George Bush’s Third Vanishing Act
Forget about Where’s Waldo. Where has President George W. Bush been?
Some, including The Politico’s Roger Simon, have been asking that question:
Where’s George? The president, I mean.
You remember him. Dubya. No. 43. Won a second term a few years ago. It was in all the papers.
But where has he been lately? Where has he been during America’s worst financial crisis since the Great Depression?
Nowhere. AWOL. Every now and then, when the stock market takes yet another sickening plunge, a few words issue forth from the presidential lips. A very few words. Delivered with the greatest reluctance.
“I will continue to closely monitor the situation in our financial markets and consult with my economic advisers,” President Bush said Thursday in a two-minute address from the Rose Garden.
That’s right, two minutes. Delivered, according to the official White House transcript, from 10:15 a.m. EDT to 10:17 a.m. EDT. Maybe you missed it. Maybe you were at work. Maybe the president doesn’t care.
Maybe that’s the problem.
George W. Bush will continue to draw a paycheck until noon on Jan. 20, 2009. (If there is still any money left in the U.S. Treasury to pay him, that is.) But what has he been doing to earn his pay lately? Not calming fears among his fellow citizens about their life savings, that’s for sure.
This isn’t Bush’s first vanishing act — disappearing at the times of crisis when most modern Presidents would most appear on television or on the radio.
The first time was immediately after 9/11 when his plane was in the air. Reassurance came from then-New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who reminded voters about that virtually every hour during primary season. The second time was during Hurricane Katrina, when Bush was seen sparingly. His idea of crisis management seemed to be flying over the hurricane destruction and looking down. And, when he appeared, he gave quick reassurances and seemed to be more of an administration cheerleader.
Now, once again, you almost need to hire the FBI to find Bush during an economic crisis melt-down when the national discussion seems dominated by Presidential candidates Democratic Sen. Barack Obama and Republican Sen. John McCain, campaign surrogates from both sides, TV anchors, news-people, radio talk show hosts and cable talking and yelling heads.
From one perspective, Bush helps his party by keeping as low a profile as possible since McCain’s campaign now seems based on trying to separate himself just enough from Bush to inch back to the 2000 Maverick McCain while not losing Bush GOP party-base loyalists. Meanwhile, some Republican politicians don’t want to use the “R” word (which has become almost dirty) or, even worse, the “B” name (which has become almost dirtier for those seeking to get re-elected).
But from the standpoint of a key leadership quality Americans want in their President, the nation craves, and that the country’s stability requires in its President, George Bush is again earning a “D” or an “F” compared with many other modern Presidents.
The difference: this time symbolism and visibility matter. Whole fortunes, the country’s economy, the health of the world economy, and the lifestyle of Americans is at stake.
Historians will likely view Bush as a combination of Jimmy Carter and Herbert Hoover, ranking him below Carter, a notch above Hoover (at this point) — and way below his father.
Cartoon by John Darkow, Columbia Daily Tribune, Missouri
UPDATE: Related readings:
–Bloomberg: Bush Absent on Financial Crisis as Paulson Leads
16 Responses to “George Bush’s Third Vanishing Act”
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Where's George Bush? He's inhabiting John McCain's body and offering the same “straight from the gut” foolishness that he has spit out over the last 8 years. While George Bush is an epic disaster as a President, the damage he has done will last for generations – and McCain will provide more of the same.
Looks to me like Bush stepped out of the way so the Paulson and Bernacke could try to solve the problems – thats their job afterall. He was at least smart enough not to step in front of a microphone a la Harry Reid and tell the American people that he “didn't know what to do”.
What would you expect him to do anyway?
Perhaps Bill Clinton could pop up on a new show and wag his finger at the host for asking how he could have pushed for legislation that led to this mess?
What is Obama's solution? (I don't expect one, it's more than likely above his pay grade).
PWT- He's supposed to be reassuring the country during a national or international crisis- its his job- and he's doing a piss poor one. How many Americans understand that Paulson and Bernanke are working together to solve this?
The reason he's become invisible, is that the RNC doesn't want the public associating the meltdown with their party right before a major election.
The reason he was invisible right after 9/11 is that he was so clueless that he kept reading “My Pet Goat” to Sarasota school children- even after he was informed that the country was under attack.
The reason he was invisible during Katrina was that he was on vacation in Crawford, and didn't understand that he needed to be around to provide leadership during the worst natural disaster in memory.
But, he made up for his strange disappearances by cutting short his vacation and rushing back to Washington to deal with the immediate threat of Terry Schiavo's husband disconnecting her feeding tube! Now that's what I call leadership!
Of course, no one of the moderate voice is noting that yesterday morning Speaker Pelosi was ready to adjourn Congress rather than deal with the issue but then last night was hosting a meeting in her office.
