But it also raised a lot of questions - like, why didn't the White House just stop these bonus checks?
It led to a contentious White House press briefing, with Obama officials defending their efforts on the AIG bailout, which has quickly become their problem, not a problem passed on by another administration.
"Under these circumstances, it's hard to understand how derivative traders at AIG warranted any bonuses, much less $165 million in extra pay," said the President, his voice rising at times. "How do they justify this outrage to the taxpayers who are keeping the company afloat?"
"I've asked Secretary Geithner to...pursue every legal avenue to block these bonuses and make the American taxpayers whole," said Obama.
A few minutes later on CNBC, one commentator predicted those bonuses will never get paid to AIG executives.
I'm not ready to make that same kind of prediction, but it is a different ballgame when the President is bitching about your pay, not just some lawmakers.
It will be interesting to see if Congress or the White House can shame AIG into revoking some of those bonuses.
This is a classic economic populist battleground, one where the Democrats certainly must feel more at home than the GOP, which has much closer ties to Wall Street and the business community.
One thing is for sure right now, Wall Street isn't on the same page as Main Street America.
Just like people complain about people "Inside the Beltway" being out of touch, maybe Wall Street needs to read up on that.
At the same time though, this White House needs to realize that they now "own" both the economy and the bailout mess.
And they will be judged by the voters on how they deal with it.
Is the President really so weak that he can't stop these bonuses?
Something tells me we will hear a lot about this today in the halls of Congress.
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