The Missing President: PBS On The Crash

FRONTLINE last night was like JAWS.

First Bear Stearns, then Lehman, then AIG, then Freddy and Fanny.

The two most striking revelations (at least to me) were that (1) Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson seems to have let Lehman Brothers go belly-up after saving Bear Stearns because he personally had it in for Lehman's CEO from way back. And (2) the President of the United States was utterly uninvolved in the worst economic crisis since 1929. His name was never (or barely) mentioned. Every decision was made by Paulson, Ben Bernanke, and later, Congress.

No Bush.

I'm no Herbert Hoover fan. But he was involved in the post-1929 disaster every step of the way. His decisions may have been wrong (some of them were right) but he made the decisions along with his Secretary of the Treasury.

Not Bush.

There was one moment in the program where Bush was asked what he thought. His answer: "I'm not an economist."

Imagine President Obama in that situation. Or, in fact, any President since Pierce and Buchanan (our two most vacant Presidents whose indifference to the slavery/secession crisis helped produced the Civil War).

Incredible.

Who do we have to thank for this? God? No. The voters? No. Then who?

How about the Supreme Court and its decision in Bush v. Gore. I wonder if Sandra Day O'Connor and Anthony Kennedy can sleep at night. (if they have 401K's, they probably can't).

Comments

[CatfishJohn]

...and who was repsonsible for 58,000 legally registered blacks beign denied the vote in flaorida in 2000--jeb bush and katherine harris---and who of course knowingly pre-arranged this criminal machination that lead to these 90% dem voting blacks beign denied---george bush and his behind the scene minions..The Bush administration---criminal in its intent even before the election...and disgracefully criminal in its agenda, not to mention destructive for 8 years thereafter...

[Konnie]

don't forget Gore and Company will always share the blame here. he caved. he threw in the towell too soon in the biggest fight of his life. we voters would have had his back, would have waited it out. but he just walked away. i cry every time i think about it.

will we ever know the truth about that decision? add that to the conspiracy tin foil hat list.

[CommonSenseRules]

Of course! How original...a liberal blaming Bush for everything! When are you libs going to realize that Obama is president now, not Bush. Talk about living in the past and still crying about a "stolen" election. 9/11 would have happened no matter who was president, they don't care who is president.

Liberals...

[stymgr]

Actually, any Defense Secretary other than Rumsfeld simply would not have scheduled exercises that particular Tuesday morning. No "exercises" that morning means no delay in the attempt to scramble fighter jets. "Is this real world, or is this an exercise?...." That question would not have been asked. Scrambled fighter jets means four hijacked planes shot down midair-- NOT crashed into towers, pentagon,etc. So sure, the planes would still have been hijacked-- but ASIDE from that particular Tuesday morning, and the homegrown anthrax attacks, Bush did a terrific job keeping us safe.

[sd4david]

To BobLablah: Bush froze IN FEAR when he heard the US was under attack, and had no idea what to do. He simply had to tell the children: Mrs. Bush needs to see me, so I have to leave. Then he would have been helped figure out how to proceed. Mr. Bush also basically stopped working after Obama was elected. And yes, you are responsible when your lack of action causes a problem. If you forget to change your car oil, and your engine gets destroyed because of it, that is your fault. If you IGNORE a PDB that says "Bin Laden determined to attack US" then you are at fault. If you set tax policy, and discourage regulation, which partially causes the financial collapse, yes, you are at fault.
Most of the country and world has heaved a sigh of relief as Bush the Incompetant has left office for good.

[krocklin]

It was a stroke of extreme bad luck when this guy got off his Enron private jet and was inaugurated.

We have had an Idiocracy - a Mediocracy - ever since.

Of course we already had a country of Idiots and still do.

Don't underestimate the ferocity with which Reactionary Forces will continue to come at Obama.

[BobLablah]

I guess you don't realize it was Democrat Robert Rubin who was doing Enron's bidding in Washington.

[CindyV]

I've always felt that if Gore had been elected President in 2000 there would not have been a 9/11. I say that because President Clinton was so close to engineering a deal between the Israelis and the Palestinians but ran out of time. I believe a President Gore would have continued our country's investment in the middle east by brokering a deal with Arafat and Israel. At the very least, he would not have ignored it like Bush.

[CommonSenseRules]

Clinton did NOT have a peace deal in the works! It was a total sham! Arafat was never going to go along with it and all three men knew it. It as a PR stunt and a distraction from what was going on with the perjury trial, so please, get your head out of the clouds when it comes to Clinton, he was useless.

[BobLablah]

Wow. Do you think Bush was responsible for that chimp attack too?

[doriath22]

No, that was Cheney