he got us into this mess...

Before I head off to Wisconsin for the weekend, I thought I'd offer another diary entry, probably the last before the election.  Lately I've run across a surprising number of people who plan to vote for Bush and give the following reason: "Bush got us into this mess [in Iraq]; he should be the one to get us out."  --Sigh--  ...I just feel I must say something to counter to the many, many times I have heard this nonsense.

This sentiment, which contains a logical flaw, appeared in a letter to the editor in the Chicago Tribune a while back, and later a reader sent a rebuttal.  I don't have said rebuttal in hand, but I can paraphrase... (continues below)

Suppose you are the shareholder of XYZ corporation.  Under the CEO's watch, XYZ's profits have turned into huge losses, and its debt burden has grown rapidly with no improvement in sight.  The CEO has been a leading proponent of a costly hostile takeover bid of another company, even though the other company was not XYZ's chief competitor. Integrating the other company's operations into XYZ is proving to be a challenge, as the other company's culture is not well aligned with XYZ's.  There also appears to be a conflict of interest in that a highly paid consultant on the takeover is the former employer of an XYZ senior executive.  The CEO has succeeded in destroying long-standing relationships with business partners and customers.  The CEO has shown disdain for worker rights and environmental standards.  And he has instituted an overly punitive employee training and evaluation program (No Worker Left Behind) at great cost to the company.  Finally, the CEO stubbornly defends all of these failed initiatives and refuses to admit that any of his decisions are wrong, even in the face of compelling evidence.  He has consistently demonstrated poor judgment.  So why wouldn't you, the shareholder, demand that the CEO be ousted?  He got us into this mess, but he has not shown that he has the competence to get us out.