Politico has a couple of articles this morning showing that both President Bush and -- perhaps surprisingly to many of us -- the Democrats have failed to respond effectively to the financial crisis.
On the one hand, there's President AWOL.
"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."
And then the Democratic party, excoriated by Lanny Davis, one of its own.
"Maybe the reason as to why in the midst of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression the Democrats have yet to stand for anything Big.
"... The Democrats control a congress with no significant legislative record--not on Iraq, not on energy, not on health care, not on much of anything. The Democratic National Committee leadership, when it speaks at all, speaks speaks with hyper-partisan rhetoric that turns off normal people and conveys no new important ideas.
"... When the Democrats have no grand vision, the Republicans by default by comparison inevitably will look better, even though, absurdly, their only grand vision remains a now-thoroughly repudiated Herbert Hoover laissez fair economics."
So the GOP is, indeed, looking better and better.
"New polling suggests that the Republican Party is beginning to regain some of its luster and, perhaps as important, is experiencing a surge in excitement among its political base.
"A new poll by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press reports that independent voters have an equally favorable opinion of both parties, 50 to 49 percent, a one-point edge for the GOP. That compares to an 18-point Democratic advantage as recently as August, a wide gap that had generally held for more than a year.
"And half of registered voters overall now have a favorable opinion of the Republican Party, the highest GOP ranking in three years."
Maybe that's just because they only have to look at two minutes' worth of George W. Bush.
Or maybe there's more than one former Dem out there who feels the way I do. I'm a tenacious supporter of Barack Obama but I can't stand the Democratic party. Or (worse!) the Republican party. It's my belief that Obama's victory over Hillary Clinton was made more likely by people voting against their parties. Perhaps that same force will put Obama in the White House.
