"The young president's authority was being systematically undermined or hedged by his ... advisers"

[Hart2008]

"The young president's authority was being systematically undermined or hedged by his seasoned advisers," Suskind

"The Citbank incident, and others like it, reflected a more pernicious and personal dilemma emerging from inside the administration: that the young president's authority was being systematically undermined or hedged by his seasoned advisers," Suskind writes.

Suskind states that Obama accepts the blame for mismanagement in his administration while noting that restructuring the financial system was complicated and could have resulted in deeper financial harm. One of the major complaints about Obama's administration is that it was too easy on major financial institutions, including Citi. The president had wanted Treasury officials to focus on a proposal to dissolve the bank, but no plan was ever created, the book states.

...

Suskind's book supports other accounts of disagreement among advisers over how large a stimulus was necessary to revive the economy and how aggressively to deal with financial institutions that had become "too big to fail."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/15/tim-geithner-ignored-obama-order_n_965404.html

It is time for someone with experience as the Democratic nominee in 2012.

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

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[Fumesucker]

2. Obama chose the advisors, he can unchoose them if he wishes..

Clearly for whatever reason he doesn't wish to change his advisors.

[QC]

6. Good point.

A lot of people seem to think that the president is at the mercy of his advisers, and if it were not for them, he would be busy bringing about progressive nirvana. But he wasted no time in surrounding himself with ruling class functionaries. Hell, he did that back during the primaries when he appointed the DLC's chief economist to be his own campaign's chief economist.

[RKP5637]

3. I've often thought he's railroaded into bad decisions that significantly favor

banksters, wall street, huge corporations and the cornered few percent of wealth, and the hell with "we the people." The entire economic plan, IMO, has been to prop up the former and the hell with "we the people."

[Hart2008]

4. More like stampeded to go along with the herd. I want a President who is a leader, not a follower.

I want a President who can show some leadership, who can fight, and who actually believes in Democratic values.

[RKP5637]

5. I've been significantly disappointed to say the least. n/t

[Odin2005]

7. This shows who is REALLY in charge, and it ain't Obama.

[Hart2008]

12. Agreed. Just a new face on the old policies. No change here. NT

[MineralMan]

8. Tell me you are not seriously thinking about Gary Hart

as a possible primary opponent for President Obama. Please.

I cannot even imagine that he would be remotely interested in such a thing, nor would he have a prayer of winning even a single primary.

[GoCubsGo]

11. LOL! No kidding!

And, how is he "more experienced"? When was Hart ever President?

[FarCenter]

9. A major problem was that he was distracted by healthcare

Given the seriousness of the economic problems, healthcare should have waited and financial restructuring should have been given priority. Instead, Obama achieved only partial success at both.

[dionysus]

10. has-been Gary Hart isn't running. this is getting old.