According to Don Imus, it's the late-1970s all over again, and not in a good way.
Imus appeared on the Fox News Channel's Nov. 24 "Hannity" program and had some disparaging words for the current administration's economic policy. He told viewers that Obama's associations with Jeremiah Wright and Bill Ayers weren't the problem (h/t Erick Erickson at RedState.com).
"You had me convinced - yes, he was. But you had me convinced that Jeremiah Wright and Bill Ayers and some of these people are all going to be in the Cabinet. We'd be better off if they were," Imus said.
The real problem associations according to Imus are his current Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and former Treasury Secretary and Citigroup executive Robert Rubin.
"We got Geithner and that crook Bob Rubin and these other people they're ruing this country," Imus said.
According to Imus, Obama took a different tack during his presidential campaign on changing the dynamic of Wall Street. But as it turned out, he's following in the line of former President Jimmy Carter.
"I think the big story is that he promised all of these things that he was going to do and you should read Matt Taibbi's current issue - in the current issue of Rolling Stone talking about how - about what a bait and switch scam this was," Imus said. "Particularly regarding Wall Street and the economy, where you have all of these people on his campaign who were - they were going to call Wall Street to task. They were going to take these people to task. They were going to change the way we conducted our economy. And the second he was elected, he sent those people to Siberia and he got on a phone to Bob Rubin and Geithner and the rest of - and Larry Summers and these other crooks, and it's business as usual. He's Jimmy Carter stupid, in the words of [Imus Show producer] Bernard McGuirk."
And Imus reiterated his point about Obama's associates - not the radicals like Van Jones or John Holdren often talked about by mainstream conservative pundits, but those who influence economic and fiscal policy in the White House.
"I think - I mean, I don't know - I think he's so - I think he's a decent guy. And, OK, let me finish. And I think he's fine. But I think he's so happy to be president, and just the way he acts. And that little snapping his fingers and bopping around behind the podium when he reads the teleprompter about whatever he wants to do. I mean he's really thrilled to death to be president. And that's fine." Imus said. "But I don't think he has a clue. And I think all along - I think he was - I don't think he was - I don't think he was hanging with Bill Ayers. I think he was hanging with Bob Rubin. And Larry Summers. And all those people. And Geithner. I think he's more enamored of those people than he would ever in a million years be of Jeremiah Wright or Bill Ayers."
