Caroline Baum on Paulson.

And I know that, no matter how hard I focus on what he says or how many times I read the press release and accompanying stories, I won’t be able to get my arms around the details.

And then it hits me. There are no details. Only a set of loosely linked concepts -- something between a trial balloon and a hot-air dirigible -- that flows out in a stream-of- consciousness format, with the details to be filled in later.

When I listen to the inarticulate Paulson, I am perplexed as to how this man came to head up Goldman Sachs. He has never said anything that has led me to believe that he is intelligent or has any special charisma. Everytime I listen to the hearings, there he is, bumbling like a retard, and then Bernanke comes up right behind him and nervously stutters his way around simple questions, as if he can't fathom why he might have to explain what the two of them are doing with their unprecedented, unchecked powers and trillions of taxpayer dollars.