On the other hand, his winning edge came from organizing the hoards to play Alinsky hardball in the caucuses.

It's safe to say his core beliefs resemble the first hand, but one wonders if his campaign social network will be a monster that turns on him, and is his undoing.

I'd like to believe that this meeting took place exactly as described by the Politico's anonymous sources.  But whether it's true or not, the results are the bottom line.  Assuming for the sake of argument that Obama really is trying to persuade the financial industry that they need to stop resisting the administration's efforts lest they end up on the business end of a pitchfork, the real question is whether he is willing to take the next step if they still refuse to go along.

I guess it didn't make any impacton the public at large, so they (Rahm, present at the meeting)re-leaked it to Politico.

The masses line up with pitchforks screaming, greedy bast*rds rot in hell. What about us.

Act II: Bankers act as greedily as ever. Lather themselves with enormous bonuses, new planes, party on like old times.

Obama warns them that he is all that stands between them and the pitchforks, and reiterates that they are bound to do the right thing. They nod and go back to partying on like there is no tomorrow.

Act III: Obama takes over the banks and all the bankers become civil servants, or lose their job.

Moral of the story: Better to let the Bankers do your dirty work for you first, so that the cries of socialism are drowned out by cries of kill all bankers.

Oh and about the question of where to get the money to take over the banks once the Bankers have gone through the first trillion?  Print another trillion or two.

They've already got their trillions. And now, no pitchforks?  As He Who  May Not Be Named wrote:

It's as if the president were determined to confirm the growing perception that he and his economic team are out of touch, that their economic vision is clouded by excessively close ties to Wall Street.
 

I'm willing to trust both his sober judgment, until such time as he proves it to be flawed and untrustworthy.

Obama's painstakingly building his administration's policy directives to critical mass, inexorable and relentless in applying steadily growing pressure on the political fault lines. And the Republicans know that, and that's why they sound in full panic mode. If the Obama administration succeeds, it could well be a generation or more before a Republican occupies the White House again.

If there's any pressure building on the fault lines, it's on Democratic fault lines, as we see not cohesion and unity of purpose among the Democratic caucus, but splintering that is helping to strengthen the Republican position; Evan Bayh and his Senate Blue Dogs are becoming the hair in what could otherwise be a fine soup.

Republicans, on the other hand, are playing Obama to a fare-thee-well, having seen that the more they resist his efforts at bipartisanship, the more he gives in to them; Obama doesn't see that for every step he takes toward the GOP side of things, the GOP is not moving toward Democratic positions, but keeps drawing Obama farther over the line.

Which is not to say that the GOP has it together - they don't - but they are using the cracks in the Democratic party to continue to exert control.

I'm sure America's fears that Obama is in the pocket of Wall Street will fade into the mist when they read how brave and stern their president is.  All that was missing was the iconic phrase, "And this time, I mean it!" which I think Democrats in office are required to have tattooed on their hind ends (choice of font and type size, more than two colors, extra).

But what's amusing to me is that in almost every particular we dont have the full information or the background variables that led to decision x or y.  The books havent been written yet.