There have been things written of George W. Bush which are not exactly complimentary of the current president. Mostly, they have maintained a level of respect for the office that is considered appropriate while still criticizing the man over his latest failure.
This is not one of those times.
In what I consider to be a scathing criticism of not just Bush himself, but a monumental smack-down of his entire presidency, Joe Klein of TIME magazine writes an honest assessment which pulls no punches. It is titled, appropriately, "Bush's Last Days: The Lamest Duck".
I read the piece here at Yahoo News. The article directly from the TIME site is here.
You don't often get to read a piece in a national news magazine which (in my opinion) boils the skin off of a sitting president. Stuff like this doesn't usually make it past the editors who are responsible for, among other things, making sure that their publication's standing with the public is maintained. They don't want to alienate any of their readers, after all.
While the Newsweek piece asking "Is Obama the Anti-Christ?" was not written by one of their better-educated or more-respected writers (Lisa Miller's career has been spent mostly in the society pages reviewing upscale bridal showers and debutante balls) and was hidden in that publication's back pages under their rarely-read "Belief Watch" section (you can read that pile of turds here), Joe Klein is one of TIME's leading writers and his piece has been given virtually front-page coverage on TIME's website.
Mr. Klein also includes a very factual accounting of President-elect Obama's virtual taking of command of the nation's economic reins. It's nothing more than a list of Barack's activities over the past couple of weeks, but it reads like high praise - even though it is not written in a way meant to heap praise on the man. It simply reads that way because when one compares the effort exerted on the economic crisis by the man who is NOT the president with the "Where the Hell is he?" abandonment of this nation by the man who IS the president, a simple list of facts and events comes across as a mountain of accomplishment when compared to the impact crater of Bush's failure to respond.
This country's economy is ablaze. The flames are rolling through our economic house and the roof will collapse if nothing is done soon. The fire department which is currently on-duty has abandoned their responsibilities and they are off somewhere getting drunk. The men who are scheduled to come on-duty in about 55 days have already gotten their gear on, fired up the pumps, and will be ready to start fighting the fire for us as soon as they're allowed.
January 20, 2009 can NOT get here fast enough.
Celtic Merlin
Carlinist