The Buck Stops (Anywhere But) Here

One year into Barrack Obama’s Presidency, President Obama is still singing his favorite campaign tune, blame Bush. This poisonous rhetoric may have assisted him (barely) to ascend to the highest office in the land however, now this once new gimmick has quickly become old hat.

As Forty-Four has used every possible moment to lay blame on Four-Three, we would be remiss not to jump at this opportunity to see who was really at fault for our current economic mess and how the previous administration dealt with their predecessors legacy.

Unfortunately for us, this economic disease has no Patient X and the blame is a burden that many have to bear. In fact, everyone is guilty in someway or another of throwing a stone at this economy. From the careless Wall Street banker to the equally gluttonous and naïve American consumer who had everything and wanted more; in this time of frugality and sparseness there is one thing that is bountiful, blame. However, some did not just throw stones. Some threw boulders.

GUILTY PARTIES

This monstrosity began under the Carter administration in the form of the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977. Originally designed to help Carter grow his crack infested, brown on brown crime, ghetto utopia, this beast eventually became an obese monster as it was force-fed by Clinton in 1999. Sensing the future financial trouble of this double behemoth, in 2003, the Bush administration tried to regulate Freddie and Fannie only to have it halted by Bawney Fwank and other Dems. This bears repeating. George Walker Bush, tried to implement regulation, the democrats stopped it. Maybe it was an honest mistake. It’s not like Barney Frank had a sexual relationship with a former executive at Fannie Mae. Oh, wait… that’s right.

It wasn’t just the White House who was trying to stop this. John McCain, co-sponsored reform and regulation. In fact, besides Chuck Hagel who introduced the bill, McCain was the only Senator to speak out against this impending issue on the floor. The only one.

Nancy Pelosi also had her opportunity to address this oncoming problem on her side, at the House level. Guess what she did? That’s right, the Congresswoman from California voted against reform and regulation.

Folks with D’s next to their names on their voter registration cards caused this mess, yet the guy in charge had an R next to his. So what did America do? They blamed the people who tried to stop this because Bush was in charge.

As 2006 rolled along, the President’s hands were further tied as Republicans took a beating in the mid-terms turning him into a lame duck president. This allowed the fire to burn until 2008, it was too late. For the liberals reading this, let my try to explain what happened. Economy go big boom. Home go bye-bye.

Where was then Senator Obama during all this? He was treating this issue with the same furious passion and decisiveness as all the other pressing issues he had on his plate: he ignored them. I mean, if you’re going to be a Senator for only 304 days, you don’t want to cause any waves. Not if you want to plant your Jumbo ears behind that big brown desk inside the Oval Office that is.

You have to give it up to Dems. They burned the house down while the adults were away, blamed the arson on their parents and the town made them fire chief. No wonder Nancy Pelosi looks like Fire Marshall Bill. And like any good children with the parents away, the first things they did while in charge was crack the liquor cabinet and get drunk with power from Potomac water, go through daddy’s wallet and mommy’s medicine cabinet and hand it all out to the neighborhood kids.

BLAME GAME

It’s said that George Washington had the misfortune of being the only President unable to blame his predecessor. However, Obama’s criticism of his predecessor is something unlike no one has ever seen.

Just nine months into his Presidency, George W Bush faced a horrific act of war against the homeland. This plot was planned for years, both home and abroad, completely under the watch of the Clinton administration. I remember growing up in those years. Whenever Saddam would bomb some villages or some Serbs would wipe out generations of families in firing squads or warring tribes in Africa would wipe each out with machetes, etc., the Clinton Doctrine then was the same in every case. Send in the UN or, my personal favorite, launch cruise missiles from destroyers. In fact, the latter was really impressive. President Clinton always did it so we could get those really cool images beamed to CNN as the missile lit up the deck of a destroyer class warship so we could see that missile fly through the air, with the same majesty and beauty of a baseball heading out to the stands. However, this fireball of a baseball with a warhead on top wasn’t landing in some guys hands; it was more than likely blowing up some pesky rock in Afghanistan. Clinton’s mistakes on taking out bin Laden are well documented. Yet when the four tragedies of September 11^th happened, Bush took ownership. There were many, including myself, that wanted to place the blame on the previous administration for allowing this to be planned and implemented on their watch. Yet Bush would have none of it. According to him it was time to look forward, not back, and get to the business of trying to solve this problem. The time was not for placing blame but for taking action.

So it is so sad and disappointing, that now, as we have an economic crisis on our hands, the best thing President Obama has is blaming Bush. Again, the same Bush that tried to stop this. The only good thing about this blame game is that the American people do not like it, one bit.  It’s just one more reason Obama’s ratings are tanking and his predecessor’s are rising. Human nature – and in particular Americans – respect those that take ownership, grab the reigns and offer solutions. Obama and his cronies broke the good China and instead of grabbing some glue or pulling their nickels together to buy some new plates, they stand there, point fingers and yell, “He did it!”

The misinformed continue to claim that Obama inherited 8 years of bad Bush economic policy. Those that beat that archaic drum need to find a new instrument. You’re little drum circle was cool for three minutes but everyone else has moved on. The only thing he “inherited” was an accumulation of years of bad financial decisions by Democrats that were further compounded by his – and those like him in his party – with the inability to act. Just because he wasn’t brave enough to tackle the problem he helped create as Senator, is no reason to now mope about it. He campaigned long and hard to the American people to be tasked with this issue. Quit complaining. Start doing.

I for one hope Obama continues with this poor strategy of filth. It allows the average American to see Obama in his true colors: yellow, in his fear of responsibility; and green, right behind the ears, when faced with the task of leadership.