NY Times: Blaming the Guy Who Came Before Doesn’t Work Long

[radioguy]

You know the "blame Bush" excuse is wearing thin when the NY Times comes out and says it.


Blaming the Guy Who Came Before Doesn’t Work Long
By PETER BAKER
Published: June 11, 2009


WASHINGTON — As President Obama struggles to turn around the moribund economy and confront multiple international issues, he wastes few opportunities to remind the country that the problems are not of his making.

“The financial crisis this administration inherited is still creating painful challenges for businesses and families alike,” Mr. Obama said this week as he proposed spending limits.

“We inherited a financial crisis unlike any that we’ve seen in our time,” he said last week as he thrust General Motors into bankruptcy.

His advisers and allies follow the same script. “The Obama administration inherited a situation at Guantánamo that was intolerable,” James L. Jones, the national security adviser, said of the military prison in Cuba. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton defended the Obama foreign policy in the same vein. “We inherited a lot of problems,” she said.

Mr. Obama is hardly the first president to point to his predecessor. Ronald Reagan blamed Jimmy Carter for the poor economy he inherited, just as Bill Clinton blamed the first President Bush and the younger Mr. Bush then blamed Mr. Clinton. Former Bush aides like Karl Rove argue that Mr. Obama has done it more extensively and routinely than other presidents have, although the Obama team denies that.

But at a certain point, a new president assumes ownership of the problems and finds himself answering for his own actions. For Mr. Obama, even some advisers say that moment may be coming soon.

Mr. Obama got a taste of that in recent days as he and his White House were put on the defensive trying to explain why the unemployment rate had risen to 9.4 percent when his staff had predicted it would peak at 8 percent as long as Congress passed his stimulus plan, which lawmakers dutifully did. Mr. Obama obviously did not create the recession passed to him, but it was his administration that set the expectation that his policy would keep it from deepening as far as it has.

Full Article (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/12/us/politics/12memo.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper)

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[bairdi]

You know the "blame Bush" excuse is wearing thin when the NY Times comes out and says it.


Blaming the Guy Who Came Before Doesn’t Work Long
By PETER BAKER
Published: June 11, 2009


WASHINGTON — As President Obama struggles to turn around the moribund economy and confront multiple international issues, he wastes few opportunities to remind the country that the problems are not of his making.

“The financial crisis this administration inherited is still creating painful challenges for businesses and families alike,” Mr. Obama said this week as he proposed spending limits.

“We inherited a financial crisis unlike any that we’ve seen in our time,” he said last week as he thrust General Motors into bankruptcy.

His advisers and allies follow the same script. “The Obama administration inherited a situation at Guantánamo that was intolerable,” James L. Jones, the national security adviser, said of the military prison in Cuba. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton defended the Obama foreign policy in the same vein. “We inherited a lot of problems,” she said.

Mr. Obama is hardly the first president to point to his predecessor. Ronald Reagan blamed Jimmy Carter for the poor economy he inherited, just as Bill Clinton blamed the first President Bush and the younger Mr. Bush then blamed Mr. Clinton. Former Bush aides like Karl Rove argue that Mr. Obama has done it more extensively and routinely than other presidents have, although the Obama team denies that.

But at a certain point, a new president assumes ownership of the problems and finds himself answering for his own actions. For Mr. Obama, even some advisers say that moment may be coming soon.

Mr. Obama got a taste of that in recent days as he and his White House were put on the defensive trying to explain why the unemployment rate had risen to 9.4 percent when his staff had predicted it would peak at 8 percent as long as Congress passed his stimulus plan, which lawmakers dutifully did. Mr. Obama obviously did not create the recession passed to him, but it was his administration that set the expectation that his policy would keep it from deepening as far as it has.

Full Article (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/12/us/politics/12memo.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper)

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At some point in time, probably sooner than later, Obama will own the economy. How long was it before Bush took ownership of the economy after Clinton? All one asks, is the same consideration for the current president.

[MintJulep]

At some point in time, probably sooner than later, Obama will own the economy. How long was it before Bush took ownership of the economy after Clinton? All one asks, is the same consideration for the current president.Bush didn't write a trillion dollar check and takeover the entire private sector.

This is O'Bammy's baby now, and it's time for a tea party.

[Zebulon0351]

Bush didn't write a trillion dollar check and takeover the entire private sector.

This is O'Bammy's baby now, and it's time for a tea party.

Yeah, even though your taxes won't change. Keep protesting for the Power Elite in our country.. and they will keep shitting on you.

[bairdi]

Bush didn't write a trillion dollar check and takeover the entire private sector.

This is O'Bammy's baby now, and it's time for a tea party.
No, he just wrote a check for 700 billion and only took over the financial sector while working on his second recession in eight years. Your memory appears to be as short as chief's.......oh forget it.

