09-16-2009, 04:27 PM
Maybe this is semantics, but I don't see how Bush can be seen as "incompetent". He was in many ways very effective, and he steamrolled the democratic oppostion for most of his presidency; successfully advancing his agenda and his policies. I don't see how that is "incompetence". It is much simpler and more accurate to say he was "wrong".
But not about the bailout. His administration was wrong, and possibly incompetent, in their oversight and regulation of the financial industry in the years leading up to last fall. But they were blinded by idealogy to what should have been increasingly obvious. But once we got to last fall and the bailout, there really was no other choice and little time or opportunity to evaluate the options.
The most telling explanation of how they came up with the bailout plan was that they needed some "really big" and they needed it immediately. In large part, this was a confidence game: they needed the financial industry to believe that they were going to do something, and what they were going to do would work. Whether or not it was the right option, or we could have done other things, is something that economists can study for years. But they did avert an economic collapse, and they have to get some credit for that (as well as the blame for the recession, and the deficits, and the massive increase in the federal government that has or will result).
But not about the bailout. His administration was wrong, and possibly incompetent, in their oversight and regulation of the financial industry in the years leading up to last fall. But they were blinded by idealogy to what should have been increasingly obvious. But once we got to last fall and the bailout, there really was no other choice and little time or opportunity to evaluate the options.
The most telling explanation of how they came up with the bailout plan was that they needed some "really big" and they needed it immediately. In large part, this was a confidence game: they needed the financial industry to believe that they were going to do something, and what they were going to do would work. Whether or not it was the right option, or we could have done other things, is something that economists can study for years. But they did avert an economic collapse, and they have to get some credit for that (as well as the blame for the recession, and the deficits, and the massive increase in the federal government that has or will result).