I totally agree with this column.
We really need to update some of these antiquated laws and customs.
This practice is as outdated as the Electoral College.This is a dangerous interregnum for the American people, with a lameduck president whose mistakes have stripped him of credibility, influence and apparently confidence, and a new president still two months from taking power. That’s a problem we’ll need to address with a constitutional amendment that moves up the date of inauguration.
The current date was set by the 20th amendment, which accelerated the transfer of power from the original March 4 to the current Jan. 20. Not surprisingly, that change occurred in 1933, in the midst of the Great Depression, when Americans decided they couldn’t afford to wait four months between presidents. The amendment was passed by Congress in 1932 and in less than a year it had been ratified by enough states to take effect, which suggests the seriousness with which it was taken.
Now, with another major financial crisis underway, the lack of leadership from Washington could be a real problem. In one sense there’s not a lot a president could do — there’s no magic bill he could sign or rule he could change to make things better. But the markets are always driven by psychology, and never more so than in a moment like this. The difference between a sense of drift in Washington and a sense of strong leadership at the helm could be significant.
As the New York Times reports:
“We can’t get from here to Feb. 1 if the current ‘who’s in charge?’ situation continues,” said Robert Barbera, the chief economist of ITG, an investment firm, arguing that Congress should adopt a stimulus package, including temporary tax cuts, as rapidly as possible. Instead, he said, Washington seems paralyzed…
The Standard & Poor’s index of 500 stocks fell by more than 6 percent on two consecutive days, Wednesday and Thursday, something that had not happened since July 20 and 21, 1933, in the midst of the Great Depression, when panic was brought on by collapsing commodity prices.”
The current collapse may halt, at least temporarily, when the New York markets open this morning, given what happened overnight. According to the AP, “European and Asian stock markets rebounded Friday as expectations of a recovery on Wall Street prompted investors to scoop up battered financial and energy shares.” But it’s hard to argue with any certainty that this is the worst of it.
Back before the election, legal scholar Sanford Levinson foresaw just this calamity, even proposing a possible if unlikely solution:
“As it happens, one doesn’t need to amend the Constitution to ‘solve’ this problem at least for this year: Dick Cheney could resign on November 5, to be replaced by the winner of the election. This could take place simply by following the procedures of the 25th Amendment, which allows a president to nominate a new vice president should the office become vacant, subject to congressional confirmation. Upon such confirmation, President Bush could then resign, to be succeeded by the newly installed Vice President….”
As Levinson acknowledges, that’s not going to happen. For the moment, we’re stuck with both our current president and our current system. One problem is two months from a solution; fixing the second will take a little more time.
http://www.ajc.com/blogs/content/shared-blogs/ajc/bookman/index.html
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