How to Move on From Here?

I have been doing a lot of thinking about all of the problems we face in the United States.  I think of the strong economy and financial surplus that Bill Clinton left as he departed the White House.  Not only is everything gone...  but Bush and Cheney have devastated this country on so many levels, it would be humorous if it wasn't all too true.  Who would have imagined our current state of affairs when Bush was a candidate?

What are the Democrats, who are more likely to win in November, going to do with the horrible mess that the country is faced with after these incompetents leave?  My personal recommendation is for them to grapple with these foreign relations problems forthrightly and tell the country we have hard choices and a monumental struggle before us and over all to tell the one fundamental truth: 

It is ALL the result of Bush, the GOP, and the Neo-Conservative movement that has fought so hard for war in the Middle East, their misguided and mismanaged economic policies, and their dismantling of protections for the poorest and most vulnerable in our society that has this country mired in a worthless war and so damaged at home.

Yes, while that is what I SO desire for a democrat to do in their first major address to the nation, I realize that few politicians will have the strength to do so.  But imagine... after reciting the oath of office, we see the president-elect, acknowledge the failures of the Bush administration -- especially this damnable boondoggle in Iraq (not to mention the attacks on the middle class, attacks on women on many fronts, fantastic increases in corporate ownership especially in the media, degradation of the environment, teaching to the test education, and attacks on health care for poor children).  I would be satisfied with acknowledgement of who caused the war that we are no where close to winning.  Not one damn step. 

Since it is more than apparent -- Bush has admitted that he is leaving the Iraq war mess for the next president -- and GOP tailwaggers such as McCain have claimed that we should be in Iraq for years to come (100 year by McCain's crazy count), then the new president should be honest, direct, and unwilling to let Bush and the GOP lay these problems at the new president's feet as his or her creation!

In this address the new president must acknowledge that many of these problems were not created by him or her and that they are instead the cleaner, the fixer, the person to whom the past administration expected would resolve these problems. 

Think of how much the terrain of discussion about the war in Iraq will shift by such a statement.  Of course, the new president will have to follow up with getting the American military out of Iraq as quickly as is safe for all concerned. 

But now the discussion will open to some kind of combined Middle East/UN military force that will have to be constructed otherwise the entire country will disintegrate (and probably will disintegrate anyway).  But who's fault is that?  Bush, Cheney, and the Neo-Conservatives.  The new president will do well to remember that.  And to remind the rest of the country of that fact.