It turns out that the guy whom President Obama named to run the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in place of the unconfirmable Elizabeth Warren has some serious nerd cred in the form of 5 Jeopardy! wins and a stint on the Tournament of Champions.
Thanks to the awesomeness that is the J! Archive, you can try to play against him. Here's a final Jeopardy! answer he knew: "Borough in which Henry VIII was born, they say you can stand in 2 different hemispheres there." What's the question?
Leave a Comment:
Greenwich?
Oops, What is Greenwich?
I don't know, but it sounds good to me.
Why were you named head of the CFPB and not Elizabeth Warren?
Because Elizabeth Warren didn't want the job.
"Warren, who hand-picked Cordray to serve in the agency shortly after his loss in last November's elections, expressed support for his selection."
Absolutely not true that Warren did not want the job. Totally false.
This is another disappointment and cave to Wall Street. Wall Street did not want Warren in there and they contribute in a big way to Obama. In fact, on June 24, 2011 Obama raised 2.4 million in ONE NIGHT from Wall Street.
Three weeks later and Elizabeth Warren is gone. What a surprise!
Don't let the sugar coated "expression of support" from Warren fool you. This agency would have been much stronger with her at the helm.
"But she was unconfirmable". The Republicans have been very open in their opposition to ANY candidate for this position unless they can weaken the agency. This position will require a recess appointment. And Obama has the power to declare a recess whenever he so desires.
"But she wants to run for Senate." This has been thrown at her by the national Democrats to move her along.
C'mon people - think!
I wouldn't discount Cordray if I were you, Mr. Gagne. He's a strong person to be putting at the helm, even though he isn't Elizabeth Warren. As the Attorney General here in Ohio, Cordray didn't hold back against conservative BS, and we lefties were anything BUT happy to see him go in 2010.
I was hoping that Mrs. Warren would be able to head the agency that she pioneered, but Cordray is a CLOSE second, and a very acceptable choice. Hell, this appointment by Obama is the first decision that he's made in quite some time that I, as a member of the progressive left, find wholly acceptable.
So you're saying Barney Frank was lying? If so, please post evidence supporting your accusation.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/16/warren-didnt-want-permane_n_719932.html
Senator Warren has a much nicer ring than Senator Brown
I can already hear the bankers shrieking "Armageddon! Armageddon!"
Freedom: Cordray may be good. We'll have to see. As you say Obama's track record is dismal.
TonyLM: The article says she didn't want to be a 5-year director - that doesn't say she didn't want the director job. Jeeze- good ol' Rahm Emanuel left after two years. It's very common. And by the way - she is never quoted directly.
It's very easy to offer someone a job and structure it so they wouldn't accept it.
IMO, anybody or anything the Refucliacans approve of cannot be in the best interests of democracy.
I distrust them and their policies to the core.
I felt an instant liking for Warren, and if the Refugs wouldn't confirm her, she must be a threat to them somewhere along the line.
David Gagne: If Elizabeth Warren had already stated she didn't want the job why not simply ask her to recommend someone to take the job for the full 5 years, which appears to be what happened. You get one Senate fight now (and as others have already said we know the Republicans will oppose whoever he nominates) and then you have a good, Warren-approved director for a full five years.
Pat P11111: I like the sound of Senator Warren, too. Her and Bernie Sanders would make a good team.
Tony:
Look, as I said people take Washington jobs for less than five years all the time. I gave you the example of Rahm. There's the example of Peter Orszag. I could go on and on.
What makes you think Cordray is staying for five years?
And Warren didn't recommend him as director - she hired him to work under her - big difference.
Senator Warren - that's only a possibility. She's never run for office before and that's big gamble. Some would call it a pipe dream.
@David, no pipe dream, it's hers if she wants it. But, that's the big question, would she want it? It would be good for Mass. because it would fill up the dead space now occupied by Brown, but, would it be a good fit for Elizabeth?
And, if the Democrats in Mass. feel that they already have a viable candidate, it could cause problems there as well. There are many questions that remain to be sorted out, but, if she ran, she would win. And, that would be a most magnificent slap in the face for the Republican body politic.
