Irony of ironies: Obama, Wall Street and the Hamilton Project

Our friend Red Dragon asked for our thoughts on this interview with Jeff Cohen of FAIR. First, I'm not comfortable with Cohen's all-too-familiar anti-DLC yada-yada. As many of you know, I'm not one of those progs who goes into fits of paranoia every time someone mentions the dreaded DLC. But let's leave that to one side for now.

If you watch the above interview past the 4:30 mark, you'll discover that newly-minted senator Barack Obama was the only member of that body to show up for a founding meeting of a newly minted institute, the Hamilton Project, which is an outgrowth of the Brookings Institute. Is this another Potemkin Mordor (a phrase I've used to describe the DLC), or is it something real, something upon which we may base a Theory of Obama?

Follow the money. As Cohen notes, Obama got tons of green from Wall Street sources long before he was a front-runner -- even though Wall Street usually backs the front-runner and even though Hillary represented New York.

Cohen finds something sinister in the very name "Hamilton Project." Actually, I'd be thrilled if Obama's economic program were more Hamiltonian.

As readers may know, I am a huge admirer of Ha-Joon Chang's Bad Samaritans, which makes the case against free trade and other libertarian dogmas. This review by Thom Hartmann summarizes what Chang says about Hamilton:

In the earliest days of our nation, George Washington's Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, with some writing and editing help from Tench Coxe, outlined what came to be the foundation of American industrial policy. At its core was the protection of what Hamilton referred to as "infant" industries.

Hamilton's point was that there are two things needed for an "infant industry" to turn into a genuine manufacturing power. The first was cheap raw materials, the second protection from foreign competition.

To protect the nascent clothing industry (in this example), Hamilton also strongly advocated short-term supports to the budding industries (for example, government support or gifts of land for the production of factories) and tariffs on foreign-made clothing.

Wall Street has an anti-Hamiltonian bias. Finance capital is international in its outlook; industrial capitalism is national. We need to look after our own interests -- to rebuild our nation. To make stuff again.

So the question is: Is the Hamilton Project actually Hamiltonian? I'd say no.

However, an odd wind is starting to blow. Very odd indeed.

Obama has turned to anti-Wall Street rhetoric and even, praise Jeebus, to some anti-Wall Street actions, such as capping executive pay. And the Street gang is pissed. In fact, they are turning to the GOP:

Republicans are rushing to capitalize on what they call Wall Street’s “buyer’s remorse” with the Democrats. And industry executives and lobbyists are warning Democrats that if Mr. Obama keeps attacking Wall Street “fat cats,” they may fight back by withholding their cash.

“If the president doesn’t become a little more balanced and centrist in his approach, then he will likely lose that support,” said Kelly S. King, the chairman and chief executive of BB&T. Mr. King is a board member of the Financial Services Roundtable, which lobbies for the biggest banks, and last month he helped represent the industry at a private dinner at the Treasury Department.

As a result, the faux-centrist "tea party" movement -- which in large part owes its success to popular revulsion over the financial bailout -- is screaming "Socialist!", simply because this administration finally seems sorta serious about reigning in the greedy executives who slapped AAA ratings on newfangled financial instruments based on crap, thereby destroying the economy. You can see various outcroppings of this sentiment all over the right side of the net. And the Republicans in congress are now the ones protecting the big financials from regulation.

So here's the sitch -- and it's a very strange sitch, a very annoying sitch:

Obama gets into power with donations from the big financials. He spent his first year in office coddling that crowd. That coddling alienated much of his progressive base. It also allowed the right to create a fake "populist" movement against him.

Now he is slowly coming 'round to the idea of regulating Wall Street -- because that's the only way to salvage both this rotten economy and his failing presidency. The Street gang says in reply: "We brought you into this world, and we'll take you out." No money for 2012. International corporate money will be the deciding factor in upcoming elections, thanks to our lovely Supreme Court.

Neither the progs nor the tea-baggers will forgive him for Year One. The Republicans energized their base through anti-Street rhetoric -- yet they'll win elections with Street money.

Wot I calls irony, that is.