Bush, McCain and an utter lack of economic awareness

That George W. Bush is incompetent and is surrounded by dangerous ideologues is not exactly a newsflash. The president gave a speech on Friday to The Economic Club of New York which, once again, demonstrated that he hasn't a clue about the economic state of the nation and that he and his advisor's are only interested in pushing ideology. Gail Collins from the NY Times reviewed Bush's speech yesterday,

The president squinched his face and bit his lip and seemed too antsy to stand still. As he searched for the name of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia (“the king, uh, the king of Saudi”) and made guy-fun of one of the questioners (“Who picked Gigot?”), you had to wonder what the international financial community makes of a country whose president could show up to talk economics in the middle of a liquidity crisis and kind of flop around the stage as if he was emcee at the Iowa Republican Pig Roast.

We’re really past expecting anything much, but in times of crisis you would like to at least believe your leader has the capacity to pretend he’s in control.

Today's NY Times filleted the president. Chuck Shumer recently compared him to Herbert Hoover. All the while the nation's economy continues to stumble and sputter.

The Republican Party has decided to cast their lot in this election year with John McCain. Much has been made of McCain's bellicosity and the fact that he is potentially more dangerous than Bush in terms of foreign policy. In economics though McCain has the potential to be significantly worse than anything Bush has wrought. McCain has already professed that he doesn't really understand economic issues. Given that we can assume he will lean on his economic advisers an inordinate amount. Who are his advisers? Men like noted supply-sider Jack Kemp. So we're in for not only Bush Foreign Policy Part II but also Bush Economic Policy Part II.

We really can't afford either of those things - certainly not both of them.