ObamaFest

"Could we get Annie Leibovitz to shoot some
M1 tanks rolling down Wall Street?"


After a long career spent bumbling out of the spotlight, Louis Caldera finally managed to fuck-up in front of the whole world. 

The mastermind behind Air Force One's terror flight over Manhattan, Caldera represents everything wrong with a political system that rewards a man for his surname, rather than his accomplishments.

Caldera in a nutshell:

1)  Served in the Army on active duty for only six years, mostly based at Fort Dix, New Jersey.  This was good enough for President Clinton to appoint Caldera Secretary of the Army in 1998.  The ObamaFest Team likes our Army leaders to have real experience, preferably guys who have heard things like, "Incoming!" instead of, "Yo, I got your salute right here!"

2)  Served in the California Assembly for six years, chairing the Banking and Finance Committee, the Revenue and Taxation Committee, and the Budget Committee.  Caldera left California with the highest taxes in the nation and, amazingly, the biggest deficits.

3)  Took a high paying, do-nothing job as Vice Chancellor for University Advancement (?#!*?) for the Cal State University System, where they were happy to see him move on when the University of New Mexico needed a Latino to serve as its President. 

4)  Served on the board of directors for IndyMac bank, the bank created by Angelo Mozilo and his cronies at Countrywide Financial.  From Wikipedia: 

"IndyMac’s aggressive growth strategy, use of Alt-A and other nontraditional loan products, insufficient underwriting, credit concentrations in residential real estate in the California and Florida markets, and heavy reliance on costly funds borrowed from the Federal Home Loan Bank (FHL and from brokered deposits, led to its demise when the mortgage market declined in 2007."

Schemes like IndyMac rely on political influence, and Caldera was a well compensated part of the equation. 

Hindsight is 20/20, but Caldera is exactly the kind of guy you don't give an office in The White House.  But if you insist on a hire that gives you a little Latino window dressing, don't give the guy the federal credit card and the authority to spend $328,835 on a photo shoot.