After acting as though the markets didn't matter, writing off as simply a place where the fat cats kept their money... demonizing the bankers... which created an atmosphere of terror for investors... where we were all scared to death for our nest eggs... Obama heeded the critics... even some from his own party...

He's seen the light...

Obama changed. Or, at least, his message did...

He seems to have realized that he was heading down a path that was causing the Great Wealth Destruction... so he changed course... Obama realized the market's power and importance. He grasped the fact that many people actually own stocks and even those who don't are affected by the markets that they have pensions or annuities or life insurance policies with, which sure as heck are not in CDs...

Yeah, in very quick study, the President figured it out... His team got the message... and we've been hearing pro-business noises from them ever since. It's clear the man is light years ahead of his predecessor...

No matter how much we yelled... No matter how much the public and the experts criticized what was going on, Bush and Paulson never once changed direction... never.

Obama's team is different, and their positive pro-business attitude has now changed the way we feel about the market...

Sure, sure... we got some numbers... but we got a lot of bad numbers too... Mostly, though, we've got a president who can change his mind... one who recognized that our 401(k)s and annuities are filled with stocks... an asset class that's had its worst decade in history and, frankly, we just can't take it anymore.

With this constructive attitude toward Main Street nest eggs, he created a brighter prism, through which we interpret data, that would most certainly have been viewed negatively or even ignored before.

Now that change in tone could not be more important... But here's the problem...

The chicanery at American International Group (AIG)... It could roll it all back... See, we're in a real jam here...

And, tonight, I'm making strange bedfellows with Tim Geithner... Obama's embattled and beleaguered Treasury Secretary, who must deliver his plan to save the banks, and it's the worst possible time... because of this AIG...

If the phenomenal rally in WFC, and C, and in BAC... and all the rest of the financials... is going to continue... Remember, this group is up 50% in one week... If we're going to get out of this economic morass by the end of year as Ben Bernanke said... with housing bottoming and lending picking up... then it's imperative that Tim Geithner come up with a plan where the banks take some pain and the taxpayers take some pain too...

But Geithner didn't pay all of his taxes, and the public's in no mood for pain after AIG... Look, we all feel like we've been had...

This is the moment that will test the new Obama... the one who watches the ticker... the one who's worried about your 401k... the one who knows it could lose more than he could save you in tax cuts... who knows the American people own two assets... homes and stocks... and I know Obama wants their value preserved.

But the temptation to go populous, because of AIG's disgraceful actions... it must be enormous on the President and on the Treasury Secretary...

We cannot afford a return of the old populous Obama... Remember that one? The "this is not the time for profits" president?... He's got to be a realist. In order to save your home and your portfolio, Geithner has to convince Obama and the rest of the administration not blame all the bankers and all the other financial types for the sins AIG... I mean, we can already see people piling on from both parties... and I realize that people don't realize that AIG has been an aberration the whole way...

I study these financials non-stop... AIG is different. If AIG becomes the poster child for all the financials, then I know we're sunk...

The administration will go back to demonizing all the bankers, and the recent rally will be chimerical and reversed...

Washington needs to understand that AIG is the exception and not the rule...

Yeah, there was plenty of bad business judgment among the banks... The bonuses at many of the investment banks were outrageous... You know that we put Thain on the Wall of Shame... We had a lot of the AIG guys on the Wall of Shame... We had tons of guys on the Wall of Shame because of their outrageous bonuses...

That's one thing...

But I believe that the AIG business that caused the company to fall into the clutches of the government... that wasn't business judgment... That was, in fact, a disgraceful... well, what it really was was a conspiracy led by AIG to get around the capital rules worldwide... by allowing the company to insure products that it could not afford to insure.

You see, there is a massive difference between bad judgment and being ignorant and stupid... I think we need a RICO investigation as the division of AIG that issued these policies, because they miscalculated their losses so badly... needs to be investigated criminal!

Now, there's no way to find out without a government investigation, because all the information is going to be protected... even though we own the company...

But, to me, this does not look like the business judgment gone awry...

You heard it all day today... Everybody in Washington is now screaming about the guy, Liddy, from AIG... and AIG has to recognize, please, please, please... this was rogue... it was rogue.

The rest of the banking system just made mistakes. It needs to be kept alive. Not put down or nationalized, or euthanized, like Lehman Brothers, because of its guilt by association with AIG. We need Geithner to hold the line when he presents his plan, to say, we in this administration are pro shareholders, we are pro homebuyers, we are pro pensions, we are pro retirement plans, we are pro students getting loans... we are pro job creation... we're pro small business loans, and we're pro making money... And we're pro having the chance and opportunity to get rich...

And, for these reasons, we cannot demonize all the banks - the people and the institutions - who we need to lend to help us get there. He must acknowledge that AIG is not like the rest; it's rogue and the banks aren't. He must say that we are in partnership with the banks, and not at war with them.

And, as much as we'd like to draw and quarter the AIG people, well... let's just establish a white collar crimes division... just investigate those who broke the law... whether it be the execs at Bear, Lehman, or Fannie or Freddie, or AIG...

But we cannot impede the progress that the banks are making... and it must not cause you to lose even more money in your 401k, IRA, 529, and your home... Because, fortunately or unfortunately, these are the keys to the recovery.

The Bottom Line!: