Matt Taib-bagger

As much as it pains me to say it, we've lost Rolling Stone econ and political reporter Matt Taibbi to the realm of the anti-Obama "left".

But I remember following Obama on the campaign trail and hearing all sorts of promises before union-heavy crowds. He said he would raise the minimum wage every year; he said he would fight free-trade agreements. He also talked about repealing the Bush tax cuts and ending tax breaks for companies that move jobs overseas.

It's not just that he hasn't done those things. The more important thing is that the people he's surrounded himself with are not labor people, but stooges from Wall Street. Barack Obama has as his chief of staff a former top-ranking executive from one of the most grossly corrupt mega-companies on earth, JP Morgan Chase. He sees Bill Daley in his own office every day, yet when it comes time to talk abut labor issues, he has to go out and make selected visits twice a year or whatever to the Richard Trumkas of the world.

Listening to Obama talk about jobs and shared prosperity yesterday reminded me that we are back in campaign mode and Barack Obama has started doing again what he does best – play the part of a progressive. He's good at it. It sounds like he has a natural affinity for union workers and ordinary people when he makes these speeches. But his policies are crafted by representatives of corporate/financial America, who happen to entirely make up his inner circle.

I just don't believe this guy anymore, and it's become almost painful to listen to him.

The problem with this is by reading any of the other Taibbi pieces I've linked to over the years, you then have solid evidence that Taibbi's an excellent journalist, strong writer, and a bulldog factchecker.  Why he's then reduced to feeble whining about Bill Daley being chief of staff and blaming Obama for not passing legislation instead of Congress, reduced to magical thinking about the power of the White House versus Congress, then there really isn't much hope for journalism at this point.

I know Taibbi is better than peddling this farcical crap, but apparently not when it comes to the the political reality of the Presidency in 2011.