PrintOctober 15, 2008
Globe: 'Hey kids! Let's scrap the Constitution and make Obama President right away!'
Few things in life surprise me at my age. Perhaps a win by the Chicago Cubs in the World Series would get a mild eyebrow raise but beyond that, not much.
Until I read this piece in the Boston Globe. The more I read, the more my jaw kept dropping until by the time I was finished, my lower mandible had hit the floor and begun to dig. This is beyond incredible, beyond amazing, beyond stupid:
Assume that Barack Obama wins the election, as polls show is increasingly likely. The following day, Vice President Cheney should be prevailed upon to resign. Using his powers to designate a successor under the 25th Amendment, President Bush should then appoint, and Congress should confirm, Obama as vice president (just as Richard Nixon appointed Gerald Ford vice president in 1973 when Spiro Agnew resigned). Bush himself should then resign, elevating Obama to the presidency - as Ford became president when Nixon resigned. Obama should then appoint Joe Biden as vice president.
With Congress's confirmation of Biden, the new administration would be in place, on the job, and ready to tackle the economic crisis - in November, not January. (The electoral college's official ratification of the election results in December would merely rubber-stamp the transition.)
Such extraordinary action would be particularly appropriate in the event of an Obama/Biden victory, since that ticket promises the most dramatic change from the current administration's approach and policies.
However, it could be pursued with equal effectiveness if the McCain/Palin ticket is victorious. The goal remains the same: Get the new administration up, running, and dealing with the crisis as quickly as possible. It is simply vital for the government to act in as urgent a fashion as the situation demands.
First of all, Obama does not promise a "dramatic change" from what Bush is doing to deal with the crisis - save a gazillion dollar giveaway to taxpayers - money that we don't have and that even Obama can't count on with this "tax the rich" schemes. In fact, Obama was counting on oil staying up around $150 bbl so that he could collect "windfall profits" from the oil companies. With oil now trading below $80, hard to see how he can tax much of that.
In fact, when asked what he would be doing differently than Bush in the crisis, Obama hemmed and hawed and in the end, didn't come up with anything radical enough to go through the Constitutional gyrations advocated by the Globe.
But that isn't the real problem with the Globe's idea. It is that anyone, anywhere would be stupid enough to propose it. Just what is going on in this country. Have we all lost our minds? This is idiocy. It is panicking when we should remain calm.
The first rule in a crisis is that any action you take reacting to it probably won't help because it's too late anyway. The trick is to get on top of events, anticipate them, and formulate strategies to deal with eventualities.
Our problems are just beginning. The trick is going to be not making things worse than they are going to be by running off half cocked. And rushing this untested beginner - this empty suited, inexperienced, naive candidate into office will probably backfire. Making bad decisions will be worse than making no decisions at all.
That Globe piece was a real head shaker...
