by Steven Hill, http://www.opednews.com/
The Bush administration seems to be reeling from policy failure to scandal. Key administration officials have resigned, President Bush’s approval ratings are in the high 20s, with support dwindling even among Republicans and high-ranking military officers. Ed Rollins, a Republican strategist who ran Ronald Reagan’s 1984 presidential campaign has said, “The country doesn’t believe George W. Bush, it doesn’t trust him, and with 19 months to go it’s only going to get worse.”
The government of George W. Bush clearly has “fallen,” in the classic parliamentary sense. President Bush is the lamest of ducks. He is in Richard Nixon territory.
Yet our presidential system doesn’t have a mechanism to grapple with this. The next election is still a long ways off. The United States is living through the worst aspects of our presidential system, which can produce lame duck presidents due to the rigid mechanism for triggering elections. In our presidential system, elections are held every four years on a regular schedule, regardless of the incumbent’s unpopularity between elections.