George W. Bush's Impossible Achievement

As he serves out his time, the self-styled Decider is putting Americans through the most agonizing period of indecision in three-quarters of a century, leaving a unified nation holding its breath until January 20th.

Paul Krugman cites today's parallel with the "power vacuum" in 1932-1933 that was "disastrous for the U.S. economy, at least in part because the outgoing administration had no credibility, the incoming administration had no authority and the ideological chasm between the two sides was too great to allow concerted action."

George W. Bush has spent eight years using the power of an imperial presidency to make government impotent and has succeeded so well that Congress is helpless to do anything about saving a failing economy until he leaves Washington.

His Treasury Secretary has disbursed almost half of the $700 billion bailout money he begged for and, with the crisis worsening, has gone into hiding until he can get out of town.

Congressional Democrats are tap-dancing for time by castigating drowning Detroit auto makers for not flying tourist class while checking airline schedules for their own two-month vacations.

Meanwhile, Wall Street keeps sinking to new lows daily, credits markets are freezing up again and the rest of America is facing a holiday season of deep despair.

Bush's crowning achievement is that he will leave the White House, having united the country, in fact the whole world, in a universal hunger for government to do something, anything but what he has been doing and not doing during his tenure in office.

The minute Barack Obama takes the oath, there will be a huge sigh of relief heard around the globe.