THE WHITE HOUSE ENCOURAGES SANTELLI, ON PURPOSE: “They’d rather the opposition be identified with Santelli and stock brokers than with, say, a Joe the Plumber type.”
Related item: “My husband and I always discuss, ‘Why do we try to better ourselves, when it seems if you do nothing, you get all the help in the world?’”
Like the song says, they’ll turn us all into beggars ’cause they’re easier to please.
UPDATE: C.J. Burch isn’t buying the White House strategy: “It was a stupid attack all the same, and will look more stupid next week as their plans for the bank bail out become more obvious. Not even a press as supine as this one can allow itself to become the president’s red headed step child.” I dunno, I’m expecting heavy orders for henna . . . .
ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Frank Hosford notes Obama’s thin skin: “The Obama White House started with Hannity, then Rush, & now CNBC?? I’m confused: I thought we had freedom of the press?”
MORE: Reader Kyle Lagrois isn’t buying the White House take (via Ambinder, above) either:
Have you ever noticed Marc Ambinder is the reliable, go-to guy to give a reasonable or political explanation AFTER Obama does something that may look like a screw-up? . . .
Today, Gibbs called out a reporter in a very unseemly way, and Ambinder wants to paint it as some sort of strategic genius.
Keep an eye on it. He is- somehow- able to channel how Obama might want you to view what’s happened.
Meanwhile, Dan Riehl thinks that the White House isn’t upholding its dignity very well. “Although I might be concerned about any private info on file with the government were I Santelli. I think we’re seeing a WH that looks like it’s being run more like a Chicago Ward, than the house that most presidents lived in. This is about attacking everyone and everything that opposes you. In the end, it demeans the office and raises serious concerns as to whether these people can be trusted with the power they now have.”
Plus, Tom Elia wonders what, exactly, Gibbs brings to the table:
The most interesting thing about White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs response to CNBC’s Rick Santelli’s criticism of the Obama Administration’s anti-foreclosure plan was Gibb’s assertion that Santelli ‘doesn’t know what he’s talking about.’
Before joining CNBC, Santelli spent 20 years in the trading business, both on and off the trading floor.
Gibbs has spent his whole life in politics and apparently has no business experience, spending most of his professional career as a political spokesman.
To be fair, Gibbs has at least as much business experience as Barack Obama or Joe Biden.
MORE: The Anchoress emails:
Can anyone imagine Bush calling out Randi Rhodes, or his press sec mocking a member of the press?
Bush’s White House did not go after members of the press, or get defensive toward them. The press hated him, and his whole staff, but the admin never returned in kind.
Class tells.
Indeed it does.