Nero fiddled as Rome burned. Looking back over the last seven years, at so many critical junctures, or during the time just prior, George W. Bush has been on vacation. Sometimes, he went to Crawford and cleared brush, other times he never left the Oval Office. More often than not, when he has not been frozen like a deer caught in the headlights, he has been asleep at the wheel. Like the days and weeks leading up to September 11, 2001, when all the warning signs could not have been more clear, the slowdown in the U.S. economy, taking place over the last two or more years, went un-heeded by the President. Despite the steady drip, drip, drip of job losses, the falling dollar, the rising price of commodities, mortgage foreclosures, and erosion of consumer confidence, George W. Bush stood by, in perfect Herbert Hoover fashion, and let the almighty "market forces" work their magic, all the while in stark denial that an economic recession is well underway.
Can it be long before we see "Hoovervilles" popping up all over the country, or endless soup lines in U.S. cities? Wait – we already have that. The rapidly shrinking purchasing power of Americans, coupled with wage stagnation, has become a greater threat to this society than any terrorist threat, real, or imagined. Where is the war on the weak economy? An anemic stimulus package was hastily pushed through congress under constant veto threat should the Democrats attempt to add any meaningful amendments like extension of unemployment compensation or expansion of the food stamp program. All the while, the President has demanded that his tax cuts, which have done little, if anything, to stimulate sustainable economic growth, be made permanent. Not surprisingly, we get more rhetoric, á la Herbert Hoover when we should be getting leadership.
George W. Bush has turned out to be a modern-day Forrest Gump, in the wrong place at the wrong time. George W. Bush at the helm of the Exxon Valdez. George W. Bush lighting a cigar on the Hindenburg. Where will it end?
After the Herbert Hoover presidency, we needed an FDR. In 2008, the last thing we need is a John McCain.