Now look, I've supported raising the fuel economy of cars since Clinton couldn't get it through the Republican congress in the mid-1990s, so I greet this news with a certain degree of happiness. But the opening sentence encapsulates so much of what's wrong about the tin ear of the White House:
President Bush responded Monday to a Supreme Court ruling by ordering federal agencies to find a way to begin regulating vehicle emissions by the time he leaves office."By the time he leaves office." There are a lot of ways to read that: he's not really going to do anything on his watch; they're too incompetent to frame this as "action now", when most Americans, regarding so many things, want action now; he's angry at the Supreme Court and putting a timeline this long is the best way he can shoot them the middle finger while still nominally following the law (but really punting it to the next administration); or we could read this as "Bush Being Serious About Something", but who's gonna give him that much benefit of the doubt these days?
Yep, timing is everything, and for the American people, 2009 can't get here soon enough.
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