The last time a two-term president handed power
to a groundbreaking successor was when
Eisenhower welcomed John F. Kennedy in 1961.
As Barack Obama prepares to take the oath of office on Tuesday, there is no shortage of advice being given to him.
Indeed, his soon-to-be predecessor, George W. Bush, told the nation in his farewell address last night that Obama's greatest challenge will be the threat posed by America's "patient and determined" enemies.
Certainly, terrorists remain a serious concern, and the new administration must be vigilant in its efforts to prevent a successful attack.
But an attack on America does not have to have the kind of body count that Sept. 11, 2001, brought to accomplish the terrorists' goals. An attack that brings more chaos to our troubled economy can be even more lethal, even if there aren't nearly as many corpses, and its effects can last even longer.
Already, more than 2.5 million Americans who had jobs this time last year find themselves unemployed with bleak prospects. In an economy that has grown so dependent on the computer and the internet, a terrorist attack that targets that communications system can cripple the nation in ways that can barely be imagined.
Of course, as Paul Krugman points out in Rolling Stone, the economy that Bush leaves for the Obama administration to deal with is already "[w]orse than almost anyone imagined."
But there are lessons to be learned from history, as Krugman observes — particularly from Franklin Roosevelt's approach during the 1930s. Many people insist we are not living through a second Great Depression, but there's no doubt, as far as I can see, that this is the greatest economic crisis the nation has faced since the 1930s.
Krugman urges Obama to "emulate [Roosevelt's] successes, but avoid repeating his mistakes."
That's going to be a tough tightrope to walk, but Obama has no choice.
And, as Krugman notes, it's important to "get credit flowing again," but it isn't the whole answer.
"You need to give the real economy of work and wages a boost," he tells Obama. "In other words, you have to get job creation right — which FDR never did."
And, while Bush says that the nation's enemies will be Obama's greatest challenge, Krugman writes that "the biggest problem you're going to face as you try to rescue the economy will be finding enough job-creation projects that can be started quickly."
Krugman has more common-sense recommendations for Obama, and I hope he pays attention to them.
I have often wondered why anyone would want to be president but never more than I have in the last year. The America that Obama will take over in a few days is not the one he hoped to lead when he announced his candidacy for president two years ago. The challenges are greater, the problems are bigger. The economy, as Krugman points out, is losing half a million jobs a month.
That's not a pleasant situation, by any stretch of the imagination. But it will be Obama's job to make the right decisions. A president cannot choose the conditions that prevail when he takes office. He must do the best he can with the hand he is dealt.
When I was in college, I remember seeing a film about midlife crises called "Middle Age Crazy" starring Bruce Dern. Late in the film, Dern, in a speech at a high school graduation, observed that it is traditional for speakers at such events to tell the graduates that they are the future and to extol the virtues of the future. He then asserted, "The future sucks!"
While the immediate future may, indeed, suck, it is going to be Obama's job to rally the people, encourage them to persevere and lift their spirits. His predecessor spoke of having earned "political capital" during his re-election campaign, but Obama will enter the presidency with real capital — a 73% favorable rating based primarily on the people he's chosen to assist him when he takes office.
America wants Obama to succeed. The alternative is too horrible to contemplate.
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