If leaving would be a disaster, dicking around for nine months and then leaving would be somewhat more of a disaster.
Which is what the strategy of the perpetual Friedmans has gotten us. Luckily, Chris Matthews says this isn't Bush's last chance, but just his second-to-last-chance. Which, of course, means his actual last chance will miraculously be over in about January of 2009, at which point Bush will leave office the most hated man in America.