESTION: It seems like the action is coming out of New York in the attorney general’s office. It took you days to come public with Secretary Geithner and say, look, we’re outraged. Why did it take so long?
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, it took us a couple of days because I like to know what I’m talking about before I speak.
*As commentator viciousmaniac points out, Henry is a good reporter and I didn’t mean to be harsh. It’s just so rare that Obama smacks anyone down publicly. So for good measure, here are Henry’s thoughts on the exchange:
HENRY: Well, he certainly was angry at end when I followed up and pressed him on why he didn’t come out sooner with that outrage and basically, said, you know, I want to know what I’m talking about, suggesting that I was pushing him to come out with the outrage sooner.
My question was really about the fact that, as we have now learned in recent days, obviously, this administration knew much sooner about these bonuses.