Atrios says Geithner is awful. He cites to Americablog's writeup about this WaPo writeup on how Geithner is the head honcho for the Obama economy:

Geithner has [. . .] quietly gained influence, which he has used to press President Obama to curb the nation’s soaring debt even at the expense of spending that might more directly spur employment.

His success at driving the agenda signals his status as the president’s closest economic counselor. [. . .] Geithner’s efforts inside the White House have shaped how Obama confronts this defining moment. [. . .] The policies molded by Geithner — and the balance they strike between slashing the deficit and supporting the economic recovery — could also ultimately determine whether Obama will win a second term.

[. . .] Geithner says Obama must tackle the deficit now if he wants the government to be in a position to support the economy in the future and to continue to protect the elderly and the poor. “It’s been my view for some time that unless he played a major role in shaping and negotiating the broad fiscal framework . . . we would be left without the capacity to do a whole range of things that are really important,” Geithner [. . .] said. [. . .] “I have been a consistent advocate of him doing that early and often.”

[. . .] Once, as Romer pressed for more stimulus spending, Geithner snapped. Stimulus, he told Romer, was “sugar,” and its effect was fleeting. The administration, he urged, needed to focus on long-term economic growth, and the first step was reining in the debt.

Obama has made his bed with Geithner, and we have to suffer for it. We'll see if Obama has to suffer come next November. Oh btw, in this long article, the number of words written about the housing crisis? Zero.

Speaking for me only

Closing arguments are over, the jury has been instructed and will begin deliberating the fate of Tahawwur Rana, the Canadian businessman accused of conspiring with former DEA informant David Coleman Headley to provide material support to terrorists in connection with the Mumbai bombings and a planned attack in Denmark.

Rana is charged in three counts: Conspiracy to Provide Material Support to Terrorism in India; Conspiracy to Provide Material Support to Terrorism in Denmark; and Providing Material Support to Lashkar e Tayyiba.

In closings, the defense attacked David Headley, while the Government said Rana and Headley were on the same team. [More...]

Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich finished seven days of testimony today.

As he stepped off the stand, a jaunty Blagojevich tried to shake hands with lead prosecutor Reid Schar, but the government attorney turned away after the two had sparred for several days.

Judge James Zagel told jurors not to read anything into the rebuff, saying lawyers are instructed not to interact with witnesses.

At least one legal observer at the trial thought Blagojevich did better on the witness stand than expected. Does he have a chance? Can he persuade one juror? Team Blago may call a few more witnesses tomorrow, and then it's time for closing arguments.

Also today, Blagojevich wants the Judge to reconsider his refusal to introduce a transcrip in which Rahm asks Blago to appoint Forrest Claypool to the House seat Rahm was vacating. [More...]

Congrats to Michael Hancock, who easily defeated Chris Romer in today's runoff election for Denver mayor. Romer has conceded.

With 100-percent (110,441) of the votes counted, Hancock defeated Romer 58% to 42%. It was an all mail-in election, with 300,000 ballots mailed. Only 110,441 people voted. It's pretty amazing you can become mayor of a city the size of Denver with just 55,222 votes (although Hancock got more than that.)Hancock on his win tonight:

Tonight, we celebrate this victory, and believe me, we gonna party. Tomorrow is Day One.

Brad DeLong on Ryan Avent's comment about Obama and the economy:

[Ryan Avent]:

[W]hat is Mr Obama's plan? When Americans look at him now, what does he want them to see? Having bought so completely into the story that immediate deficit-cutting is necessary, Mr Obama can't easily demand new stimulus. At best, he can argue that his painful cuts are better in some way than those proposed by Republicans. "I'm not as bad as the other guy", is not a winning incumbent message when voters are upset.... Right now, the Obama administration seems short of economic ideas and (perhaps worse still) uninterested in labour market troubles. His Republican challengers aren't offering anything better. But Mr Obama has made himself extraordinarily vulnerable on the economy, and if he loses his job as a result he has only himself to blame.

The five things to do are: 1) recess-appoint qualified Federal Reserve Governors who understand the macroeconomics; 2) take as much risk as possible onto the Treasury's balance sheet so that the skittish private sector does not need to hold it; 3) use FANNIE and FREDDIE to goose the housing market; 4) have Tim Geithner say that at the moment a weaker dollar is in America's interest; 5) pray that the bond market does not panic.

(Emphasis supplied.) I'm not sure what DeLong means by "use FANNIE and FREDDIE to goose the housing market." I'm for using them to give relief to distressed homeowners, which should also help the housing market. Oh by the way, there is also $50 billion of HAMP money just sitting there.

Speaking for me only

Alyssa Rosenberg has a very good new blog at Think Progress on pop culture (before she guest posted on Matt Yglesias' blog.) This post on Shia LeBouef beefing with Megan Fox about Transformers hack director Michael Bay and feminism is a nice example of how Rosenberg can discuss inane subjects with great intelligence.

