James Rosen and Steven Thomma write for McClatchy Newspapers:
Whether by design or necessity, Obama appeared to be using the deepening economic crisis to step to the forefront and seize the stage in order to reassure a nervous nation two months before he takes office.
One prominent Republican, former Secretary of Treasury James Baker, suggested that Obama and President George W. Bush take the almost unprecedented step of sitting down and trying to work together to address the crisis.
Let me guess — Baker lost a ton of money on the stock market. Well, you’re the one who got him into the White House, Jimbo.
A comment from someone called “Reasonable Bill,” over at HuffPo:
Maybe we just fire everyone hired since Clinton left office, shred all the documents, repeal all the laws, start from Clinton’s last day and just deny there ever was a Bush era. It just might be easier.
Oh, if only we could.
Baker is from the Bush family’s old guard, and even he knows what a disaster W has been. If you recall, W rejected Baker et al.’s earlier offer of help in working through the Iraq war (“The Iraq Study Group”), and so this is another attempt – to help the boy out/save the family name/save the country.
joan16 — reminds me of the Bobby Ewing scenario — that one season of Dallas was just a dream.
T. Friedman, not my favorite guy, suggested yesterday that the inauguration date should be set up to maybe this week. He opined that the Bush Administration left in power until Jan 20 could do enough damage to this already near-ruined country such that Obama would be lucky if he got the mess cleaned up before 2012.
The gist of his argument was that something headed downhill only speeds up until and unless it is stopped, which becomes more difficult the faster it’s going – and we’re definitely on our way.
I don’t mean to sound like David Brooks or anything, but I am struck by Obama’s presence. He is just so calm and secure in his own skin that it leaves you feeling better about the country. To me he says, “I know I have a poop sandwich, but I can work it out.”
I saw that Baker interview and all I could think was that it sounded for all the world like he’s trying to hitch Junior’s wagon to Obama’s good reputation in a last-ditch desperate attempt to salvage something of a “legacy” for the little loser. “Sit down together” indeed. The whole world wishes that George would just spend his last days doing the only thing he does well which is take a vacation in Crawford, instead of fervently undoing every shred of beneficial legislation passed in the last hundred years.
In terms of James Baker, regardless of ideology we should all be willing to say he is an intellectual man who knows what he is talking about. I think Baker was staring at the big poop sandwich and hoping Obama could come and try to work on the problems we face.
As I always say, on January 20th a village in Texas (though really Connecticut) will get its idiot back.
Wasn’t it Baker who engineered the Bush appointment by the SC in 2000? I find it difficult to believe that anything he now proposes will ultimately be good for anybody, or the country, other than George senior’s idiotic off-spring.
maha, you have such clever and hilarious graphics for your posts, do you think we could have a “Countdown Clock” of some sort, showing the time until Obama takes the oath?
Friedman is in a tizzy because his wife’s family trust fund has tanked from $3.6B to below $25M since the “big sh*tpile” collapsed.
Ref joanr16/#8 – here’s a simple countdown to Inauguration that I tossed together this evening. It should be correct in every time zone, but I can’t say for sure; it was tested in EST.
http://home.earthlink.net/~dshaw256/countdown.html
If you want to use it on your site, right-click on the page, pick View Source from the menu, copy everything between the body and /body tags, then drop it somewhere on your page. It should pick up the color and font styles used on your site.
It’s not doing anything weird (really!), but as with all code you find on the web, use at your own risk.
Baker is just trying to save the crumbling establishment.
So, how bad is the on going melt down? James Baker says,
It took two years to come out of that one.
James Baker knows what a mess Dubya has made of things. It really is unbelievable just had much damage this bunch of crooks has been able to do in eight years! It’s time to give brains a chance.
Dave, thanks. I just wish someone would come up with something more… mmm, “risible,” to borrow from the Monty Pythons. Like a squinty, vacant photo of Bush slowly morphing into an alert, smiling photo of Obama. (OK, not that I meant Barbara has the time to create such a thing!)
I had a vision of a countdown clock inside a toilet, and the toilet flushes when the clock gets to all zeroes. That’s beyond my technical ability, but if someone else can create it, I’d post it.