Obama, The Presumptive President -- Because GeeDubya Is History
A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS
by Christine Bowman
Frank Rich's "How Obama Became Acting President" is a column for the history books -- totally on-target, with original and astute observations.
Barack Obama is our new "acting president," as Rich says -- or the presumptive president, or president in waiting, however observers might choose to put it -- because the current occupant has been entirely discredited and rejected, both at home and abroad. "The opening for a successor arrived prematurely, and the vacuum had been waiting to be filled."
The inadequacy of the sitting president demands that America leave him behind -- and the sooner, the better. That means before January 20, 2009. And before November 4, 2008. Americans and our allies are desperate for change. Even though the campaigns and voters must continue to work through the legally-mandated electoral process step by step, we already have passed a threshold psychologically and have begun our process of reconstruction.
Change is not just a campaign promise. It's not a filmy dream, or something out there on the horizon. It has come.
In contrast to John McCain, Barack Obama recognizes that urgent fact. It is not arrogance on the Democratic candidate's part, but the reality that has evolved. Obama finds himself in the right place at the right time as a candidate. That makes him not presumptuous, but truly presumptive.
George W. Bush is history. In the minds of many, he's the worst president ever. From start to finish. We regret letting him serve.
Americans do remember that he got off to a troubling start. In 2000, George W. Bush won the White House without having won the popular vote -- and with extraordinary help from Katherine Harris, then-Florida Secretary of State, and from the U.S. Supreme Court. In 2004, Bush snagged a second term with the help of the scurrilous Swiftboaters, and Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, and "Bush's Brain" aka "The Architect" Karl Rove, who just today was found in contempt of Congress.
The two Bush terms have been nightmarish for Americans. Watching Bush's idea of world leadership play out has been a nightmare also for America's friends overseas. Time and again, Bush and his leadership team have shocked people of conscience and good will with their audacious and contemptuous actions and attitudes.
Could we ever forget the deception and manipulation that led to the Iraq war? The rationales that shifted like sands in the desert? The leaks and lies and conviction and commuted sentence surrounding the outing of an undercover agent engaged in counterterrorism? The loss of interest in finding Osama bin Laden? (“I truly am not that concerned about him.”) The torture?
On the home front, need we say more than "Katrina"? Well, the domestic spying and other constitutional lapses bother a lot of folks. And our Justice Department remains a shambles despite Gonzales' forced departure.
Americans and our allies are desperate for change. Obama understands that.
On the GOP side, as Frank Rich writes, John McCain is "a candidate so oblivious to our nation’s big challenges ahead that he is doubling down in his campaign against both Mr. Maliki and Mr. Obama to be elected commander in chief of the surge." Rich's portrayal of John McCain as the hapless, sputtering Mr. Wilson from "Dennis the Menace" is priceless. McCain truly is a weak candidate running on the wrong platform at the wrong time. Both independents and the hard-core conservative base have serious doubts about him.
But even if the Republican Party had found a better candidate this year, would it have mattered? American voters, and the remaining friends we have overseas after the long, disastrous Bush presidency, can't take it anymore. We will have change, and we have our next presumptive president.
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For an array of well-argued opinions on the outcome of the Obama-McCain contest, and the remaining pitfalls, see readers' comments at: Horse Race or Blowout? BuzzFlash Readers Predict Election 2008 Outcome.
A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS
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