A Leaderless Nation

It's a well-known political axiom that presidents will often be credited with accomplishments they did not earn and be criticized for failures that were out of their control.  But just as often, particularly in our modern era where we have -- against the wise counsel of our Founders -- consolidated more and more power in the hands of our federal executive, presidents own the failures that happen on their watch.  The disastrous and nationally humiliating downgrade of our country's credit rating was not an inevitable consequence of uncontrollable misfortune.  It wasn't the result of gridlock or political wrangling between two parties that have bickered over our national debt and credit since the days of Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton.  It was a remarkable failure of leadership by the man chosen to be the country's economic caretaker.