We've talked about this before, but I think that the answer to AIG was and is an FDIC style nationalization and restructuring. There are parts of AIG that are very profitable. The main reason for their downfall is credit default swaps and claims being paid out on those.
The thing is we don't have an FDIC type organization to do something like that.
These protests it looks like got about 350k people across the country, which is a decent turnout for something like this. However, if it wasn't for the Fox News and Limbaugh cheerleading and sponsoring of these events, it wouldn't have been nearly that size.
I really see these rallies as being mostly people who are pissed off that their team lost the last election. I think they supported the GOP outwardly thru the last 8 years, even though deep down they really weren't happy with how things were being run.
Then once they lost their distaste for the way their guys governed was given a target. It is after all difficult to believe that the guys you followed really screwed you over.
It's also difficult to believe that your ideologies might be incorrect and were in fact one of the main causes of our economic downfall (i.e. deregulation, free markets, etc). Here's a video that's a good example of this, someone reminding people at a teaparty how we arrived here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkOwsIIIe5II can totally understand people's frustration at the government and what not. And the government is never going to do things perfectly. I mean, if we were a perfect society, there would be no need for government right?
The thing is, at any sort of rally like this, you're usually going to see the fringe people there. They have the loudest voices and this is when they feel comfortable enough to shout about it. It was the same thing at WTO, or anti-war rallies or whatever.
The fact is that 2/3 of the country right now is OK with the job that Obama is doing. So teapartiers do not represent the majority of our country right now.