Now you own it , Mr. President

Denver Post - By David Harsanyi - 03/11/2009

There are few things more satisfying than unloading your righteous rage on one of those insatiably greedy Wall Street bankers.
We have Gordon Gekko to blame. Barack Obama has George W. Bush. So while the president is busy radically centralizing the nation's economy, he, in a superbly eloquent and inspirational pitch, always reminds us that nothing is his fault.
If Washington had a buck to spare, it still wouldn't stop at the top. But for the sake of argument, let's concede that presidents trigger recessions. Then we must also concede that nearly every initiative enacted in the first 50 days of the Obama administration has exacerbated what Bush started.
Isn't it too early to judge? It would be if Obama hadn't accelerated the timeline with his "ambitious" agenda items, including the partisan, trillion-dollar project masquerading as a stimulus bill or the deficit-busting budget. It would be if Obama had not worked early to support agenda- driven omnibus pork bills, job- killing cap-and-trade schemes or union assaults on workers' rights, to name just a few of his priorities.
Obama can do anything, apparently, except properly staff the Treasury Department. Aren't those guys supposed to be "fixing" the economy or something?
Then again, it should also be noted that if Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner — whose gibberish-infused explanation of the administration's bank-bailout non-plan knocked the Dow Jones down 4 percent in one day — is indicative of "staff," maybe Obama is doing us all a favor.
The Dow Jones industrial average actually has reacted to Obama by plunging nearly 20 percent since he became president. That's an obliteration of wealth that no stimulus bill will recoup. Since Election Day, the market has lost nearly 30 percent of its value — trillions of dollars, not from CEO bonuses, as you may have hoped, but from your 401(k) and the private sector. (continues...)