Congressman Frank on Obama's need to demonstrate greater leadership in addressing the economic crisis:
"At a time of great crisis with mortgage foreclosures and autos, he says we only have one president at a time," Frank said. "I'm afraid that overstates the number of presidents we have. He's got to remedy that situation."It's a great line, but with all due respect to Barney, the president-elect is right.
Obama has no governing authority prior to 12:01 p.m. on January 20, 2009. He could, I suppose, begin to publicly upstage the president by making demands of congress (of which he is no longer a member), but what would that accomplish, except to give the impression of a palace coup?
And Bush could always push back by exercising his actual authority as president to disburse what remains of the $350 billion bailout fund in order to look like he's doing something. Whom would that help?
