Waiting for Obama: Power Vacuum in a Time of Crisis

[babylonsister]

Waiting for Obama: Power Vacuum in a Time of Crisis
By Adriel Bettelheim, CQ Staff


History is never kind to politicians who appear weak or ineffectual during a time of crisis. Just ask Vice President Dick Cheney, who recently tried to rally Senate Republicans to support an auto industry bailout plan by implying that a refusal would invoke memories of Herbert Hoover, the president remembered for bungling the response to the Great Depression.

Unfortunately for Cheney and his boss, the pitch failed to persuade the senators, thus helping cement President Bush’s place in an unfortunate fraternity of lame-duck presidents who have left office handcuffed by a national emergency.

Crises such as the current economic meltdown and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan underscore the power vacuum that exists during every interregnum, when outgoing presidents have little influence left and incoming administrations have no real authority. This sensitive transition period actually was longer during the Great Depression, when Hoover’s successor, Franklin D. Roosevelt, had to wait until March to be inaugurated.

“In particularly tough situations, the lame-duck status tends to be paralyzing,” said Barbara Kellerman, a Harvard University political scientist and author of Bad Leadership: What It Is, How It Happens, Why It Matters.

“There’s an incredible longing to get on with things; we’re hearing over and over the phrase, ‘When Obama takes office . . . ,’” she said. “It seems like an interminable period to have the president and president-elect overwhelmed by crisis.”

Obama has tried to fill the vacuum by demonstrating he is ready to take charge, holding near daily news conferences at which he introduced a seasoned group of Cabinet officials and senior advisers, and proposing a huge stimulus package of infrastructure and technology investments to revive the economy.

more...

http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docID=news-000002998848

[damntexdem]

1. I wish we did have a power vacuum:

we could use it to clean up the mess the Bushistas have made. ;-)

[seafan]

2. Bush, the war criminal, is spiraling into the black abyss of nothingness.

http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docID=news-000002998848">Waiting for Obama: Power Vacuum in a Time of Crisis, December 18, 2008

(Barbara Kellerman, a Harvard University political scientist and author of Bad Leadership: What It Is, How It Happens, Why It Matters) said in spite of such high-profile failures, one thing worse than a president stumbling out of the Oval Office is for him to try burnish his legacy, by launching unrelated initiatives or playing up past accomplishments. That carries the risk of appearing both vain and disconnected.

'Vain and disconnected'.... A perfect description of George W. Bush. Aside from war criminal.


Countdown: Keith Olbermann on George W. Bush's delusion of legacy




Also from the CQ Politics piece:

.....

Carter’s tendency to personalize the problems of state made him appear weak and indecisive — an assessment that stuck in the public’s mind during his futile attempts to negotiate the release of 52 U.S. embassy personnel who had been held hostage in Tehran. When attempt to negotiate a release failed, the military mounted a rescue mission in April 1980 that had to be aborted after eight commandos died in a helicopter crash. The hostages were released just minutes after Carter’ successor, Ronald Reagan, was inaugurated, in January 1981.

.....

Funny, that.



When will we learn?



Democrats, the Truth Still Matters!, May 11, 2006