Money Shot

Neomonetarist Scott Sumner has a quote from An Outhouse at his blog:

It was Romer’s first meeting with the President-elect in November 2008. According to Ron Suskind’s book  “Confidence Men: Wall Street, Washington, and the Education of a President,”Obama had “a woman problem: too few of them in key jobs” and he was trying to bring in Christina Romer. And “It’s clear monetary policy has shot its wad” is what Obama said to her before even “hello.” Is that how you talk to a woman?

She then quotes the following passage from Suskind:

It was a strange break from decorum for a man who had done so outstandingly well with women voters. The two had never met before, and this made the salty, sexual language hard to read. Later it would seem a foreshadowing of something that came to irk many of the West Wing’s women: the president didn’t have particularly strong “women skills.” The guy’s-guy persona, which the message team would use to show Obama’s down-to-earth side, failed to account for at least one thing: What if you didn’t play basketball or golf? Still, for the moment, the comment didn’t faze Romer. She was curious to hear what he thought.

“What do you mean?” she asked.

Obama extended his hand, now ready to greet her. “I guess we need to focus on fiscal policy,” he said.

“No, you’re wrong,” Romer corrected him. “There’s quite a bit we can still do monetarily, even with the historically low interest rates."

I like Romer so this made me cringe. It's obviously unprofessional even if it is weirdly funny in a surreal way. But interesting that Obama already thought the Fed was "pushing on a string" back then. What sorts of conversations did he have with Bernanke?

I also wonder about the timing of the release of Suskind's book with its picture of the frat-house atmosphere of the White House with the historic repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell which made the White House seem gay-friendly. Maybe they were cooridnated or maybe it was just a coincidence?