Good Luck to the Next Guy

摘要

At the zenith of his presidency, George W. Bush wore a flight suit-but now he's leaving his successor in a straitjacket. As the presidential candidates tout their plans for the future, it's easy to overlook the dismal reality: there's a colossal mismatch between the problems we face and the next president's power to deal with them. Either Barack Obama or John McCain will have to lead a country crippled by debt-and that was before the $700 billion federal bailout of private lenders-and burdened by an array of practically inescapable military commitments. "It's close to an impossible situation," Leon Panetta, die White House chief of staff in Bill Clinton's first term, told me. "The next guy, whoever he is, will be a one-term president-if he is lucky."