Need a good reason to take in the liberal viewpoint? Not only is the different perspective interesting, it’s often also good for some lolz. Take Krugman’s latest, for example:
The Obama administration’s troubles are the result not of excessive ambition, but of policy and political misjudgments. The stimulus was too small; policy toward the banks wasn’t tough enough; and Mr. Obama didn’t do what Ronald Reagan, who also faced a poor economy early in his administration, did — namely, shelter himself from criticism with a narrative that placed the blame on previous administrations.
What is this man smoking? It’s been ‘blame Bush’ at every turn. In fact, the Associated Press was just remarking on that very thing earlier this month. According to their “analysis”:
He says “the buck stops with me,” but nearly a year into office, President Barack Obama is still blaming a lot of the nation’s troubles — the economy, terrorism, health care — on George W. Bush.
Over and over, Obama keeps reminding Americans of the mess he inherited and all he’s doing to fix it. A sharper, give-me-some-credit tone has emerged in his language as he bemoans people’s fleeting memory about what life was like way back in 2008, particularly on the economy.
Every administration plays the blame game…I have no real problem with it. However, voters eventually tune that out and start to clamor for results; regardless of the spin, double digit unemployment with the stimulus-when the admin said it’d top out at 8% without it-tends to hurt your credibility. That is Obama’s real problem now, not that he didn’t blaming Bush enough. Disappointment begets apathy, and the more the latter grew the harder it was for Obama to play the Bush card. It’s not about what the last guy did or didn’t do…it becomes a question of what have you done for me lately?
