the Left is humorless?

(Good one, Congressman!)

that the same people calling for a new President before he's permitted to become the new President are the same people that had every chance to see this economic crisis on the horizon way before it actually broke in the news.

I am convinced that this President and Congress, both sides of the aisle, ignored the information and were only willing to deal with it when it got to the point where it could no longer be ignored. Where were the Congressional hearings, the oversight, the concern, and action before last week, or even before September?

Sorry, but Obama is not the President. The Constitution says he isn't the President. And no amount of hang-wringing or wishing or fantasizing is going to change that.

Obama is not the Messiah. I wouldn't bet the house on his being able to pull this country out of a nose-dive. Congress can do more than he can. Did anyone tell Barney and the rest of the slackers that?

And there's still time, even after Bush and Cheney leave office. So, Barney, get on the Kuchinich bandwagon and vote the criminals out of office. Then you can have your colleague Pelosi as interim President until Obama is sworn in.

at a time and it is ridiculous for everyone to blast him for not stepping in and try to run things when he has absolutely no authority to do so until 1/20/09. I have read blogs saying that his Presidency is in crisis etc but it hasn't started yet. It would be great if Bush were to announce that he wants P-E Obama to start early but that is not going to happen. Barney and the others are going to have to sit tight for another couple weeks and just be content with private talks with the transition team.

and that means IT IS STILL BUSH'S FAULT!!!!!!

Everyone is the President, flap your freak flag flying!!!!

Barney Frank really, really needs to STFU. He is making a first-class jerk of himself. As to the question, "just how many presidents do we have right now?" -- the correct answer is "none," which is not Barack Obama's fault.

...when Salon bloggers blog about other Salon bloggers' blogs.

Which issue exactly? The issue of the fact that Obama's not president until he's inaugurated? Is that an issue?

"He's got to remedy that situation."

I really hope you simply didn't note the dripping sarcasm that must have been evident in Frank's tone. In fact, I'm going to just believe that and move on with my day.

Barack Obama has, at this point, no formal authority. He has no staff in the government. He's not even a US Senator anymore.

To assert that he needs to assume leadership of the country and take on the economic situation makes no sense. With what legal authority? With what budget?

It's Mr Bush's responsibility. It's his appointees who are in positions of authority. And, all evidence suggests (just look at page A20 every day) that they've all been busy, busy, busy as the crisis progresses. They've been eliminating collective bargaining rights for federal employees. They've been taking species off the endangered list. They've been opening up pristine protected lands for drilling, mining, and exploitation. They've been rolling back workplace protections.

They COULD be doing something meaningful about the crisis, other than shoveling heaps of money into their cronies' eager hands.

The public needs to demand that Bush & Co. do something to address the crisis - failing that, to impeach him. There's still time. Maybe the next Congress.

[Obama] says we only have one president at a time. I'm afraid that overstates the number of presidents we have. He's got to remedy that situation.

Well, Barney, what do you suggest? Dare I utter the sacred and forbidden phrase "constitutional convention"?

And Joan's comment, I don't know why Democrats are among those setting him up for potential failure by demanding that he act before he's had time to develop a plan.

Never mind before taking office.

I think we've reached an event horizon here and no one, not even Shatner, can save us.