Let the Mud Flinging Begin

It is no secret that the economy is in a tailspin that is likely to last another year or so, despite what the perky-jerkies at CNBC tell us. Statistics can be tweaked and cherry-picked to highlight the good stuff easily enough (we journalists are great at that), but many people are beginning to look underneath the headlines for the truth. So when Republican senators blamed US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner for the mess the country is in and called for his resignation, it was clear that there was a hidden agenda. This is it: Get the American people riled up about losing their jobs and their homes and blame the current administration loudly and often. Then get Sarah Palin to write a book and go on a 'book tour' where she gets 'unfairly' criticized by the lefty loony press and praised to the heavens by Fox News. Then get the UK's Daily Mail to run an hysterical story about floating storage for oil - telling readers that it is the fault of these 'sharks' in the oil business that petrol prices are rising (thereby removing the blame from an economic recovery being the reason). Then cherry-pick all of the worst economic statistics and depress even CNBC. Then head into the 2010 elections with every center-right or right-winged person in America that uses Glenn Beck as their primary news source prepped to vote. Goodbye Democratic majority. Mr. Geithner showed yesterday that he has grown a pair. Now he has to explain to the people just how well his policies are working. Because - to be honest - it is rather difficult to see.