President O-BLAME-a

So while the pageant of lies
Still rolls from your tongue
Don't blame me for your Kingdom come

When you're willing to render
The the guilt you concede
When truth is your reason
THEN lay the blame on me

When you unveil a conscience
And with peace you agree
When love is your constant
THEN lay the blame on me

--Ed Roland, Blame

Has any president ever spent so much time blaming his predecessor? And for as long?

There's no doubt Obama didn't have a perfect economy and 8 years of peace handed to him the way Bush did. But, heck, Clinton was handed an unfinished war, a weak economy, etc. Many of the things Obama has been handed. Did he spend an inordinant amount of time blaming Bush Sr.?

Now, I'm not praising Clinton. He was not a good president. But he was A PRESIDENT. He wasn't a martinet put into a position he was uniquely unqualified for who then spent his entire first term blaming his poor performance on his predecessor. He may have been a leftist, who, if left to his own devices, would have crippled the economy almost as bad as Obama, who almost certainly would have introduced the same kind of healthcare bill, and who is most certainly guilty of ignoring Al Quaeda activity which lead to 9/11.

Bush Jr. wasn't a good president, either. Unlike Clinton, I believe he is a good man, but a good man and a good president aren't the same thing. His spending, in the name of "compassionate conservativism" and his expansion of government are unforgivable, and almost certainly contributed to the recession. Of course Congress is chiefly to blame for that, but let's not get into that here.

My point is that while neither man was a good president, at the very least they behaved like they were president. Bush could have pointed fingers at Congress all he wanted, and he partly would have been right to do so, but he shouldered the blame himself. Clinton also didn't waste time pointing fingers. When Clinton was in charge, right-wingers may not have liked him, or agreed with his policies, but they never accused him of acting like anything less than our president. Okay, maybe during his trial, when he danced around his guilt, but I'm talking about his performance in office.

Obama doesn't act like he's president. He acts like he's king. His every speech, his every action since obtaining office is to act like he can do no wrong, and if something is going wrong, it must be SOMEONE ELSE'S fault. It's Bush's fault, or it's congressional Republicans who are at fault, or it's Sarah Palin's fault, or, hey, it must be the Tea Party's fault! It's ANYBODY'S fault but mine!

Seriously, this has got to be some kind of record. I'm not historically studied enough to know if any president has ever blamed his predecessor at all, but I feel like I can safely say no president in living memory has ever done it this much or for this long.

During his first 100 days, okay, I can understand why so many people were still saying "give him a chance". After all, he hadn't been in office for even half a year, yet. I still get gaulled by the fact that the same people yelling "give Obama a chance" were the same people who were calling for Bush's head during HIS first 100 days, but all the same, it's true; you can't judge a man's performance based on 100 days in a job.

But the "give him a chance" cry was still going strong one year into his presidency, as was the "it's not Obama's fault; Bush left a mess and he's still trying to clean it up" cry. As if Obama was the first president to "inherit" a large deficit, a failing economy and an ongoing war. People blame Bush's war and spending for Obama's inherited problems, but during the first two years of his presidency, Obama's spending eclipsed Bush's (and pretty much every other president) and he engaged us in TWO new overseas conflicts (Afghanistan and Libya), before the first one was won. Liberals also (wrongly) blame the "Bush tax cuts" for increasing the deficit and worsening the economy, but Obama has extended them. So at what point will he stop saying that literally every problem that's occurred during his presidency is the result of his predecessor, or Congress, or the Tea Party?

After last night I'm convinced the answer is "never". No blame must touch The Golden One. We're nearly three years into his presidency. THREE YEARS. That's almost a full term. Can we expect that the "hope and change" we were promised on the campaign trail would be evident by now? YES WE CAN! But we're worse off than we ever were under Bush. Why is that Bush's fault?

At this point, a majority of Obama's supporters, even the "give him a chance" and the "he inherited this" crowd are forced to admit that Obama can no longer blame anyone but himself and his own administration for the US's current state of affairs. But a few diehard supporters in the media and within his administration are still trumpeting the "it's someone else's fault" meme, and from his speech last night it's clear that Obama will continue to flog that dead horse for as long as anyone echoes it, or as long as he can convince himself that people still believe it.

Don't buy it. Anyone thinking of voting for Obama in the next election, I caution you to think hard. HARD. Don't let fear of a "Republican theocracy" (you know, that thing that's never happened despite generations of Christian Republican presidents) or whatever it is you're afraid of make you decide that as bad as Obama is, he's less scary than the alternative. Remember how angry you were that Bush earned a second term and ask yourself what Obama's done during his first term that's made him more deserving of a second than Bush. And for the love of God leave skin tone out of it! Nobody but Obama's camp cares about skin tone, because they know that's all they have left to run on!