Blaming Bush

Obama has been president and Commander-in- Chief for 10 months now and he still hasn’t stopped refraining himself from blaming George W Bush for every tough decision he needs to make. His newest occurrence of “Bush Blaming” stems from his inability to make a policy decision regard the worsening situation on the ground in Afghanistan.

In October alone we have had 55 deaths in Afghanistan, making it the deadliest month since the war began in 2001.

Earlier in the week Obama stated:

“We are finally getting Afghan policy right after long years of drift”.

These comments directly conflict with the plan President Obama laid out six months ago when he made his major address announcing their administration’s own Afghan strategy with the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of State standing alongside him.

This major speech outlined his plan and strategy for the region, not Bush’s strategy.  That was six months ago- and he still hasn’t enacted his plan- while more US soldiers die. Obama cannot take the responsibility or criticism for the casualties occurred during his watch and has callously pushed off the problems by blaming the past administration.

            Last night on Fox News, syndicated Columnist, Charles Krauthammer Summed up his thoughts on this issue perfectly by saying:

“What is happening today is not as a result of the drift so-called in the Bush years. It is because of the drift in his years. It is because of the flaws in his own strategy, which is what he is now reexamining.

He has every right as commander in chief to reexamine his own strategy, but he ought to be honest, forthright, and courageous enough as the president to simply say I'm rethinking the strategy I adopted six months ago and not once again in a child-like way attack his predecessor.”

These comments couldn’t have been more on accurate.

 President Obama has blamed Bush constantly for inheriting what he said (falsely) is

 “ The worst economy since the Great Depression”( Reagan inherited a far worse economy stemming from the Carter years) and used this rhetoric to pass his extremely expensive, yet unproductive stimulus bill, which he promised would jumpstart the economy and  prevent unemployment from rising past 8.5% by producing “millions of shovel ready” jobs.

 Instead, unemployment has continued to rise (currently at 10.5%) and the dollar continues to fall, based on fears of inflation that stem from massive and uncontrolled spending.

 Now, 8 months after this stimulus bill, which he passed, with no republican support in the house and only two Republican votes in the Senate, Obama once again cannot take the disapproval over the so-far failed stimulus by reminding everyone how awful Bush ruined the economy.

This pattern of continually making excuses and passing the blame is very worrisome not to mention a sign of extreme weakness being displayed by a president.

 The president campaigned knowing that he had many different problems which needed to be tackled as the leader of our nation. He was elected because the majority of American’s believed he was more capable than Senator McCain to solve these problems. By forever blaming Bush, it conveys that Obama is either overwhelmed with the responsibilities which come from such a stressful job or that he is incapable about taking criticism for the policy’s he enacts.

This is very troubling for the future of our nation because no one likes people who make promises they can’t deliver on and American’s especially dislike politicians who won’t hold themselves responsible and complain about how bad the situation was when they entered it. They want to see leaders who solve problems not criticize the people who created them, especially when Obama is beginning to wrap up his first year in office.

Imagine if a newly hired coach of a struggling professional team constantly blamed their predecessor for not being able to win games after he has already been hired to coach. They wouldn’t last long in their profession because their job is to turn around the franchise by compiling a capable staff of proven winners, cut poor performers, and instill confidence and excitement into the players and fan base by encouraging them that their team is turning the page from the disappointments of the past. This is how our current president should be governing our nation- looking towards the bright prospects of the future and not rehashing the misery of the past.

As a supposed sports fan, Obama should know this and realize that blaming his past predecessor makes him look inept, weak, and incapable of performing a job that many American’s believed he could.

The indecision and nastiness coming from this administration and the president has caused his popularity to suffer dramatically. No newly elected American president has ever seen such a rapid and steep decline in the polls and he now owns the largest presidential polling drop EVER!

As  his inexperience as a politician and two -year Senator becomes glaring obvious to the public and by engaging in petty- partisan politics- He is proving to everyone he isn’t what people thought he was- the problem is- he’s worse- and there’s no blaming Bush for that.