Pass that buck

Harry S Truman, of course, had the famous saying on his desk - The Buck Stops Here.

George W. Bush goes the other way - making a giant mess and leaving it to his successors to clean up after him.

In his new, "Hey, the war's not going so bad, it's all that damn liberal media's fault" tour, Bush basically admitted American troops are going to be stuck in Iraq for a long time.

According to The Washington Post, "President Bush acknowledged yesterday that the war in Iraq is dominating nearly every aspect of his presidency, and he served notice for the first time that he expects the decision on when all U.S. troops come home to fall on his successors."

And he's doing the same with the economy, of course. The massive tax breaks geared to the wealthy, with increased federal spending, guarantees that a future president is going to have to clean up a real mess, with deficits threatening the economic health of the U.S.

Actually, that's pretty much a Republican specialty. Remember, when Bill Clinton took office in 1992, there were deficits as far as the eye could see, thanks to Reagan and Bush Sr. Clinton left a booming economy behind, which junior inherited and promptly proceeeded to sink into the toilet.

And for some bizarre reason, the public often thinks that Republicans are better stewards of the nation's economy, even though studies show the stock market invariably does better under a Democratic president than a Republican.

According to a UCLA study reported by CNN, "here's Wall Street's strange little irony -- studies show the stock market performs better and tends to be less volatile when Democrats are in power.

(snip)

Looking at the 72-year period between 1927 and 1999, the study shows that a broad stock index, similar to the S&P 500, returned approximately 11 percent more a year on average under a Democratic president versus safer, three-month Treasurys. By comparison, the index only returned 2 percent more a year versus the T-bills when Republicans were in office."

Basically, if you want to live like a rich Republican, vote Democratic.