President Obama is going through a shaky September where he has to answer questions about a scandal and fight off charges of sexism, incompetence, and lack of managerial skills that Ron Suskin's new book "Confidence Men: Wall Street, Washington, and the Education of a President," reveals.
I was called out by a poster to give my view about the Solyndra scandal, but I declined because it was not the subject of my blog, and the incident was in its first days of investigation, even though ABC and Fox News reported it as an obvious scandal.
This is what I understand about the Solyndra incident. The company made tubular solar panels in contrast to the conventional flat panels. The company was first considered for loan guaranteed by the Bush administration. The Obama administration speeded up to the process because of their love of green tech. Solyndra makes up 1.3% of the $38 billion in loans extended, but the company's bankruptcy sent up red flags to the House Republicans on the Energy and Commerce Committee. According to the Wall Street Journal, the FBI is investigating, but their focus was on the executives of the company, as to whether they knowingly misled the government to secure $500 million in loan guarantees.
A major investor in Solyndra was a venture capitalist named, George Kaiser, who was a major bundler for the Obama Administration in 2008. The democrats are pointing out that the other major investor was a Republican tied to the Walton family, and that Solyandra's CEO is a registered Republican. The White House is guilty of fast tracking this project without proper due diligence, but they also know that China is funding their solar panel projects and they wanted a heads up or at least a more level playing field. Why can't both parties be grownups, instead of spinning it for political gain?
There is another scandal brewing where cronyism and compromising military safety is being alleged. Representative Mike Turner, Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee is alleging that the White House urged General Shelton to alter his testimony and make it more favorable to the company with close ties to the White House. According to the Daily Beast ."LightSquared provides high-speed Internet service to 260 million people. The Pentagon believes it could interfere with sensitive military GPS systems.LightSquared’s majority owner is Harbinger Capital, an investment fund that democratic donor Philip Falcone runs.
I've read several of Ron Suskin's books, and I find him to be credible author. I think that the White House is being super sensitive because former Communication Director Anita Dunn said the White House created an environment of hostility toward women. The author cites Christina Romer as another source, because she was left out of some important meetings. This morning on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" Mika Brzezinski, started questioning the author, as if he was on trial, she was fuming. Mika went onto say that the Obama administration has hired more women in high-level positions than any other administration. That's got nothing to do with it. When you have an elitist like Larry Summers and Timothy Geither, you're going to encounter sexism daily. I wrote a blog about two years ago where Larry Summers cussed out the head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Brooksley Born, for trying to make the secretive derivatives of Wall Street more transparent. And look what Dick Cheney said about Condoleezza Rice. He ruined her professional standing, when he said that she came in tearfully to apologize to him. Even though the women involved denied ever saying that the Obama administration treated women unfairly, it's not that hard to believe they're looking out for their future careers. That's unfortunate but as I understand, President Obama himself is seeing to it, that they don't have that problem in the future.
I'm going to download the Ron Suskin’s book before I go into too much detail. The charges of Obama's inexperience and inability to manage the alter egos are probably true, but I'll have to see the context. There are also charges of a dysfunctional government. This information could be damaging, especially during a presidential campaign. You ever notice how these “tell all" books always meet the election deadlines?
The administration is still reeling over the loss the special election in New York ,where orthodox Jews are not comfortable with the president. I think the orthodox Jews were trying to put pressure on the Obama Administration because of the upcoming requests by the Palestinians to be recognized the state by the U.N. As a pundit said the other day, the democrats don't have to worry about losing the Jew vote, they like to make noise but they are good constituents.
They do have some good news, Elizabeth Warren has a slight lead over Scott Brown in their bid for senator of Massachusetts. That's pretty good for the person who has never run for office against a career politician.
I know it’s easier said than done, but this administration ought to cooperate with the investigations (I don’t have any proof they aren’t) answer reporters’ questions truthfully because as all White Houses learn, the cover up can be worse that the charge.
Some may ask “Why are you writing a negative blog about the Obama administration?"Am I? Nothing has been proven. I still have a lot of confidence in this administration.Besides,it's like a quarterback,we learn what he is made of, on how he reacts under pressure.We may not like problems but we must face up to them besides, I have yet to see a scandal free administration.
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