Obama's new strategy: Blaming Bush for 'mess'

[BlueStateSaint]

Wasn't he all about 'hope' and 'change?' 


Obama's new strategy: Blaming Bush for 'mess'

President sheds former reluctance to fault predecessor for state of economy


By Scott Wilson
washingtonpost.com
updated 2 hours, 20 minutes ago


In his inaugural address, President Obama proclaimed "an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas that for far too long have strangled our politics."

It hasn't taken long for the recriminations to return — or for the Obama administration to begin talking about the unwelcome "inheritance" of its predecessor.

Over the past month, Obama has reminded the public at every turn that he is facing problems "inherited" from the Bush administration, using increasingly bracing language to describe the challenges his administration is up against. The "deepening economic crisis" that the president described six days after taking office became "a big mess" in remarks this month to graduating police cadets in Columbus, Ohio.

"By any measure," he said during a March 4 event calling for government-contracting reform, "my administration has inherited a fiscal disaster."

Obama's more frequent and acid reminders that former president George W. Bush left behind a trillion-dollar budget deficit, a 14-month recession and a broken financial system have come at the same time Republicans have ramped up criticism that the current president's policies are compounding the nation's economic problems.



So what's the Obamessiah's solution?  More spending! 

Link:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29689284

[djones520]

I'd love to see Obama's senate records on how he voted to give all this money that he claims President Bush is responsible for spending.   

[NHSparky]

New, my ass--he ran on it, he talked about it after the election, and it seems that when he isn't comparing himself to Lincoln (laughable at that) he's blaming Bush for everything from the economy to the heartbreak of psoriasis.

New?  Hardly--old as Chicago machine politics.

[RightCoast]

I'd love to see Obama's senate records on how he voted to give all this money that he claims President Bush is responsible for spending.  

Present
Present
Present
Present
Present
Present
Present
Present
Present
Present

[docstew]

Present
Present
Present
Present
Present
Present
Present
Present
Present
Present

you're giving him too much credit for doing the job his constituents elected him to do... he wasn't present, he was campaigning

[Hawkgirl]

Obama needs to brush up on his not so distant history.  Bush inherited a mild recession from Clinton when he took office and he turned the economy around quickly.  Remember the Nasdaq bubble burst, people jumping off buildings and allthat fun stuff?  I do.
He owns this economy now.

[djones520]

I did the numbers this morning.  Went through every vote Congress made from the time he became a Senator.  He missed a full THIRD of those votes.  There was a 6 month stretch where he voted in 13 out of 100 votes.

[delilahmused]

I don't really think this will work for him in the long run. He's responsible for greater deficits and economic disaster than Bush ever dreamed of. People know who signed what "stimulus" bill. His rhetoric is often completely opposite his actions. People catch on to that kind of thing after a while. Times were different for FDR. Compared to the information resources we have, FDR was operating in a bubble where he could pretty much write his own template. History is starting to show his economic policies prolonged the Great Depression. Obama won't have the luxury of waiting for history to judge. The more things tank the more the taint will be on his hands.

Cindie

[Tess Anderson]

New, my ass--he ran on it, he talked about it after the election, and it seems that when he isn't comparing himself to Lincoln (laughable at that) he's blaming Bush for everything from the economy to the heartbreak of psoriasis.

New?  Hardly--old as Chicago machine politics.

That's right. All he's been doing since 2004 is babbling about the "failure of the Bush Administration', then he takes his predecessor's fiscal policy and implements it x 10. He has never learned to take responsiblity for anything, never had to.

[BannedFromDU]

That's right. All he's been doing since 2004 is babbling about the "failure of the Bush Administration', then he takes his predecessor's fiscal policy and implements it x 10. He has never learned to take responsiblity for anything, never had to.

     That "not my fault" shit isn't going to play in 2010 or 2012...Obama is a one-termer for sure.

[BlueStateSaint]

That's right. All he's been doing since 2004 is babbling about the "failure of the Bush Administration', then he takes his predecessor's fiscal policy and implements it x 10. He has never learned to take responsiblity for anything, never had to.

And no one in the Oministration has a clue about what to do when the next terrorist attack happens.  Unfortunately, we may find out real soon.

[Baruch Menachem]

I don't yet see any signs of buyers remorse.    Actually, I think I see the kind of thinking that makes you put $20 on the same number on the roulette table where you lost $5 before, because this time it will come out right.

[Bluesuiter-Retired]

Rewind to 9/12 on.

Dems and libs told republicans that they can't blame clinton for the events on 9/11 because he was no longer in office, even though clinton did jack$hit about multiple terrorist attacks which only emboldened them to strike again.

Fast forward to today, and the dems and libs are blaming President Bush for the current state of the economy DESPITE the fact that President Bush is no longer in office.

Gotta love the hypocracy!!!!!

[NHSparky]

Gotta put the blame where blame is due--ON US.

Not the Obama administration, although their "fix" is only making matters worse. 

Not the Bush administration, although they did little to raise the alarm, and if they did, were too interested in keeping votes to DO much about it.

WE, the consumer, are to blame, being enabled by a banking industry all too eager to capitalize on our own greed.  When I was a kid, few people had credit cards.  If you wanted something and you didn't have the cash for it, you either, 1--saved for it, 2--put it on layaway and paid the fee for that.  When we fully went over to a cashless/instant gratification society, we spelled our own doom, and all the government involvement in the world isn't gonna fix that.  WE have to change our habits.  The government isn't going to do it for us.

[Eupher]

Gotta put the blame where blame is due--ON US.

Not the Obama administration, although their "fix" is only making matters worse. 

Not the Bush administration, although they did little to raise the alarm, and if they did, were too interested in keeping votes to DO much about it.

WE, the consumer, are to blame, being enabled by a banking industry all too eager to capitalize on our own greed.  When I was a kid, few people had credit cards.  If you wanted something and you didn't have the cash for it, you either, 1--saved for it, 2--put it on layaway and paid the fee for that.  When we fully went over to a cashless/instant gratification society, we spelled our own doom, and all the government involvement in the world isn't gonna fix that.  WE have to change our habits.  The government isn't going to do it for us.

Bingo, and h5.

Except for one small thing. The Exalted One is going to make sure that the government is going to fix EVERYTHING that could remotely bother us. He and his ilk are so convinced that government is the answer to our problems that the biggest employer in the history of the US - the gummint - will be the only entity hiring anybody for anything.

What an absolutely terrific way to stifle creativity, entrepreneurship, and plain old-fashioned work ethic.

'Cause Obama knows best. [\sarcasm]

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

It's March so maybe I'm just a mad hare but...

...didn't Obama CAMPAIGN on blaming Bush for everything while simultaneously claiming to be the cure for everything?