The Lamest Duck

The Lamest Duck
Bush Lives Up To Lame-Duck Position
December 25, 2008
http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/letters/your-letters-the-lamest-duck/303429

Bush, who tasted mass adulation and record approval rating after his post-9/11 speech to Congress and his subsequent action against Afghanistan, which was duly approved by the UN, now has the lowest-ever popularity rating.
Generally, most two-term US presidents are called lame ducks in their last half year in office because they can’t run again.
It is generally time for them to go around the world to shake hands with the fellow heads of state with whom they have worked for eight years and with whom they had particularly good chemistry.
They also try to tie up any loose ends from their eight years in office. Bush is doing the same.
Joe Klein of TIME magazine has given a good account of these last days of the Bush administration. He tells us about Bush’s recent visit to Santiago, Peru, to attend an Aspec meeting, where “various Asian leaders departed the stage, none of them making eye contact with him.”
He adds, “Bush had that forlorn ‘what-the-hell-happened’ expression on his face, the one that has marked his presidency at difficult times.”
Klein feels that “at a moment when there was a vast national need for reassurance, the president himself was a cipher.”
That seems to be the reason why Obama had to move in prematurely — because he knew the mess he was getting into. He declared his economic plan to create 2.5 million new jobs by the end of 2009 during the transition period itself and had to ask Congress to get the bill ready for his signature.
President Bush’s decision to invade Afghanistan was justifiable in that the 9/11 attacks were launched from Afghan soil by Osama bin Laden and the Taliban who masterminded them. He had UN approval, too. But his invasion of Iraq, without knowing much about what would and wouldn’t work in the Middle East, was a big mistake.
KB Kale, Jakarta