Rockin' Robbin.

This can't be life.

Words. For Your Consideration...

"If you held a contest to pick the worst thing a politician could be called at this moment, my nominee would be Wall Street Liberal.

...And what institutions are held in lower esteem right now than those represented by the words "Wall Street"? The left has always disliked Wall Street. Populists of all stripes have gone after financiers since the days of Andrew Jackson. And the right can cast Wall Streeters as the recipients of Washington's largess. Oh, yes, and they were the highfliers who tanked the American economy.

...If you want to understand why President Obama's standing in the polls is not where it used to be -- and also why the populist-sounding Tea Party movement has gained so much traction -- consider that some significant part of the American voting population has come to see the administration as both too liberal and too tied to Wall Street.

Never mind that Obama is not really all that liberal (read any of the liberal bloggers if you doubt this) and never mind that Wall Street is fighting Obama on financial reform, particularly on his excellent proposal to create a financial consumer protection agency. The fact is that the Wall Street tag is sticking, and Obama was always going to battle the L-word.

...Moving the tax burden toward the financial sector is thus a matter of both justice and political necessity. The best thing that could happen to Obama would be for him to have a fight or two with Wall Street and the big banks on behalf of balancing the budget. It is precisely the way to shake off both ends of the Wall Street Liberal tag.

This also has the benefit of challenging the Tea Party movement to come clean on whether it really is populist, or merely using populist rhetoric to pursue the same old low-tax, low-regulation agenda that got us into this mess.

Will the Tea Party crowd come out against taxes on banks and finance in the name of their libertarian principles? If they do, what kind of populists are they?

After a year in which progressives played defense, it's time to call some bluffs."

THE WASHINGTON POST: Obama needs to cut his Wall Street tag