"The Rant of the Year" |
Rick Santelli was an on-air editor for the CNBC Business News network.[1] On Thursday, February 19, 2009, in an on-air segment on CNBC Business Newslive, Santelli called for a Chicago Tea Party. Santelli's remarks became known as the "Rant Heard 'Round the World."[2]
As Santelli made his remarks, a $275 billion federal government mortgage bailout had recently been signed by President Barack Obama. Throughout the segment, which was broadcast live, cheers could be heard from the crowd of traders working on the nearby trade floor.
Background[edit]
Santelli graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and has been a member of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board of Trade. He began his career in 1979 as a trader and order filler at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange in markets that included gold, lumber, CD's, T-bills, foreign currencies, and livestock.
Santelli joined CNBC Business News as on-air editor in June 1999, reporting primarily from the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade. He joined CNBC from the Institutional Financial Futures and Options, where he was a vice president handling institutional trading and hedge accounts for futures-related products.
In the course of his normal production schedule at CNBC Business, Santelli appeared on-air about 12 to 16 times a day as of February 2009.[3]
"Rant Heard 'Round the World"[edit]
Santelli's remarks on February 19 added additional fuel to a fire that began in Seattle on February 16, when Liberty Belle organized a rally to protest Barack Obama's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the 1,071 page bill signed by Obama in Denver on February 17.
In his remarks, Santelli called for a Chicago Tea Party. In response, fiscally conservative bloggers and activists began organizing a series of such events, beginning two days after his speech in Kansas.[4]
On Friday, February 20, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs attacked Santelli, saying Santelli "doesn’t know what he’s talking about" and "I would encourage him to read the president’s plan and understand that it will help millions of people, many of whom he knows. I’d be more than happy to have him come here and read it. I’d be happy to buy him a cup of coffee - decaf."[5]
The reference to "decaf" was interpreted as a criticism of the energetic delivery style deployed by Santelli in his remarks.[6]
Santelli responded moments later on-air, saying, "I would love to show up. I want a dialogue. Enlighten me, enlighten America. Make us see the light. We want to be participating and we want this to work. We want to feel we’re all being treated fairly and equally."[5]
Financial analyst Larry Kudlow referred to the White House commentary on Santelli as an "unprecedented White House assault" on the freedom of the press. Kudlow also characterized it as a "blistering attack" foreshadowing the "worst press relations we've seen in our lifetime."[7]
Excerpts[edit]
Some excerpts from a transcript of Santelli's February 19 remarks:
- "The government was promoting bad behavior! How this, president and new administration, why didn't you put up a website to have people vote on the Internet as a referendum to see if we really want to subsidize the losers' mortgages or would we like to at least buy cars and buy houses in foreclosure and give 'em to people that might have a chance to actually prosper down the road and reward people that could carry the water instead of drink the water."
- "This was America! How many of you people want to pay for your neighbor's mortgage that has an extra bathroom and can't pay their bills? Raise their hand. President Obama, are you listening?"
- "Cuba used to have mansions and a relatively decent economy. They moved from the individual to the collective. Now they're driving '54 Chevys, may be the last great car to come out of Detroit. We're thinking of having a Chicago Tea Party in July. All you capitalists that want to show up at Lake Michigan, I'm going to start organizing."[8]
Impact[edit]
- National Public Radio's Mara Liasson said on Fox News, "About this populist backlash, I think they're worried [at the White House], and rightly so. In this kind of a situation, you want to be dishing out the populism if you're the president. You don't want to be on the receiving end."[3]
- "Wacker and Monroe [an intersection in Chicago] was our Lexington and Concord!" according to one supporter of Santelli's views.[7]
- Rasmussen Reports, the polling firm, said, "55% of American adults say the federal government would be rewarding bad behavior by providing mortgage subsidies to financially troubled homeowners. Among investors, 65% hold that view."[9]
- A Maryland resident told Politico, "I am an Obama supporter, campaigned for him, baked cookies for him; my husband and I are Democrats all the way, but this was the issue that gets our goat."[10]
- Over 40 Tea Party events were held on February 27 and 28. Subsequently, organizers of those events called for a new round of protests called the Tax Day Tea Party to be held on April 15.
External links[edit]
- Rick Santelli biography on CNBC.com
- Rick Santelli's Chicago Tea Party
- Chicago Tea Party
- Don't Go Movement Chicago Tea Party website
- Washington Tea Party
Footnotes[edit]
- ↑ Rick Santelli Profile, Biography, About
- ↑ Street Insider, "Rick Santelli - The Rant Heard 'Round the World'," February 19, 2009
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Chicago Tribune, "Rant raises profile of CNBC on-air personality Rick Santelli," February 23, 2009
- ↑ Christian Science Monitor, "CNBC’s Santelli sparks GOP outrage over Obama mortgage plan," February 22, 2009
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Wall Street Journal, "CNBC’s Rick Santelli vs. White House’s Robert Gibbs," February 20, 2009
- ↑ Politico, "Gibbs rebukes CNBC's Santelli," February 20, 2009
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Daily Finance, "The Rick Santelli epic continues," February 23, 2009
- ↑ Transcript of Santelli February 19 remarks
- ↑ U.S. News and World Report, "Santelli's not alone"
- ↑ The Politico, "Obama's challenge: A nation of Santellis," February 23, 2009
| ||||||||||
