President Obama could go back to Chicago and campaign from there, reconnecting with his old friend and former chief of staff, Mayor Rahm Emmanuel. Members of Congress could go back to their districts or wherever else it is they live, since everyone knows that nothing is going to happen.

If Washington was vacated, it would be a more honest expression of the reality of the status of governance for the next six months. It might help the American people believe that there is some integrity to the situation…

The president especially needs to leave.

Not because he has been ineffective in managing the nation, but because in his zeal to find new groups to blame for our economic failures, by leaving town he could be in a position to travel the countryside blaming what he left behind.