Friday, October 30, 2009
The excuses were tired on day three of this Presidency. Mr. Obama campaigned on his opposition to the War in Iraq -- a position with no responsibility and no consequence whatsoever -- he opposed the successful surge -- and lied about it and paid no political price...we could see he had no strategic sense and no realistic plan...so here we are. Still dithering and pointing fingers long past decision time.
Krauthammer's a must-read, as always: Blaming Bush At Every Turn Is Getting Old
Old Soviet joke: Moscow, 1953. Stalin calls in Khrushchev. "Niki, I'm dying. Don't have much to leave you. Just three envelopes. Open them, one at a time, when you get into big trouble."
A few years later, first crisis. Khrushchev opens envelope 1: "Blame everything on me. Uncle Joe."
A few years later, a really big crisis. Opens envelope 2: "Blame everything on me. Again. Good luck, Uncle Joe."
Third crisis. Opens envelope 3: "Prepare three envelopes."
In the Barack Obama version, there are 50 or so such blame-Bush free passes before the gig is up. By my calculation, Obama has already burned through a good 49. Is there anything he hasn't blamed George W. Bush for?
The economy, global warming, the credit crisis, Middle East stalemate, the deficit, anti-Americanism abroad -- everything but swine flu.
It's as if Obama's presidency hasn't really started. He's still taking inventory of the Bush years. Just this Monday, he referred to "long years of drift" in Afghanistan in order to, I suppose, explain away his own, well, yearlong drift on Afghanistan...
I know its a bit old, but I thought of the perfect t-shirt the other day - the Obama icon with "I did nothing, and all i got was this stupid peace prise".
The reason Bush lets Obama get away with blaming Bush for the economy is because they both know that Obama is the one person preventing an investigation into torture and other criminal violations during the Bush administration. Indeed, this is the single issue that the left is most upset at Obama for. Go to any lefty blog and you'll hear plenty of anger about Obama protecting Bush administration members.
Obama fought successfully to keep all those torture photos from getting out (the Bush administration argued that torture wouldn't hurt us, because our enemies hate us anyway; and yet for some reason they're deathly afraid of those photos getting out!), has invoked state secrets provisions to prevent exonerated terror suspects from going public with their stories, and has refused to open up Justice Department investigations into specific individuals in the Bush administration who ordered "enhanced interrogation techniques," killed nearly a hundred captive prisoners, or sent terror suspects to places like Uzbekistan where placing limbs into vats of boiling water is a standard procedure.
Obama believes that because he's letting so many of his predecessors off the hook for their criminal behavior, they are hardly in a position to get upset that he's criticizing their handling of the economy. Frankly, I agree with him. They should just be happy that they're not facing jail time right now.
We now know that most of the people snatched up into places like Gitmo or sent to dictatorships abroad and subjected to torture for years and years turned out to be innocent (two thirds of Gitmo prisoners have been let go without charge), and yet the people who made them suffer will live out their lives in comfort and freedom; they should be counting their lucky stars.
What chutzpah to get mad at Obama for blaming them for mishandling the economy, which is undeniable, after all.
Hmmm...no, I'm pretty sure that's not it.