It isn’t news when the stock market drops. It is news, though, when the Dow drops almost 400 points the day after President Obama’s lackluster news conference performance and hours after Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner outlined the Obama administration’s plan to save the banks.

This part of CNBC’s article jumped off the page at me:

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down more than 300 points after Treasury Secretary Tim Geither revealed details of the bank-bailout plan. Earlier, the blue-chip index was down less than 100 points.

I’ve said in other posts that I don’t have much confidence in the Obama administration’s economic policies.

This paragraph from this article will likely give the Obama administration additional heartburn:

Financial stocks led the market lower, reflecting Wall Street’s growing concerns about the government’s ability to restore the health of the banking industry. Traders and investors said the lack of specifics from Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on how the government would direct more than $1 trillion in public and private support was troubling.

Though I’m sure the Obama administration, led by renowned wordsmith Robert Gibbs, will try spinning this, people are worried about the Obama administration’s ability to right America’s economic ship.

Support for the stimulus bill is still low. People still prefer a stimulus package that focuses more on multi-year tax cuts than on pork-barrel spending. The headwind that President Obama is running into is that people remember the Bush tax cuts creating jobs and starting the latest recovery.

President Obama can talk all he wants about “the failed policies of the last eight years” but people remember that the economy tanked when the banking system failed.

This post, from the Huffington Post of all places, will likely give Obama administration officials heartburn, too:

Administration officials were greeted with sarcasm and laughter Monday night when they briefed lawmakers and congressional staff on Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner’s new financial-sector bailout project, according to people who were in the room.

The laughter was at its height when Obama officials explained that the White House planned to guarantee a wide swath of toxic assets, which they referred to as “legacy assets”, but wouldn’t be asking Congress for money. Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA), a bailout opponent in the fall, asked the officials to give Congress the total dollar figure for which they were on the hook. The officials said that they couldn’t provide a number, a response met by chuckling that was bipartisan, but tilted toward the GOP side. By guaranteeing the assets, Geithner hopes he can persuade the private sector to purchase a portion of them.

TRANSLATION: Legislators don’t trust this administration. Mainstreet people don’t trust the Obama/Pelosi/Reid stimulus package. Legislators, Wall Street and main street alike don’t trust TARP II or Tim Geithner.

Here’s another thing that will give the Obama administration heartburn:

Some market watchers remain skeptical over the benefits of the plan and legendary investor Jim Rogers told CNBC it could even make things worse. The bailout will plunge the US further into debt and it is designed by the same people who failed to forecast the crisis in the first place, Rogers said.

What makes us think that Tim Geithner knows what he’s doing? We’ve heard Obama administration apologists tell us that we had to confirm Geithner because he was the only man on earth that could right the wrongs of the banking system. Let’s remember that this is the man who helped put the original TARP plan together, then didn’t commit himself to being a watchdog for where that money disappeared to.

The Obama administration said early and often that they’d be a transparent administration. Thus far, it doesn’t sound like they’re willing to pay more than a token amount of attention to transparency.

That shouldn’t surprise anyone. They haven’t been trustworthy on their other promises either.

Treasury Secretary Geithner especially deserves this:

Helluva job, Timmie.

Technorati: Banking, TARP II, Stock Market, Tim Geithner, President Obama, Robert Gibbs, Brad Sherman, Democrats, Investors, Jim Rodgers, Debt, GDP

Cross-posted at California Conservative