TPM Reader AN responds:

At what point do you think Obama fans will dispense with this weird fantasy that your reader BR indulges in about what Obama is really thinking and what his real plans are?

I personally am an Obama fan. And I think it makes sense to give him the benefit of the doubt during the period before actual policy is either announced or implemented. But there has to come a point where people stop pretending that Obama is some superintelligent ninjalike political operator who’s playing the game at a level the rest of us novices cannot even comprehend and instead start holding him accountable for the decisions that he or his subordinates make.

When Geithner was nominated a lot of people complained that he was a poor choice because he was far too beholden to the big Wall Street players and their interests. Now it appears that he’s trying to do everything in his power to protect those very people at the expense of the American tax payer. For better or worse this falls squarely on Obama’s shoulders–as it should.

I think people want Obama to be something that perhaps he’s not–namely, a strong progressive democrat. Maybe he really is a centrist (and I don’t mean a vague meaningless Ben Nelson type) and that’s fine. But if a person is hoping for a more progressive president it won’t really do any good to pretend that he’d be more progressive if only he could. Sooner or later people are going to have to demand more progressive policy.

It seems that Tzipi Livni’s Kadima party may be pulling out a very narrow upset over Netanyahu’s Likud. On the other hand, even if Kadima gets the most votes, the exit polls are suggesting parties of the right with just over 60 seats in the Knesset. So it’s not clear Livni would be able to form a government even if they win a plurality of seats.

Late Update: Looking a little deeper into these results it’s a very weird outcome. It looks pretty clear that Netanyahu ‘lost’ in that Kadima will probably get two seats more than Likud. But it also looks clear that parties of the right are going to have like 63 or 64 seats. And in a parliamentary system, who wins a minor plurality doesn’t really mean anything. That said, if Netanyahu can form a government it seems like he’ll come in a substantially weakened state.

Leisure class wingnut posse forming to out Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) in primary challenge next year.

In other news, Sarah Palin’s cronified Attorney General who was knee deep in her scandals suddenly announces resignation to spend more time … doing something, not clear what.

We’ve found our Geithner fan. Floyd Norris of the Times says: “Tim Geithner hit all the right notes in his speech on the new bailout plan today, and as I said last night on the Charlie Rose show, I think it has a chance to work. It is clear that he and his colleagues have given a lot of thought to what failed to work last year, and learned from the experience.”