| | AP: Bush leaves 'staggering' array of problems for successor
 Most presidents-elect can look forward to a transition period after Election Day, during which they recover from the rigors of the campaign and assemble their cabinet and White House staff. However, with a looming recession and two wars under way and no fresh initiatives coming from the Bush administration to address them, whoever is victorious in tomorrow's voting won't enjoy that luxury.
"I guess you'd have to have your head examined if you wanted to be president of the United States right now," Professor James Thurber, director of the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies at American University, told the Associated Press.
Thurber suggested that even though all presidents promise to hit the ground running, "This one will be jumping out of an airplane as soon as the election's over with."
According to a report released by AP on Monday, George W. Bush became president swearing "to confront problems, to not pass them on to future Congresses or future presidents."
However, noted AP's Mark Smith, "after two full terms in the White House, the array of things he leaves his successor to solve is staggering, from an economy rocked by the worst crisis since the Great Depression to a pair of wars, one of which US spy chiefs say is spiraling out of control."
"And then there are those minor crises," added Smith, listing energy costs, immigration, health care, social security, and climate change. "The fixes are all costly and American is flat broke."
Political scientist John Sides told AP, "No amount of reform, no amount of trimming waste, no amount of limiting earmarks is going to make enough money available to do things like provide health insurance for 47 uninsured Americans." And yet, suggested Sides, "The larger the challenge, the more room there is for presidents to rise to the challenge."
"The next president of the United States has so many problems," agreed Thurber, "that he's going to look good if he can solve just a few of them."
"A honeymoon?" concluded Smith. "Don't bet on it."
This video is from The Associated Press, broadcast November 3, 2008.
Download video via RawReplay.com
|
