Redstate

Actually I think that Bush has done all he reasonably can to help the economy and that Daniel Gross is giving him short shrift by proclaiming that there's nothing that can be done in the "next seven months." Americans got themselves into this mess, but look at how he portrays it:

At the swearing-in ceremony of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Steve Preston, Bush ignored the economic chaos and regurgitated his standard lines: He cited the passage of the stimulus package. He proposed greater domestic oil production—sometime in the next decade. "Congress needs to pass legislation that expands—that will allow for the expansion of American energy production."

So he gives him a backhanded compliment for proposing greater domestic oil production in the same breath as saying that he "ignored the economic chaos."

C'mon. Seven months is a strange timetable for Daniel Gross to be talking about in terms of the economy: it happens to coincide with January of 2009. He's really having a good time talking about how nothing can save the Republicans in this election cycle.

Next week, Newsweek Magazine will be blaming Bush for not doing more that Daniel Gross said he couldn't have done. I don't know where he gets the line that "most economists agree" that cutting the gas tax wouldn't result in a "swift savings" for consumers: that's an outright lie. If Congress decided tomorrow that the entire country had a gas tax holiday, the prices at the pump would come down overnight -- I know because one of my neighbors owns a gas station. Gross doesn't say that because he knows where that money goes: into the coffers of federal highway programs -- that's his real concern.

Like I said, Slate always has a mixed bag. It's not all KnownFacts and talking points presented like Kipling's "Just So Stories."

I'm sure you appreciate the notion that Jim Webb shouldn't be anywhere near the executive branch.

lesterblog.blogspot.com

That in response to the chaos that Bush "ignored," the Federal Reserve under the Bush Administration undertook the largest and most remarkable short-term alteration in central monetary policy perhaps in the entire history of this country -- by auctioning hundreds of billions of dollars in low-interest loans -- not just to first-line banks but also to brokerage firms for the first time in American history.

Now, that action has been debated hotly here on Redstate and elsewhere but it certainly doesn't qualify as "ignoring" the problem. Daniel Gross is certainly playing weasel with that action: does he agree with it or not?

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As a small business owner, I support the Fed's measured actions to relieve the credit crisis by helping to alleviate banks reluctance to lend and by helping equity firms stay afloat. The consequences of them "slamming on the brakes" were horrible enough as it was, and anyone who applied for credit as a small business in the past six months knows just how bad it's been.

To portray Bush as "ignoring the financial chaos" isn't just unfair and biased, it's flatly incorrect. When banks can't lend to each other, they're not going to lend to Mom and Pop trying to start a business, and that's what happened from October until this moment of this year. The consequences of actually ignoring the fiancial chaos would have been even worse than they are right now. Gross can't even find the decency to give the Bush Administration credit for that.

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I wish Obama would choose Jim Webb as his running mate. It would be the greatest gift in the world to John McCain if he did. I'm thinking of starting a grassroots: "Draft Jim Webb for Veep" campaign myself!

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