The Lamest Duck, Indeed

This is a photo of President Bush referred to in an article entitled, "The Lamest Duck", by Joe Klein.

As Klein notes, we tend to be somewhat sympathetic to presidents who are just entering or just leaving the office, but it is hard for me to be so in the case of George Bush. After a long list of foolish and clueless decisions that further bankrupted our country, caused the deaths of thousands of our soldiers and many thousands of innocent civilians, and drove world opinion of the Unites States to record lows, Bush tops off his presidency by basically disappearing when the biggest economic crisis in decades savages us all. That is not exactly my idea of "presidential".

Klein's summary is especially on target, in my opinion, when identifying the root causes for Bush's stultifying government:

"In the end, though, it will not be the creative paralysis that defines Bush. It will be his intellectual laziness, at home and abroad. Bush never understood, or cared about, the delicate balance between freedom and regulation that was necessary to make markets work. He never understood, or cared about, the delicate balance between freedom and equity that was necessary to maintain the strong middle class required for both prosperity and democracy. He never considered the complexities of the cultures he was invading. He never understood that faith, unaccompanied by rigorous skepticism, is a recipe for myopia and foolishness."