Absence of Leadership

Today's editorial in the New York Times has a clear view of the situation in regard to the President and both candidates:

It took President Bush until Wednesday night to address the American people about the nation’s financial crisis, and pretty much all he had to offer was fear itself.

There was no acknowledgement of the shocking failure of government regulation, or that the country cannot afford more tax cuts for the very wealthy and budget-busting wars, or that spending at least $700 billion of taxpayers’ money to bail out Wall Street and the banks should be done carefully, transparently and with oversight by Congress and the courts.

We understand why he may have been reluctant to address the nation, since his contempt for regulation is a significant cause of the current mess. But he could have offered a great deal more than an eerily dispassionate primer on the credit markets in which he took no responsibility at all for the financial debacle. . . .

In the end, Mr. Bush’s appearance was just another reminder of something that has been worrying us throughout this crisis: the absence of any real national leadership, including on the campaign trail.

Given Mr. Bush’s shockingly weak performance, the only ones who could provide that are the two men battling to succeed him. So far, neither John McCain nor Barack Obama is offering that leadership. . . .

We don’t know if Mr. McCain or Mr. Obama will do any good back in Washington. But Mr. McCain’s idea of postponing the Friday night debate was another wild gesture from a candidate entirely too prone to them. The nation needs to hear Mr. Obama and Mr. McCain debate this crisis and demonstrate who is ready to lead.

I admire Obama tremendously: brilliant mind, compassionate heart, perceptiveness and conciliatory spirit. But is he mean enough to do what it will take to right the wrongs that have been done to this country?

Much as I like the man, and there's no question but that I will vote for him--I still think Hillary should have been the nominee, and Obama the veep choice. Obama's an unknown variable; Hillary is a tough fighter. Nice; but I can totally see her being one mean bitch when the chips are down.

Well, we'll see; God help him with this economic meltdown and all the other crap he's going to have to shoulder.