First Read: The day in politics by NBC News for NBC News

FIRST THOUGHTS.

FD: I have gotten into a "bad" habit of using my DVR to record all the weekend talk shows and watching only the ones that "stir up the news on Monday."

Obama on the Tonight Show?
Jay wants to go off the air with style and grace.

I like the way that every week has a theme with Obama.
It is like watching a episoe (sp blog needs spell checking) of "West Wing."
However, this time it is for real, folks.



*** Rage Against The Machine: Anger at Wall Street and at America's financial institutions has been simmering for a while now -- the numerous bailouts, Bernie Madoff, and Jon Stewart vs. CNBC have been just a few examples. But with the news over the weekend that AIG, 80% of which is now owned by the federal government, is awarding millions in bonuses to executives has most likely turned that anger into a furious boil. As the New York Times' Nagourney writes, this populist backlash presents a huge challenge for an Obama administration that might have to hand out additional bailouts to further stabilize the banking industry. ("The biggest risk is that we don't have the political will," Fed chairman Ben Bernanke warned last night on "60 Minutes." "We don't have the commitment to solve this problem, and that we let it just continue.") But the populist rage also might present a bigger challenge to the political party that's more associated with big business, less regulation, and tax cuts for the wealthy. In fact, if there was a time for the Obama administration and Democrats to push to let the Bush tax cuts to expire, to press for the Employee Free Choice Act (or "card check"), or to institute new regulations, this is the time, right? Still, now's a time when everyone in Washington is suddenly going to be channeling his/her inner-populist. Who will have the most credibility doing it? As for the short term, Congress is going to want a pound of flesh (and then some) from AIG. Obama also will discuss AIG during his remarks today (see immediately below).


*** Learning Their Lesson? What a difference a week makes. Last Monday, President Obama held just one event on stem cells and nothing on the economy. Now fast-forward a week, and all it's all about the economy on this Monday (and also about propping up Geithner again). At 11:25 am ET, President Obama and Geithner meet with small business owners and community lenders, and then Geithner delivers remarks to these folks at noon. No one can say these guys don't listen to criticism, particularly regarding the optics on the economy. Per Bloomberg, Obama and Geithner will announce $375 million (from the economic stimulus) "to help small businesses to expand federal guarantees and lower lending fees to try to revive the flow of credit. Obama also will announce his intention to spend more than $10 billion in an effort to unlock the secondary credit market and increase bank liquidity." Also today, at 2:00 pm, Obama speaks to employees at the Department of Veterans Affairs. Speaking of optics, the president has a late-night date with Jay Leno on Thursday when he travels to California. Just asking: when was the last time a sitting president did the "Tonight Show"?


*** A Fundamentally Rough Interview: While the AIG news dominated the latter parts of the Sunday conversation, don't miss the fact that Christina Romer, chair of Obama's Council of Economic Advisers, helped put the administration in a bit of a spinning bind today. On "Meet the Press," when asked if the fundamentals of the U.S. economy are strong (in reference to Obama's McCain-like remark last week about the "fundamentally sound aspects of our economy"), Romer gave a McCain-like answer, circa Sept. '08: "Well, of course the fundamentals are sound in the sense that the American workers are sound, we have a good capital stock, we have good technology." And, while we're not sure if the administration wanted this out there or not, Romer also admitted that we are in a war -- an analogy the administration appeared to be sidestepping last week.

First Read with NBC News Political Director Chuck Todd, every weekday on MSNBC-TV at 9 a.m. ET.

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