How the heck did I get dragged into this mess… becoming the target of the wrath of Obama’s fans… and the darling, albeit momentarily, of his critics… it is not like my criticism of Obama’s handling of the crisis is any more pointed than my criticism of the job of the previous Republican administration was doing… or with its pernicious lazy affair attitude towards Wall Street… so what gives here… the answer I think lays in the way that the two administrations approach criticism… the Bush administration never questioned their believes, and therefore never questioned to anyone… not Congress, not the press, certainly not me… they simply chose to ignore my warnings perhaps because of a brutal combination of ideology, fecklessness, and complacency… or perhaps because at one point I used to throw a lot of chairs on the show… and to make matters worse, Bush and Paulson’s endless protestations…

(played Bush and Paulson clips saying that the fundamentals are strong)

Seemed ridiculous in the face of the facts… Ben Bernanke, he didn’t seem to understand the urgency of the situation… so now he has become a grown up… Tim Geithner, then the head of the Federal Reserve Bank in New York… and the most important regulator of Wall Street… didn’t seem to understand the importance of a consistent policy in the face of panic and confusion… he still doesn’t, as Obama’s Treasury Secretary… I would have thought that Hank Paulson, who ran Goldman Sachs where I worked at one point, I mean I though for heaven‘s sake, he had to know better… but he didn’t.

This was the team primarily Paulson and Geithner, that euthanized Lehman Brothers… the consequences of which caused the end of finance as we know it… two days later their hands off policy came to an end… when they total about face and began the never ending bailout of AIG… I called them out for their mistakes… where was Frankfort’s praising me, where was that… but Bush’s Press Secretary never dawned to mention me… no pundits got worked up about that criticism.

Now President Obama’s team on the other hand has demonstrated a thinness of skin, that I find shocking… when I somewhat obviously and empirically judged that the populist Obama administration was and continues to exasperate the crisis with its budgets and policies… I mean look at the incredible decline in the averages since the inauguration… I was met with media condensation and ridicule… I couldn’t believe it… is Obama’s team really blind to the great wealth destruction being caused by their agenda of demonizing the bankers, raising taxes on the wealthy, advocating Draconian and cap-n-trade policies, upending the healthcare system… I mean do they really believe that only the rich own stocks… what the heck do they think we have our retirement accounts in, CD’s… where did they think that we put the money that we saved for college, our mattresses… does the Obama administration really truly believe that the great middle class puts its money at the First National Bank of Sealy… and only the wealthiest traffic in the S&P 500... I mean that is the impression that I got when President Obama claimed that he wasn’t worried about the averages… dismissing them as traffic polls that go up and down, and up and down… uh, Mr. President, if only they went up occasionally and not down endlessly… I would like your logic.

I don’t think that Obama knew about the velocity or the relentlessness of the decline… he didn’t seem to pay attention until the day that I blasted them for not paying attention… and he seemed proud that he ignored the averages… as if they are some kind of a distraction… and not a precursor of the economies next moves… or consumer spending, or even confidence… will-full ignorance is something that we expected from the previous regime… I had higher hopes for Obama… don’t get me wrong, I don’t blame Obama for the crisis, he was dealt a terrible hand from the previous group… but the administrations’ handling of the banking crisis… simply devastating… Citigroup, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, even JP Morgan… all brought to their knees… look my mantra has been clear, I mean obviously the critics don’t watch the darn show… which is okay… I don’t care, it is a little cable show, but I like it… I just want to help preserve people’s money… I want to help them grow it when the time comes when it is no longer risky to make that attempt.

The country is in crisis… I want to turn down the rhetoric… engage with the issues… we need to stop the lurching of the nationalization of the banks… something that has come about because the Fed and the Treasury has been unable to regain control of the financial system from guess who, the short sellers.. .but will the pundits engage in a debate on the merits of saying favoring say tier one capital for the banks rather than common equity… how about the idea of showing them forbearance… so they can work out things over time… a 4% mortgage campaign for everybody, not just for the so called deadbeats… give the banks some leeway… so they can be profitable with patience… no, the Obama guy, the accolades of Obama just attack me… okay, I am a tempting target… plenty of people come in for criticism on the show… but we are dealing with some serious issues here… we need solutions, which I offer like almost every night here… much to the chagrin to the people who are worried about my ratings… I don’t want ad opining attacks… take Frank Rich and Jon Stewart, I criticize Obama, so both of them seize on the urban legend that I recommended Bear Stearns the week before it collapsed… when I simply told an emailer that the deposit in his account at Bear Stearns was safe… your money is safe in Bear Stearns… they use a clever sound bite to pass off the notion of the account safety was an out and out buy recommendation… I mean look, your money is save if Bear Stearns, does not mean… buy, buy, buy.

Now, look I expect Jon Stewart a comedian to give me a good skewering… I mean what the heck, but Frank Rich… I mean the guy was a rigorous guy, when he was a theater critic I am sure there were many times where the pull quotes from his reviews were used for positive purposes… even though he was panning a play… how could he not have been more rigorous… and then Rich chastised me for endorsing Wachovia’s stock… after then CEO Bob Steel came on the show, and spoke positively about the bank… we remember right, he stood right here… alright… look I was taken in… the guy pantsed me… I made a mistake… the SEC is investigating Steele’s appearance on this show for truthfulness though… I made a mistake, but they are investigating to see if he lied… bigger issue… sometimes you just get had… none of this though, not Bear not Wachovia has anything to do with whether or not the President’s policies are harmful to the wealth… whether they make sense, or are destroying the banking system.

Now, on the other side after the White House briefing, Rush Limbaugh defended me as a way ward leftist who has seen the light… hey, I am thrilled to have allies and defenders, Lord knows that I need them… but the truth is… I actually agree with almost all of Obama’s agenda… right down to having the rich pay more taxes… I just think that it is the wrong time… we need to declare war on unemployment and solve it before it gets out of hand… we need to stop house price depreciation… nothing Obama has done so far will defeat either enemy… and all of the initiatives that he wants to rush… like the tax hikes, the changes in healthcare, taking with the mortgage deductions… I mean good grief, he wants to tick with the mortgage reduction right in the midst of the worst housing downturn in history… the tough cap-n-trade rules… any of these could derail any chance of the economy turning around… Obama needs to beat unemployment and falling house prices… and then he could go forward with his agenda with my blessing… but until then, his initiatives are putting the second Great Depression right back on the table… I thought it had been taken off.

The market’s thought that he could stop it… hence the giant relief rally when he was elected… but unless than 50 days of his ascendancy the market’s hopes were totally dashed… and the averages are now forecasting the worst economic decline since the Great Depression… I am happy to have anyone from the administration on this show to debate the serious issues.

Here is the bottom line…