The French opposition today withdrew its support for the France’s military deployment in Afghanistan, calling the mission there an unwinnable “war of occupation”. If civilian and military casualties continue to escalate  in this most nightmarish of states Germany will follow. Who is going to be left to “finish the mission”, whatever the heck the mission really is? The U.S. under the next president, that’s who.

I always thought that no person in their right mind would ever run for the job of President of the U.S. This is particularly true for running after the previous Republican administration has made such a complete and utter mess of things. As far as I can see whoever the next President of the U.S. happens to be, he/she will have his/her hands tied. He/she will inherit half a dozen first-class crises from their criminally incompetent predecessor crew, such as

  • high debt load of approximately $10 trillion
  • high annual deficit of approximately $500 billion (pre-bailout numbers)
  • two (2) hot wars in the middle east with 150,000+ U.S. troops engaged and no good way out (see beginning of this post)
  • increasing inflation
  • an increasing jobless rate
  • decreasing U.S. international influence
  • managing/overseeing the bailout of U.S. financial sector
  • pissed-off Russians that smell U.S. weakness
  • potentially catastrophic global warming consequences
  • devaluation of the dollar and its subsequent replacement by the Euro as international currency standard

These from the top of my head. I’m sure there’s more. Under normal circumstances, the party that has been in power for the past 8 years and that is responsible for this mess would spontaneously disband and refrain from any sort of political activities in the future. But these are not normal times and Mr. Obama who must be fully aware of all the fun he’s going to have in trying to resolve the above issues is un-daunted. If it was me, I’d say: Fine you created this mess, you fix it.

Of course, since this country is really run by only one party, this is not an option he has. Democratic leaders have almost as much responsibly for the current state of affairs as Republicans do.

If there was any justice in the world, John McCain would be elected president. Handing the above problem list to a Septuagenarian would virtually guarantee his early demise and the succession of Sarah Palin who in just two years would look like Bush looks now: Gray and paunchy.