Choose Your Lameness

With news of more economic disaster it seems as though January 20th cannot come soon enough. President-elect Obama will already have his hands full come inauguration day, but things could, and probably will, get much worse over the holiday season. In such times of crisis it seems imperative to replace public officials as soon as possible after Election Day. Lincoln, for example, had to wait until March to enter the White House, as President Buchanan sat back and watched the country break apart before entering a Civil War. The problem was solved in 1933 after FDR was forced to wait until March as the nation suffered through the Great Depression. The passage of the 20th Amendment to the United States Constitution served as the solution, which among other items, made the start of the newly elected President’s term on January 20th instead of March. However, in such crucial times, is this date still too far away from the first tuesday in November?

In many cases, Presidents choose to spend the lame-duck session building foreign relations and solidifying their legacy. President Reagan, for example, met with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and helped to bring a final end to the Cold War. President Bush is currently meeting with Asian leaders this weekend in Peru, however this is surely a different time and a different President. Foreign leaders of the world have lost most, if not all, respect for the President Bush and are eagerly awaiting the opportunity to communicate with an Obama Administration.

President Bush could also take the route of many other Presidents and issue pardons. His father, President George Herbert Walker Bush, pardoned former staffers involved in the Iran-Contra affair. The current President surely has some felon friends that would appreciate this get out of jail free card. Maybe Senator Stevens will be one of the few to be granted an early Christmas present. It’s not as though Bush has to worry about his reputation as his approval ratings are already below that of President Nixon before he left office.

In this case, the ideal role for Bush is a difficult one. Almost everything he has done these past eight years, from the Hurricane Katrina response to the Iraq War, has lead our country down a horrific path. Yet times are increasingly scary in the US and it would be reassuring to have a President that said or did something. Thankfully, I don’t see President Bush attempting to make Obama’s transition more difficult by issuing thousands of pages of new regulations. Ideally, I would like Bush to leave the White House with the same personable and jokester attitude that helped get him elected. Chances are he’ll take some prankster inspiration from President Clinton, who removed all of the “W”s from White House computers. Here’s a suggestion, leave Obama piles of spare “change” around the oval office.