What Hamilton Has Wrought

Obama’s Remarks About AIG’s Bonuses

Q Mr. President, you received —

THE PRESIDENT: I’m sorry, I can’t hear you.

Q — you received $100,000 from AIG during the campaign. How do you feel about those contributions today? Do you plan to do anything about it? And at least one member of Congress has now called for your Secretary of the Treasury to resign. Your thoughts.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I have complete confidence in Tim Geithner and my entire economic team. Understand, as I said before, Tim Geithner didn’t draft these contracts with AIG. There has never been a Secretary of the Treasury, except maybe Alexander Hamilton, right after the Revolutionary War, who’s had to deal with the multiplicity of issues that Secretary Geithner is having to deal with — all at the same time.

And he is doing so with intelligence and diligence. Nobody is working harder than this guy. He is making all the right moves in terms of playing a bad hand. And what we need to be doing is making sure that we are providing him the support that he needs in order to work through all these problems so that we’re able to deal with them more effectively in the future.

"A nation which can prefer disgrace to danger is prepared for a master, and deserves one!"
-- Alexander Hamilton