[Mr. Blue]

Well, the NY Times is right. There's going to come a point where Obama has to own the situation. I don't want to see 3 years from now him on the campaign trail mentioning Bush's name, instead I want to hear a list of the accomplishments he put through, if he doesn't have accomplishments to mention, he'll try to play the blame game.

Right now it's Dems controlling the show. They have a near carte blanche to put forward their ideas, how they want domestic and foreign policy to run, and they will at some point either own failure / success.

[foxbaron]

At some point in time, probably sooner than later, Obama will own the economy. How long was it before Bush took ownership of the economy after Clinton? All one asks, is the same consideration for the current president.



I am all for giving Obama the same consideration Bush got. It is time the media got onboard with this and started bashing Obama like they did Bush. Everyday on everything no matter how wrong or idiotic they are.

Yep, it is time to give Obama the exact same consideration Bush got. Let's do it.

[MintJulep]

Exactly, but with the partisan hacks running around calling themselves "journalists", that will never happen.

They will cover for their lying, retarded little Jesus no matter what damage he does to this country.

[radioguy]

At some point in time, probably sooner than later, Obama will own the economy. How long was it before Bush took ownership of the economy after Clinton? All one asks, is the same consideration for the current president.

You've got a point bairdi. My beef with Obama is based on his solutions... I feel they will have a long term negative effect on the American economy, and haven't been around long enough to impact anything yet. If you take a look at what I have posted on this forum, you will find that I haven't assigned blame to Obama for the unemployment rate, the GDP, the job loses, etc... Obama inherited a nasty situation, a situation that was brought on mainly by the collapse of the housing market and bad mortgage lending practices.

The excuse "it's not my fault" is wearing thin. Everyone knows that Obama is not responsible for getting us here, and as the latest polls are showing, the time is rapidly approaching that the American people are going to start demanding results for the trillions he spent to fix it. Whether fair or not, the American people are getting restless and expecting things to start turning around soon. If anything else goes wrong with the economy, such as high inflation, increased interest rates, or the stock market tumbles again, the American people will hold him 100% responsible.


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[bairdi]

You've got a point bairdi. My beef with Obama is based on his solutions... I feel they will have a long term negative effect on the American economy, and haven't been around long enough to impact anything yet. If you take a look at what I have posted on this forum, you will find that I haven't assigned blame to Obama for the unemployment rate, the GDP, the job loses, etc... Obama inherited a nasty situation, a situation that was brought on mainly by the collapse of the housing market and bad mortgage lending practices.

The excuse "it's not my fault" is wearing thin. Everyone knows that Obama is not responsible for getting us here, and as the latest polls are showing, the time is rapidly approaching that the American people are going to start demanding results for the trillions he spent to fix it. Whether fair or not, the American people are getting restless and expecting things to start turning around soon. If anything else goes wrong with the economy, such as high inflation, increased interest rates, or the stock market tumbles again, the American people will hold him 100% responsible.


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Obama said "I don't have a crystal ball." "The yardstick should be, am I creating these jobs and are we strengthening the economy." He has staked his presidency on his performance and said that if he does not do the job then he will be out of a job in four years.

The American people are getting restless, but I believe the economy is slowly starting to turn. The market has been rising for three months now. The financial sector is coming around and money is starting to flow again. The stimulus money is starting to kick in and construction is picking up. We have yet to see the labor market bottom out, but it will and then we will start to see the employment numbers rise. I truly believe what this administration says about the importance of getting the health care problem solved and how it is the key to recovery. Small business, the country's largest employer, cannot continue to absorb higher and higher insurance costs for their employees, employees cannot afford to continue to pay more and more toward their healthcare and this country cannot afford the cost of having 40 to 50 million people without any health coverage. What the solution is can be debated, but I do not believe that anyone can deny that a major problem exists and that we can no longer afford to do nothing.

[MintJulep]

"The old recession — that the public says was caused by Bush — shows signs of winding down. But the new recession and/or inflation — triggered by Obama’s massive deficits — is just now coming upon us.

If Obama refuses to cut back on his spending/stimulus plans (despite convincing evidence that Americans are not spending the money), he has three options:

a) He can raise taxes, which will trigger a deeper recession;

b) He can print money, which will trigger huge inflation;

c) He can pay more interest to borrow money, which will send the economy diving down again.

The blame for these outcomes will fall squarely on Obama’s deficit and spending policies. The fact that Americans are aware of these issues, and already disapprove of Obama’s performance on them, indicates that they will be increasingly receptive to blaming him for the “new” recession."

http://thehill.com/dick-morris/obamas-issues-crumbling-2009-06-09.html

In short, we are screwed.