Legal Commentary

A President Who Will Never Do the Right Thing

By TChris

Gail Collins offers this fantasy of a Christmas miracle: For the good of the country, Dick Cheney resigns. Then George Bush resigns. These acts elevate Nancy Pelosi to the presidency until January 20. She immediately implements whatever agenda President-Elect Obama dictates. The Collins fantasy not only delivers immediate action to address the economic crisis, it gives the nation its first female president, if only for a month or so.

Back in the land of reality, we have a president who is so unconcerned about his legacy that he refuses to consider a proposed $300 billion economic stimulus package because that amount of money -- believed even by some conservative economists to be the minimum amount needed to prompt a recovery -- is too large. The Wall Street Journal disagrees with Bush:

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Without a substantial fiscal stimulus plan, the nation's economy is expected to worsen through January, when President-elect Barack Obama takes office.

If anything, $300 billion isn't sufficient:

"I think you have to get very, very bold here -- $500 billion or $600 billion would be just fine," said Lyle Gramley, a former Federal Reserve governor now at Stanford Group Co. "The problem is that we need the stimulus tomorrow -- the sooner the better. It's most unfortunate we're in this interim period between presidencies."

Despite Paul Krugman's warning that inaction between now and January 20 will worsen the crisis, Bush is off to Peru. Washington is getting a bit chilly for him and Peru is so much warmer.

If Bush refuses even to stay in town and work with Congress to pass a stimulus package, he isn't about to resign for the nation's good. And he isn't about to make Nancy Pelosi president, an act that would horrify what remains of the GOP (and perhaps a good-sized chunk of the non-GOP).

Fantasies that can never be realized usually end with disappointment. This one isn't worth indulging.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on November 22, 2008 (boomark / email).