I wonder if the Democrats in Congress can be bother to actually pass legislation before the election or will they punt the problem to January.
If someone was going to write about the lack of leadership they should have mentioned the Democrats so that they would stay credible.
I cannot stand Bush, but I still want him to stand up and take leadership for the sake of our country and our economy.
Man, it was a sad day that Jeb lost that Florida election and screwed up the plan that he would be the Bush 43 ….
[...] CAGLE CARTOONS wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptHistorians will likely view Bush as a combination of Jimmy Carter and Herbert Hoover, ranking him below Carter, just above Hoover (at this point) and way below his father. bCartoon/b byJohn Darkow, Columbia Daily Tribune, Missouri. [...]
I'm sure George Bush is counting down the days (we all are) and looking forward to not being president anymore. He knows he's completely botched the job and his only interest at this point is in running far, far away from any associated responsibility for the consequences of his inept “leadership”. It's also a campaign tactic – the less people see of Bush between now and Nov. the less they are reminded of his sorry reign; the GOP knows this.
Blaming CLINTON?!?!?!?!?!?
You DO know he's been out of office for nearly EIGHT YEARS don't you?
I'd say it was a nice try at deflecting the blame, but that would be a lie, it was a pretty lame attempt.
And as for superdestroyer's post, the legislation is in place, if only the Executive Branch could be bothered with enforcing it.
“We don't need more laws, we need to enforce the ones we have!” … Where have I heard that before?
He is not supposed to be reassuring the country, that is what mothers do for their sad children. What he is supposed to be doing, and judging by the market reaction around the world, is taking care of the crisis. His team, Bernacke & Paulson, seems to have managed fine without his reassurances. You've probably never imagined having qualified people work for you but, if you ever do, you have to learn to get out of the way and let them do their jobs.
Obama can hold your hand all you want while Rome burns. I, for one, don't care about reassurances but about actions. Bush's team has taken action, I and the markets are reassured.
If not Clinton, whom?
Mr. Obama, blames the problem on deregulation, perhaps you could tell me who was President when the following two bill were signed into law:
1. Financial Modernization Act, which obliterated Glass-Steagall
2. Commodity Futures Modernization act which gave us unregulated trading of derivatives and the kind of credit default swaps that threaten our economy.
You all certainly have short memories. Did you know that Clinton cut capital gains taxes too?
Some blame the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (interestingly, sponsored by Republicans and passed by a Republican congress). Conservatives disagree with you though.
http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevol…
Regardless, Bush has had about 8 years to fix it, if he thought it was a problem.
Bush has done okay. And this Big Bailout _is_ what people think of when they hear the term “compassionate conservatism,” after all — the kind Democrats would love. It also is a political move, likely to be — makes the GOP look like the doers by association with the people engineering this bailout (though now Congress looks likely not to leave on recess but to get involved over the weekend with this). To be most cynical I wonder to what extent it saddles a future president with spending limits imposed by simply not enough money being there for any new grand ideas (take that, Obama!) and raising debt levels to where future borrowing is more reluctant due to concerns in the future of eventually reaching a debt trap (take that, all big spenders!).
I'm so cynical I suspect that anyone wanting to spend big will do so and borrow more, anyway. That, in addition to raising taxes (which Obama would have to do on those he promises relief currently). Pretty cynical if you choose to view all this cynically.
Yes, we can look back to the Clinton bubble and the mentality then among Dems, not only the GOP, but it's here and now that this bailout was chosen to be made (series of them, in fact). Bush has not been “absent” [sic] or “hiding” [sic], but involved in this, leaving the details to the experts, as he should. I suspect it's to aid Wall Street (and possible consolidations and mergers) as well as to affect the election this year (prevent a nosedive by McCain in the polls among the less informed if the institutions were allowed to fail).
PWT- You don't represent the entire country or even a tiny minority–
Bush puts the public face on what his financial team does– and is
responsible for communicating the policy to the taxpayers— you remember
them- the ones who will actually be paying for this obscene bailout?
But, I repeat that the real reason for his notable absence (since he
certainly took plenty of credit for the economy when it was strong) is that
he knows that he can't afford to remind voters that the meltdown is occuring
in a REPUBLICAN administration, after 8 years of the MBA president who
promised to run the government like a business. Now we are heading towards
Chapter 11!
Another conservative tenet— deregulation of the private sector so that
markets can self-correct has tanked big time!
Ranked BELOW Carter??????!!!!
Ouch! maybe he'll have better luck ” refilling the old coffers”!
BTW— attempting to blame this mess on Clinton, who left a balanced budget, a large surplus and very low unemployment, is so laughable that I won't even voice my disagreement. I guess you could try to blame Bush I– he could have stopped having children after Jeb was born!