Personal Responsibility

The way the whole story of bonuses for folks at American Insurance Group (AIG) has unfolded, it has become like a huge fire, consuming all the oxygen from other matters of equal or greater importance. It is symbolic of much that has gone wrong recently, and the way the collapse of the financial services industry has been handled.

It is a wonder to see President Obama take responsibility for the way the entire mess has spun completely out of control.

Asked if he wished he’d known about the bonuses sooner, Obama said, in the course of answering: “Ultimately, I’m responsible. I’m the President of the United States…The buck stops with me.”

Wow. Rather than sit around and whine that he inherited a mess of bad policy from the previous Administration (which he did) and that his hands were tied for legal reasons, he just flat-out said, "Folks, I should have done more, and known more to prevent this."

I'm not sure we're ready for a President who assumes responsibility for things that have gone wrong on his watch (compare with Dick Cheney's "stuff happens" comment from his recent interview).