Obama: Big Bonuses for Bankers OK

I have whiplash.

Obama now says big bonuses for some "savvy" bankers are appropriate.

Video here.

From Bloomberg:

President Barack Obama said he doesn’t “begrudge” the $17 million bonus awarded to JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon or the $9 million issued to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. CEO Lloyd Blankfein, noting that some athletes take home more pay.

The president, speaking in an interview, said in response to a question that while $17 million is “an extraordinary amount of money” for Main Street, “there are some baseball players who are making more than that and don’t get to the World Series either, so I’m shocked by that as well.”

“I know both those guys; they are very savvy businessmen,” Obama said in the interview yesterday in the Oval Office with Bloomberg BusinessWeek, which will appear on newsstands Friday. “I, like most of the American people, don’t begrudge people success or wealth. That is part of the free- market system.”

Obama sought to combat perceptions that his administration is anti-business and trumpeted the influence corporate leaders have had on his economic policies. He plans to reiterate that message when he speaks to the Business Roundtable, which represents the heads of many of the biggest U.S. companies, on Feb. 24 in Washington.

WHAT?

Insert spit-take here.

Obama doesn't begrudge people success or wealth?

WHAT??

That doesn't sound at all like the class warfare that he's been inciting during his first year in office. That's not at all in line with his "tax the rich" rallying cry.

Are we really supposed to believe that Obama is a champion of the free market system?

Absolutely ridiculous.