Imagine Transformers and feminism in the same sentence. Hard I know. But Rosenberg does it very well. Her site is an excellent addition to the Think Progress offerings.

Open Thread.

Tim Geithner could cost President Obama reelection:

In a general-election trial heat in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll [Mitt Romney] runs evenly with Barack Obama among all Americans, and numerically outpoints him, 49-46 percent, among registered voters -- not a statistically significant lead, given sampling error, but a clear reflection of Obama's vulnerability to a ell-positioned challenger.

Yes, it's the economy, stupid:

59 percent, a new high -- disapprove of Obama's handling of the economy, which, in a nutshell, is what the public's frustration is all about.

Mitt Romney can beat Obama in 2012, thanks to Tim Geithner. Let's hope the GOP is stupid enough to nominate someone else.

Speaking for me only

Atrios and Krugman point favorably to this Christine Romer speech (PDF):

My main criticism is that they took their eye off the ball in late 2009 and 2010. [. . .]Like the Federal Reserve, the Administration and Congress should have done more in the fall of 2009 and early 2010 to aid the recovery. I remember that fall of 2009 as a very frustrating one. It was very clear to me that the economy was still struggling, but the will to do more to help it had died. There was a definite split among the economics team about whether we should push for more fiscal stimulus, or switch our focus to the deficit.

I'm not a Nobel prizing winning economist but I find Romer's arguments unpersuasive on when the "main" mistake occurred. In my view it was during the First Hundred Days, and not just because the fiscal stimulus was grossly inadequate (and was too dependent on tax cuts.) The biggest failure was in its grossly negligent response to the housing crisis. Romer writes:

The Anthony Weiner thread is filling up. You can continue the discussion here.

The U.S. is still not convinced Ilyas Kashmiri is dead. Me either.

The defense rested in the Tahawwur Rana terror trial after calling two witnesses, a computer expert and an immigration lawyer. They didn't call their LeT expert Marc Sageman even though the judge ruled they could. The Judge asked the Government if he should dismiss the Indictment as to Ilyas Kashmiri, and the Government said no. Rana didn't testify. Closing arguments are tomorrow.

TV tonight: On The Bachelorette, Bentley gets exposed as a truly awful cad. And the guy with the mask finally takes it off. I wish they'd get to Thailand already, I'm looking forward to seeing Chiang Mai and Phuket. (They also went to Hong Kong and Taiwan, before finishing up in Fiji.)

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

What pols do in their private lives, absent legal or ethical issues, is not my business.

What is my business is what they do about public policy.

YMMV.

UPDATE: He admits everything. Apologizes. Not resigning.

Speaking for me only

Update (TL): Anthony Weiner lied for days with a straight face. I think he's toast.

Paul Krugman:

By the way, defenders of the G.O.P. plan often assert that it resembles other, less unpopular programs. [. . .] I’ve been seeing claims that Vouchercare would be just like the system created for Americans under 65 by last year’s health care reform [. . .]

[. . .] First, Obamacare was very much a second-best plan, conditioned by perceived political realities. Most of the health reformers I know would have greatly preferred simply expanding Medicare to cover all Americans. Second, the Affordable Care Act is all about making health care, well, affordable, offering subsidies whose size is determined by the need to limit the share of their income that families spend on medical costs. Vouchercare, by contrast, would simply hand out vouchers of a fixed size, regardless of the actual cost of insurance. And these vouchers would be grossly inadequate.

(Emphasis supplied.) Let me make 2 points in response - (1) The exchange/subsidies reform created by ACA do not forward us towards the best plan - Medicare for All. They take us toward the path of VoucherCare. What's more realistic? That Medicare will be made to resemble the exchange/subsidy reform or that the exchange/subsidy reform will be made to look more like Medicare? I think the former. (2) The size of the subsidies under ACA will be much more dependent on defeating the "Austerity Now! crowd than on the affordability of insurance on the exchanges. The reality is ACA will likely end up looking like VoucherCare when it is all said and done. Krugman's critique of VoucherCare is spot on. But he has a blind spot on the weakness of the exchange/subsidy reform in ACA, which likely will become VoucherCare.

Speaking for me only

Dominique Strauss-Kahn pleaded not guilty to sexual assualt charges today.

Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich is back on the witness stand undergoing cross-examination in his retrial on corruption charges.

The Government rested its case today in the Chicago terror trial of Tahawwur Rana. The defense has said it will call a a computer expert and immigration attorney. Last week, the Judge denied the Government's motion under Daubert to exclude the expert testimony of Marc Sageman, an expert on LeT. They said it's unlikely Rana will testify. Rummana Hussein is live-tweeting from court.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.