Josh has a take on the lame duck dilemma very different than the one I had earlier.

How much would things be different if Barack Obama had been sworn in on November 5th? The question, to some degree, gets at the very different policy perspectives of Bush and Obama. But at least as much, it points to how much things might be different right now if we had an actual president in office — one who had some legitimacy, some level of public approval and, most importantly, knew he’d be able to see his policies through years rather than weeks into the future.

It’s no one’s fault, per se. It’s written into our constitutional structure. But though our real and fundamental problems are profound, I think we’re paying mightily for having no captain at the helm at one of the most perilous points in our recent national history.

Our ideas are not mutually exclusive, but while I was focused on the damage that Bush&Co. could do through deliberate actions, Josh’s emphasis is on the damage that can come from inaction or incompetence.

I like Matt Yglesias a lot. And while he occasionally makes me chuckle, his blog can be on the dry side, which is a totally acceptable price to pay for the overall quality of his work.

That said, it’s fine to get serious on the Somali pirate thing, but he doesn’t have to act all superior to those of us who have found it all very entertaining.

If you’d like to learn more about these issues, I’d recommend the International Crisis Group’s Horn of Africa page and also the ENOUGH Project’s Somalia page (which doesn’t seem to be loading at the moment, but should come back). Either that or we can make more jokes about how pirates are funny. Arrrr funny.

Lighten up, Matt.

You know, when a race horse pulls up lame the poor, suffering creature is put out of its misery.

In the case of the U.S. presidency, depending on the president, the misery might be the lame duck’s, as he or she slips slowly into irrelevance after having been the most important person in the world.

On the other hand, with George W. Bush, another animal metaphor is in order.

Many animals, especially large predators, when injured, become extremely erratic and dangerous. Now, in that context, those experiencing the misery are the country, the global community, the planet.

In either case, isn’t a mercy killing the right thing to do?

I’m really starting to wonder about our practice of electing the first week of November but not inaugurating until almost 2 and a half months later, especially when shit like this can happen:

Whether it’s relaxing pollution control standards for power plants or allowing loaded weapons into national parks, the Bush Administration is scrambling to approve or change as many federal rules as it can before it hands off power to President-elect Barack Obama. This surge of “midnight regulations” presents a thorny question for the next administration: What can it do to void rules it thinks should be undone?

An Obama spokesman told ProPublica that the transition team can’t comment on the new administration’s strategy yet. However, John Podesta, a leading member of the transition team, has said Obama will use his “executive authority without waiting for congressional action” to reverse many of Bush’s policies.

But that authority has its limits.

While executive orders and rules that are not yet in effect can swiftly be reversed or altered by Obama’s appointees or his own executive orders, rules that go into effect before he takes office will be extremely difficult to undo. Rescinding a rule would require the new administration to re-start the rule-making process, which can take years and prompt legal challenges. Another strategy that has been talked about lately – getting Congress to disapprove the rules through the Congressional Review Act — carries political risks and has been used only once before.

Ironically, the 20th Amendment to the constitution, ratified in 1933, was added to shorten the time between election and inauguration. Previously, inauguration didn’t happen until March 4th!

Arguments still remain that the long transition period is necessary for the incoming administration to be fully organized when the transfer of power is finalized on January 20th. And this really might be true. Admittedly it is more appropriate to be placing the blame for our current dilemma on loopholes in the system, such as signing statements and federal rules, that create tremendous opportunities for presidents who are so inclined to become largely unchecked unitary executives.