By all reasonable measures, Hank Paulson has little idea what he is doing.
And yet, even as he has consistently failed to meet the goals he has set or implement the plans he has defined, he has been, in a remarkable demonstration of media generosity, given the benefit of the doubt. This may be because he has a forceful and determined look—bald is photogenic.
Or because Goldman Sachs, from where he comes, still, oddly, has best-and-brightest credibility. Or, more likely, because nobody else in media, financial, or political circles, knows what is going on either.
Everybody has been so grateful that Paulson has been willing to be the poster-boy of financial cataclysm that he earned an amount of respect. Likewise, despite most evidence to the contrary, everybody has sincerely hoped that Paulson is not a moron and that he might actually improve the situation (this goodwill is notable, because in Washington large numbers of people are always rooting for failure).
But now, with his hapless, repeated, public juggling of the $700 billion in bailout funds, the jig is up.
(AP Image)
A specific person to blame is exactly what this crisis has lacked. Indeed, blaming the system itself, or humankind’s own basic failings (i.e. greed), merely increases the no-exit sense of crisis.
We need to make the crisis human—failure demands a face. We’ll all start to feel better, actually feel like we’ve gained a bit of control, when we can start to blame somebody.
Hank Paulson, as grasping at thin air, as muddled headed, as clueless and as panicked as any public figure in recent memory, is a logical place to start.
