The Natives Are Restless

TW: Craig Crawford and even apparently Republican eminence grise, James Baker, are echoing a common if wishful theme- In with Obama, Out with Bush, Now. An obvious sentiment I suppose, although it will not happen in substance (certainly not form) nor should it. In practical terms Obama and Congress need these weeks to get a responsible, effective plan together.

There is a huge difference between the torniquets Paulsen has been applying to keep the patient alive and the structural measures Obama needs to implement to re-direct the overall course of our economy. By various means the markets will stagger along until Jan 20th. And frankly the worse the crisis gets the more room Obama is going to have for the bold changes that are needed to become acceptable.

From Crawford:
"George W. Bush is so unpopular, so discredited and so completely without authority to rule that Barack Obama has the right, the opportunity and, indeed, the imperative to take charge now. That is what Bush family confidant James Baker was implicitly suggesting in calling for joint action by the incoming and outgoing administrations in order to restore confidence of the markets and the public.

In these extra-ordinary times, there is no "one president at a time," as Obama has understandably and appropriately observed. There is only the future - and Obama is it.
Obama gets it. Saying "we don't have a minute to waste" in announcing his economic team on Monday, the President-Elect exercised his right in these circumstances to take over now.
Bush is not only a lame duck. He's done."

From Jim Baker on Meet the Press:
"...joint action by the incoming and outgoing administrations could go a long way to restoring confidence of the markets and the public. Something very useful might even come out of the two of them sitting down together and addressing not the, not the midterm, not the mid and long-term problem that we face . . . but addressing stability of our financial system and to see if there isn’t something that they could do jointly, together, over the next 58 to 60 days that would help us make sure that the financial system is stabilized and, secure.

I think just the mere fact of their sitting down together and seeing if there’s not one thing that they could come together on would do a lot to restore confidence and remove the anxiety and fear that’s out there”