Not one, but two New York Times columnists have called for an early start to the Obama presidency. First up,Gail [1]Collins on Saturday [1],who thinks House Speaker Nancy Pelosi would be a dandy interim president until Obama gets in.
Thanksgiving is next week, and President Bush could make it a really special holiday by resigning.
Seriously. We have an economy that's crashing and a vacuum at the top. Bush - who is currently on a trip to Peru to meet with Asian leaders who no longer care what he thinks - hasn't got the clout, or possibly even the energy, to do anything useful. His most recent contribution to resolving the fiscal crisis was lecturing representatives of the world's most important economies on the glories of free-market capitalism.
Putting Barack Obama in charge immediately isn't impossible. Dick Cheney, obviously, would have to quit as well as Bush. In fact, just to be on the safe side, the vice president ought to turn in his resignation first. (We're desperate, but not crazy.) Then House Speaker Nancy Pelosi would become president until Jan. 20. Obviously, she'd defer to her party's incoming chief executive, and Barack Obama could begin governing.
Ed Morrissey of Hot Air pointed out [2]the slight flaw in Collins' brilliant plan:
The succession act Collins references exists to ensure continuity in case of disaster, not on the whim of a constipated New York Times columnist whose need for instant gratification apparently outweighs the rest of her cerebral processes.
Sunday brought a similar plea from the paper's increasingly excitable peripatetic columnist Tom Friedman [3], who feverishly likened the GeorgeBush-Barack Obama handoff to...how Lyndon Baines Johnson ascended to the presidency immediately upon the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
If I had my druthers right now we would convene a special session of Congress, amend the Constitution and move up the inauguration from Jan. 20 to Thanksgiving Day. Forget the inaugural balls; we can't afford them. Forget the grandstands; we don't need them. Just get me a Supreme Court justice and a Bible, and let's swear in Barack Obama right now- by choice - with the same haste we did - by necessity - with L.B.J. in the back of Air Force One.