"I want to thank you, Mr. Secretary, for working over the weekend," Bush said at a meeting with Henry M. Paulson and the president's economic advisors at the White House on Monday. "You've shown the country and the world that the United States is on top of the situation."
Do you remember the hapless candidate Bush who in the debates with the Democratic contender John Kerry talked about working hard, coming in on Saturday? He's a simple guy, this fella. Only problem is, that the Supreme Court put him in the White House despite his loss of the popular vote to Al Gore Jr., and while the Florida result was still unclear. He would be OK on the ranch, but he has no business being in the White House.
By talking about Paulson working over the weekend, which any responsible manager would do in a crisis, he showed how far removed he is from reality, and how little he understands. He clearly doesn't get it, which is one major reason why we have this crisis. There is no leadership, because the president still believes in the Republican mantra that all we need is tax cuts (and maybe a war or two on borrowed money). It's the magic potion that cures all ills.
"He has no idea what's going on. Even by his standards, he's wrong," Barney Frank told the Los Angeles Times. He is the democratic chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, and he has been trying to get the president to pay more attention to the economy for more than a year.
"Bush's "working over the weekend" line also suggested a comparison to another disaster in which he was accused of acting too slowly: Hurricane Katrina. After the storm, the president was ridiculed for praising FEMA Director Michael D. Brown for doing "a heck of a job" -- even as thousands remained stranded in floodwaters in New Orleans," wrote Maura Reynolds and Janet Hook for the Los Angeles Times. (Our emphasis.)
Hans Sandberg
5 days ago
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