Tsunami leadership

Now that a former fed chairman has used the word "tsunami" to describe the global financial crisis we are in, maybe the President will read my blog.  Who calmed the world and got financial aid streaming to the victims of the tsunami?  Bill Clinton and George Bush I.  That's the team we need speaking for us now.

At the considerable risk of repeating myself, neither of our presidential candidates nor our current president have any credibility on this issue.  I could go on and on about how the Obama campaign continues to disappoint me (way to lead, by going after the poor guy who had the audacity to question the "spread the wealth" taxation policies---Joe didn't get the memo that to question the inevitability and wisdom of Obama is to invite scorn and public humiliation---I could have warned him) and how adrift the McCain campaign appears to be, but that's not the point.

The point is that this a real crisis, and calls for real leadership.  All we've heard up to now is posturing and inauthentic attempts at authority.  Panic feeds on itself, and in a crisis nothing spreads faster than rumor and fear.  Every other public attempt to lead on this issue has deepened the crisis.  Only Clinton and Bush, speaking together and with calm assuredness, can deliver the message that we are strong enough to weather this storm, that the fundamentals of the economy (the innovation and resilience of the American people) are sound, and that this crisis is the one that will define this generation.  We have not been tested in this way before, but we can do this.  To be sure, we haven't done it yet, but we can do this.

Bill, George.  We need you.  We need you now.