the incredible shrinking president . . .

(10 pm. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

don’t get me wrong. i’m happiest when he’s not around. but i gotta ask: just where the fuck has George W. Bush been?  As the United States of America, under his watch, teeters on the brink of a depression greater than the Great Depression, Bush reveals himself not only as incredibly unqualified to be president, but as a coward.

This New York Times piece casts Bush as a bit player in the unfolding financial markets crash. The headline’s use of the word “emerges” captures a man desperate to stay out of sight, except when trying to maintain the façade of business as usual.

Bush (finally) Emerges After Days of Financial Crisis

It was brief, two minutes. His brow was furrowed, and his words were careful: “The American people can be sure we will continue to act to strengthen and stabilize our financial markets and improve investor confidence.” Then, having imparted no specifics, he once again slipped out of sight.

In the increasingly surreal world of the White House, the appearance was a sign that all pretense of normalcy is gone. All week long, with Wall Street engulfed by what analysts are calling the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, President Bush had mostly stayed out of sight, except when trying to maintain the façade of business as usual.

^{New York Times, 18 September 2008}

In this next piece, according to White House Press Secretary Dana Perino, the Bush black out over Wall Street’s upheaval is (are you ready for this?) believe it or not, when policy makers actually need to, like, work on making some policy.”

Bush Absent on Financial Crisis as Paulson Leads

As Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke confronted the collapse of Lehman Brothers Inc., the sale of Merrill Lynch & Co., the biggest stock market drop in seven years, and a government takeover of American International Group Inc., the president has been conspicuous by his absence.

“It’s George W. Who?” said Fred Greenstein, a presidential historian at Princeton University in New Jersey.

“The country is facing an economic 9/11,” said Leon Panetta, former chief of staff for President Bill Clinton… “You can’t just leave it to the secretary of the Treasury.”

Well, to be fair, Bush did address the crisis first thing on Monday. All in a economical 160 words . . .

Bush on 15 September 2008; “Good morning. I’m pleased to be here with my friend, the President of Ghana, John Kufuor of Ghana. We just had a very good discussion and before I summarize it I do want to say a word about the U.S. economy.

I know Americans are concerned about the adjustments that are taking place in our financial markets. At the White House and throughout my administration, we’re focused on them — and we’re working to reduce disruptions and minimize the impact of these financial market developments on the broader economy.

I’ve been in close touch with Secretary Paulson throughout this weekend and this morning. I appreciate the work the Treasury Department, and the Federal Reserve, and the Securities and Exchange Commission, and major financial institutions here and around the world are doing to promote stability in the financial systems.

As policymakers, we’re focused on the health of the financial system as a whole. In the short run, adjustments in the financial markets can be painful — both for the people concerned about their investments, and for the employees of the affected firms. In the long run, I’m confident that our capital markets are flexible and resilient, and can deal with these adjustments.

I admire President Kufuor, and the reason I do is because he has shown the world that democracy can flourish… blah  blah blah blah blah

Heh. And we’re not the only ones noticing the absence of America’s president. This, from “JapanToday”:

Bush scraps comments on financial crisis

“…Bush was scheduled to make comments to a pool of reporters after huddling with a key financial working group led by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson…??Yet after the session began, the White House told the press to never mind. Spokesman Tony Fratto said only: “We decided it would be best to limit public comment about markets today.” He declined to offer any explanation about why limiting Bush comment would be best, or why on this particular day.??”

“??Bush’s sudden no-comment came on a day when the turmoil on Wall Street came to seize the presidential campaign.”

Now this I find ironic. A spot-on assessment (from July) of Bush’s inability to understand the depth of the coming crisis from (wait, here it comes) THE WORLD SOCIALIST WEB SITE. Yeah. As the glib, the informed, the hacks call this “socialism” and then there’s Paul Krugman calling the Treasury Secretary Comrade Paulson. Anyway. . .

Bush on the financial crisis: “Wall Street got drunk”

“The incident … reveals Bush’s extremely limited understanding of the financial crisis shaking the US and his own administration. He glibly presents it as a temporary aberration, attributable to an intoxication with “fancy financial instruments.” This not only vastly underestimates the depth of the crisis, it ignores the deep-rooted tendencies in US capitalism that have led the financial industry to adopt exotic and outright fraudulent ways of packaging its products, and the role of successive administrations, including his own, in facilitating such reckless forms of speculation.

This last installment isn’t Bush. It is our fearless, fleckless Senators and Congressmen/women telling us how

this is about saving our economy

While Bush is under wraps now, one has to ask where these dolts were hiding when all the pillaging of assets was happening. Because somebody, somewhere in our government was AWOL or missing in action. Perhaps we’ll find another Lynndie England to blame for this mess. Maybe it will be the American public’s fault for not throwing in Social Security. Oh wait. Maybe the bail out money is being borrowed from that fund. Does anybody really know what is going on?

I find it beyond belief that everything that is happening has been written and discussed for over a year now in the left blogosphere, at sites like Docudharma and Daily Kos. There is no hindsight here. We knew it was coming. I really want to know. What the fuck have these politicians been thinking? And doing?

Today, Bush is asking for Congress to pass an emergency “rescue package” to cover the financial markets boatload of “distressed assets.” Yeah. Just to add insult to injury, they try to jerk us around with another stupid fucking term… distressed assets my ass. It is bad debt… there are no assets. It is my opinion they are stealing more of our tax dollars to cover what is NOT there and trying to fool us by giving “nothing” a name like “distressed asset.”

fuck! we aren’t the one who should be paying for this mess.