"Wall Street is drunk." - George W. Bush, alcoholic

I'm not quite sure if that is the smartest thing Bush has ever said [1]. It's not an accurate analogy of our economic woes, not by a long shot. But given his inability to be able to relate to just about anything he has dealt with in the last 7 years, it is possible that this is the smartest thing he has ever opined.

But clearly, we have a president in office that doesn't understand economics. I know the MSM along with people who weren't paying much attention in 2000 were excited that a presidential candidate had an MBA and had business experience. "We should run this country like a business," was a mantra from that time.

Mitt Romney's "expertise" as a Republican presidential candidate stemmed more from his business experience and his work with the Olympics in Salt Lake City then in his actual experience as a 1-term governor from Massachusetts.

To be fair to Bush, he has handled our economy with the same "business expertise" he had in the private sector, minus the people to come along and save him. If Bush really wanted to help his legacy, he should get his rich friends to donate money to the U.S. Treasury to save his reputation, much like they did earlier in his life.

Barack Obama and John McCain do not have MBAs, but should they have an understanding of economics to be president? If we wanted a president who understood economics, then Paul Krugman would be a top candidate.

The United States is not a business. We don't have "shareholders" in the traditional sense. We have to invest in out infrastructure, especially given the last 7 years. The president can't veto specific items in a bill. We have 50 separate entities with two reps in the upper house and 435 separate entities in the other, each needing something unique and distinct.

But economics, with the exception of the Clinton Administration, has been a blight on the presidency in the last 30 years. The next president could have a team of experts working 24/7 and still not be able to deal with a lot of the damage that has been suffered.

So how much should a president know about economics? Ideally, that person would be smart enough to pick quality people who do know about economics. But how much expertise should the commander-in-chief have? Technorati Tags: Be-Elected [7] Chad Rubel [8] Wall Street is drunk [9] president [10] economics [11] Bush [12] economic recovery [13] Paul Krugman [14]