Bush Failures May Force McCain, Obama to Make Like FDR in 2009

[IDemo]

By Matthew Benjamin and Heidi Przybyla

July 21 (Bloomberg) -- When George W. Bush became president in 2001, his main goals included restoring ``honor and dignity to the White House'' after the Monica Lewinsky scandal, raising school-test scores and figuring out how to spend a record budget surplus.

The next White House occupant will inherit the deepest housing recession in a generation, growing fears of bank failures, a sinking dollar, $4 gasoline and an economy bleeding jobs. He'll confront wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, mounting tensions with Iran and the U.S.'s flagging international reputation.

Historians say the economic and foreign policy crises in Bush's wake will present either Democrat Barack Obama or Republican John McCain with the biggest challenges to a new president since Herbert Hoover left office during the Great Depression.

``What a burden the next president is going to confront,'' says Robert Dallek, a presidential historian and biographer of Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson. ``It'll be like Franklin Roosevelt coming in, in 1933.''

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aKIkmrDcRKv4&refer=us

[yurbud]

1. McCain's own party would roast him alive if he tried to become FDR

and he doesn't ahve it in him anyway.

[IDemo]

3. Not to mention he doesn't exactly have an Eleanor Roosevelt

ready to step in and take over.

[tsuki]

2. McCain would make like McHoover. nt

[ingac70]

4. McCain would just let the whole thing collapse. n/t

[The_Casual_Observer]

5. "deepest housing recession in a generation"? how about the last 70 years?