6:42PM
The best sign of the End Times for the Bush Administration [updated with link]
Wednesday, May 24, 2006 at 6:42PM Lost the page on the way to my hotel tonight in McLean, but it was a section page 1 right column piece in the Financial Times saying that the smartest man in the Bush Administration (my term), Robert Zoellick, was leaving to join a Wall Street firm, having had it made clear to him by the White House that he won't replace John Snow as Secretary of the Treasury.
[webmaster update] Zoellick 'to quit for job on Wall Street'
Sad news for this now largely lost administration.
Bad news for U.S. foreign and security policy.
Really bad news for China.
Serious loss for Doha Round, and thus globalization as a whole.
I am now officially depressed at the notion of three more years of this sort of lame-duckness and lack of strategic imagination.
Reader Comments (5)
I attended Swarthmore College with Bob Zoellick in the 70's. He has always been a tremendously bright and down to earth guy and has had a terrific career in public service. Too bad that he seems to have hit the glass ceiling. I hope the Swarthmore background didn't limit him and I suspect that the private sector pay won't spoil him.
There must be also a positive side to lame-duckness.
Bad news for U.S. foreign and security policy.
on this, we agree.
"Lack of strategic imagination" is probably the most accurate and damaging criticism of the Bush administration. The positive side is that things could have been much worse... we could have implemented protectionist barriers and we could have pulled a 'Spain' after Sept 11
This departure is a final reflection on the need for both parties to develop a bench of confirmable appointees. I think that given the collapse of cabinet government that an incumbent of the White House should state in advance that he/she has a list of 10-12 possibles and would encourage public comment on their selection to the cabinent or a key white house position. Mary Parker Follette argued in the 1920's and 30's that in a complex technological society authoritarian and centralized regimes in the corporate world failed. If CEO Presidencies are to succeed they not only need strong and able subordinates but ways to integrate technical information and knowledge into decisioning making. Just because someone wants to be in high office does not make that a qualification even in a democracy. And by the way, can we stop having pilots pretending they can do any job when we know that they often fail even at flying. Being a former pilot, even a fighter pilot, seems to be a personality type that the country could be spared in high positions. as someone once said it is not what we know, or what we don't know that kills us it is what we think we know and don't know that kills us.