A.I.G. = The Audacity of Obama Voting Present

I am not going to offer my meager two cents on the obnoxious behavior of A.I.G. and its continued policy of giving seven figure bonuses to executives after receiving tax payer dollars in the bailout package; It’s wrong, it’s stupid, and the c**p has not even started falling because of this decision. Today, I am going to give my thoughts on how this will impact on Team Obama in the 2010 midterm elections.

President Obama is in a very prickly situation and one that he needs to quickly and decisively address. In September 2008, during the campaign candidate Obama did not take a side on the bailout vote. He was in Washington but only voted “Present”. In a column dated September 18th, Jonathan Martin almost finds out where Obama stood on the bailout of A.I.G. From the Obama campaign:

“Considering the fact that John McCain flatly opposed the bailout of AIG a day before he changed course and supported it, we’re not sure why on earth the McCain campaign wants to have a debate about economic indecision. Barack Obama does not second guess the Fed’s decision to take unprecedented action to prevent the failure of one of the largest insurance companies in the world from creating an even larger crisis, and he believes it must protect families who count on insurance.”

“Right,” Burton replied.

President Obama is not technically on the hook because he avoided the question altogether. It is this kind of non-leadership that got us into this mess. I do not want leaders who duck making the big decisions and then have the audacity to blame the Bush Administration for actually trying to do something. Obama has got a limited window of opportunity to redeem himself and actually take a stand either for or against any future corporate bailouts. If he does not make a decision this time, 2010 may turn out to a turning point that transforms his mandate for change to redefining his Presidency as just being present in the Oval Office until 2012.