David Axelrod is very politically astute, which is why this comment is such a transparent piece of spin that is also terribly tone deaf:

Obama learned of the bonuses March 12, the day before they were paid out, from Axelrod, whom Geithner had briefed on the situation. The president was "aggravated" and "a little bit disbelieving," Axelrod said in an interview yesterday.

For the new administration, the bonuses were a distraction from what senior aides called the main focus: getting the economy working and people back to work. "People are not sitting around their kitchen tables thinking about AIG," Axelrod said. "They are thinking about their own jobs."

Americans are thinking about their jobs: why they are losing them while the jerks on Wall St. and in companies like AIG who created this mess not only still have theirs but are getting paid multimillion dollar bonuses to boot.