David
Cordray was hired by Warren to work under her but she did recommend him for the job. She has said that repeatedly. Do you think she is lying?
Too easy; oops, what is too easy?
Where is the Borough of Greenwich?
... or...
Where was Greenwich Parish? (Henry VIII wasn't born in any borough... they didn't have them back then).
Best attorney general Ohio ever had... now we have a wannabe nerd in office!
What is the equator?
Yet another Obama pick doesn't even get a chance because there is no chance repubs would confirm her. Of course, Elizabeth Warren is in good company: repubs recently refused to confirm an Obama nominee that was a Nobel Prize winner. Up against that, what chance does a Jeopardy champ have? On the other hand, if he plays ball and starts to say he doesn't believe in taxes, hates muslims and sharia law, and that God talks to him every day, he will be in like Flint!
God knows we don't want the brightest people working for our government.
Oh wait, that's just what Republicans know. They just say they speak for God.
So tired of hearing "we couldn't do this because those big mean Republicans wouldn't let us."
How do you know if you don't try?
Last time I checked there's a black guy named Obama Hussein in the White House. that didn't seem possible a few years ago either.
C'mon - grow a pair!
Hey, if you let one Nobel Peace Prize winner get a job, you have to get them all jobs.
I know a person who had a stroke. It crippled him among other things. He lost his job. Medical bills wiped him out financially. He had to make arrangements for a monthly payment schedule to pay his state taxes. The kicker is the Cordray charged this wounded person interest and penalties for this payment schedule. And this is the guy who is going to run the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. I predict, with his ruthless and insensitive ability, that he will be in the back pockets of big business In no time soon along with the rest of the government. You let the good candidate get away Obama.
Do you have a link to this story? Obviously it would have made the local papers. Thanks.
No one nominated by President Obama is confirmable. There is a reason for this: the CFPB would regulate something. Regulation of anything, at anytime is not necessary according to the "small government" Republicans and Tea Partiers. Remember, the financial industry did a wonderful job of regulating itself.
What's the answer?
I believe it is Greenwich because he was born in the palace of Greenwich according to the history books.
The answer is Greenwich. Greenwich Mean Time (G.M.T.) is the base time upon which all other times are calcuated. It is also the dividing point (line) between hemispheres. All military time is based on G.M.T.
I also believe that Corduray is a compromise candidate that won't be confirmed anyway. Now, maybe Ms. Warren wants to run for the Senate so she declined the nomination. If so, she has every right to choose her future. If, however, Corduray was picked for any other reason, than this will be another choice that Obama made to try and placate the right. Which, once again, will be for naught. Lucy pulling the football away once again.
EQUATOR! Not time zones.
Greenwich Mean Time. The wyhs and wherefores
http://www.worldtimezones.com/guides/greenwich_mean_time
Describing Ms. Warren as "unconfirmable" juxtaposed to praise for Mr. Cordray insinuates that the author/editor believes that Mr. Cordray can be confirmed for the position the President nominated him to assume.
This belief is in error.
I know this to be in error because Sen McConnell told me (us) as much.
Chalk this up as both another ObamCo FAIL and ObamCo DFH punching for the sake of DFH punching.
And -
Thanks from the bottom of my heart to Ms Warren for her self-sacrifice and diligence serving the public and our interests in making the CFPB a real, vital entity with scant guidance from the law and open hostility from numerous Congressional members as well as the industries falling under the bureau's jurisdiction.
Good luck back at Harvard and in the sanity of non-political life.
Oh yeah because academia is sooo sane! Did any of you see how rudely and disrespectfully she was treated by a house committee? No one should ever be treated like that, ever. Not in the very least Ms Warren. The look on her face when that TP Rep began yelling at her accusing her of lying. My heart went out to her.
If Ms. Warren approves of him, I'm sure he will be great! I love Ms. Warren but thought her comments on not running for the top spot and hindering the actions of the agency due to the conservative jerks (my words) was very telling of her as a class person.