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More reader responses to the "Tone Deaf?" post and my question about what the political up-side is for the Obama Administration in downplaying the AIG bonuses fiasco:

TPM Reader John Doe:

former campaign staffer here. on the off chance you post my comments, please refrain from using my initials.

the political-communications upside to axelrod's statement is self-evident as soon as you step into his shoes. all he cares about is the narrative and the stories that this statement will generate. all it takes is a solid percentage of commentary to key in on the "YEAH, that's what people are worried about" storyline. some time today, norah o'donnell will ask some bloviator if he thinks people care about AIG, and he'll say yes-no-maybe, depending on whether he's someone toeing the white house line, and then there's a second commentator sitting there ready to rejoin. quite frankly, axelrod is changing the nature of the conversation at a time when the white house is, in fact, treading perilous ground. and if they successfully refocus media attention on 'kitchen table' issues, they'll have lived to fight another day.

i also happen to think he's not entirely wrong, insofar as the rage, though it may exist, has also been a manufactured pose by establishment washington, a group of people usually indifferent to indecent sums being made by undeserving people. the american people as such may care about AIG, but they also loathe the bullshit theater. i'm disappointed the white house felt compelled to engage in it.

TPM Reader RP:

People (like me) are outraged by the AIG situation because they (correctly) perceive there are two systems -- the system for average working folks, and the system for fat cats.

The system for average working folks is "you're on your own" -- if things
go wrong, tough. Deal with it. Laid off? Get another job. Lose your health
insurance? Too bad, so sad.

The system for the AIGs of the world is guaranteed success. If the company
succeeds, everyone makes millions. If the company fails, the taxpayers will
provide the billions.

It's not that people are sitting around the lunch room talking about this.
It's that nobody in the Obama Administration seems to want to address the
"two system" problem.

The Bushies are advocates of the "two system" system. Indeed, Bush himself
was a product of the "fail upward" system. I expected better from Obama.

TPM Reader EG:

I'll take a stab at explaining the uproar over a relatively small part of the bailout package.

What worries people (taxpayers) is that millions of dollars of bonus, amounts that may only be earned over a lifetime by most of us, in the face of what seems to be overt criminal fraud is proof that the bad guys are still in charge.

The sense of impotence in the face of financial rape is palpable. This is the deepest and most essential fear we are all living under, forced as we are to depend on Geithner to protect us from further damage, that he may be incapable (or perverted) to the task, witness the bonus.

TPM Reader RR:

This is where I part company with TPM, though you all are generally laudable in your commitment to get to the bottom of things. This time, not so much.

It's hard to argue with Axelrod's view of this whole flap as a huge "distraction." The bonus affair is a symptom, not a cause. Further, it's not new. The fundamental issue isn't the bonuses, but the deeper question of why Paulson, and now Geithner, are keeping AIG's equity alive at all. If you peel back the Treasury's doublespeak, it appears that it's been done in the interests of an orderly winding down of AIG, in a time frame that maintains a modicum of stability and confidence in the financial markets. The faux populism you are fomenting, fanning the flames of the bonus hysteria, is doing nobody any good. Much as I love all of you at TPM, your ignorance of how financial markets work is really hurting you--and all of us, really--right now.

Axelrod's bigger problem, and Obama's too, is that they need someone very credible to stand up and teach you, and all Americans, about what's going on, how we got here, and how we will recover. That simply hasn't happen yet, and it may just kill us if doesn't take shape soon.