important ceilings

Obama Has Been Waiting All Week to Use This Line

We “could lose our country’s AAA credit rating, because we lack a AAA political system,” the president said in his brief, debt-ceiling press conference this morning. (Talk about a straw man! Who exactly has been touting the efficacy of American politicians this summer?) The rest of the speech was a mixture of minor scolding, directed at Republicans, and major reassurances, directed at the markets, that something will indeed get passed. “There are a lot of crises in the world that we can’t always predict or avoid,” Obama said. “This isn’t one of those crises.”

The market wasn’t so calmed, though — it dropped six points following the speech, which didn’t offer much of a specific gameplan.

The president did, however, urge Americans to keep calling, emailing, and tweeting their congressmen about the debt crisis. If congressmen are checking their @ replies on Twitter today for guidance, this ship might really be going down.

Obama Has Been Waiting All Week to Use This Line