Obama's new strategy: Blaming Bush for 'mess'

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Source: MSNBC

In his inaugural address, President Obama proclaimed "an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas that for far too long have strangled our politics."

It hasn't taken long for the recriminations to return — or for the Obama administration to begin talking about the unwelcome "inheritance" of its predecessor.

Over the past month, Obama has reminded the public at every turn that he is facing problems "inherited" from the Bush administration, using increasingly bracing language to describe the challenges his administration is up against. The "deepening economic crisis" that the president described six days after taking office became "a big mess" in remarks this month to graduating police cadets in Columbus, Ohio.

"By any measure," he said during a March 4 event calling for government-contracting reform, "my administration has inherited a fiscal disaster."

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29689284/

[Itchinjim]

1. About time he did. And no more Mr Nice Guy to the GOP.

eom

[SpiralHawk]

2. "It was all Bill Clinton's fault - Smirk" - Commander AWOL (R)

"We Republicons don't do truth or responsibility. Smirk."

= Commander AWOL & xVP Dickie 'Five Military Deferments' Cheney

[creeksneakers2]

3. Doesn't sound like a "strategy"

What is the alternative? Taking the blame for problems which started under Bush?

Its the GOP who has the "strategy." They keep trying to blame Obama for problems the GOP created.

[Cha]

57. It's corporatemedia's freaking

Orwellian language.

[pipoman]

4. The GOP

started some of the problems we are currently having...so did the Dems...to deny this will result in no reform and more of the same.

[Deja Q]

6. Like when Barney Frank, in 2004, said Fannie & Freddie were 'structurally sound for the long term'?

(or something to the effect)

[pipoman]

11. Actually I was thinking about

GOP demands for bank deregulation and Dems demands for reduction of lending restrictions resulting in a compromise instituting aspects of both.

I don't recall the context which Frank made this statement but suspect it was an attempt to cover up the failure of his (and other Dems) previous push and ultimate implementation of lowering of lending requirements.

[No Elephants]

15. Dummya played quite a role with Freddie and Fannie, too, remember?

[No Elephants]

14. Sorry, but proportionality counts. for one thing, eight years of Reagan, four of Bush I,

8 of Clinton, 8 of Bush II, 50 days of Obama. And compare and contrast the Republican control of Congress with Democratic control of Congress during those years.

As far as spending, deficits, earmarks, being in bed with lobbyists, etc., compare the Republican record with the Democratic record. It's not the Democrats who come out looking worse. Sure, every Democrat is not perfect. But, as a group, they were better during this period than the Republicans.

I don't mind people pointing out specifics, like Clinton's failure to veto repeal of Glass Steagall, or saying that some Democrats contributed some. Heck, I do those kinds of things myself. But putting Dems on a par with Pubs as causes of this mess is just false.

Reaganomics, the lobbying that increased astronomically from 1982 forward, deregulation, tax cuts, deficit spending, culture of greed, etc.

Lastly, put a lot of the blame on the apathy of Americans. Look how proportionally few vote, let alone band together and activate.

[pipoman]

17. Nobody said anything about school lunches for poor kids..

the major component of the financial crisis we find ourselves in is the "housing bubble", caused by bank deregulation (pugs) and lowering of mortgage restrictions (dems). Also a strong factor are implementation of NAFTA and GATT and other trade agreements which placed US worker and farmers in direct competition with 3rd world workers and farmers...these trade agreements were supported equally by our own party and pugs. I put more blame on Dems for the unfair trade agreements because it has always been our charge to act in the interest of US workers who our party abandoned with these deals.

[No Elephants]

21. Democrats were concerned about discriminatory mortgage restrictions, one set of rules

for white neighborhoods and one set for the 'hood. However, banks actually lent to unsuitable mortgagors because banks made their money in application and closing fees and by re-selling the mortgages.

And it was Bush who decided that, instead of a chicken in every pot or a car in every driveway, there should be a mortgaged driveway for every car.

Support when you are a minority party is one thing, but the majority party has to take responsiblity.

Again, the responsibility is not proportionate. Though I do not exonerate the Democrats, including for their spinelessness, eDe-regulatin' Ronnie and his progeny can take the lion's share of the blame, along with those who voted them in (or stayed home) or bought into their culture of greed.

[pipoman]

34. Not quite the way I remember it

though I would agree that the Dem position was that loosening of restrictions would help minorities buy homes, it also was to allow poorer people to buy homes. The result of lowering of mortgage requirements resulted in many people getting over extended and regardless their financial status. Traditional debt to income ratio standards were abandoned, traditional down payment requirements were abandoned both based on the Dems push for lowering of mortgage requirements. The bank deregulation pushed by the pugs in concert with Dems lowering of restrictions caused this mess, combined with bipartisan lovefest when it came to free trade agreements which certainly can't be blamed solely on either party. The sooner we, as a party, acknowledge the failures of our own previous policies along with fixing the failures of the Pugs. Anyone who claims the problems we are having are not bipartisan problems are part of the problem, the solution will only come with acknowledgment of all of the causes, not just those implemented by the pugs or the Dems.

[No Elephants]

65. I would never claim that only one party caused this,. However, I include

de-regulation of mergers and acquisitions, which allowed, among MANY other things, concerns to get "too big too fail," SEC deregulation, which allowed funny securities based on funny mortgages, etc. And then, there was the collective federal regulatory agency coma under Bush that gave us things like Madoff and melamine.

Lowering of restrictions on mortgages I thought, had to do with the practice of redlining. I am very capable of being wrong. If you know that name of the bill or anything that would help me google it, please pass that on by post or pm. I would be grateful. Among other things, I would be interested to read if lowering of restrictions meant that banks COULD lower their standards for granting mortgages, if they chose, or if banks HAD to grant mortgages if the lower standards were met. If the bill is too long and convoluted, I probably won't end up reading bc of my vision, but if I can get through it, I will.

As far as the reason for lowering the standards, though, I am cynical. Poor people don't lobby. I am going to say the banks lobbied for it, and not because of their concern for poor people.


The trade stuff I confess to being shaky on, but I know it cost thousands upon thousands of jobs.

And I blame Clinton for signing the repeal of Glass Steagall, even though it was Gramm's baby. (Well, let's be honest. It was some lobbyist's baby. Sadly, there is too much of that on both sides of the aisle, too, but it started in a big way in 1982--Reagan again.)

[ryanmuegge]

42. And both are looking for every opportunity to lower wages in this country.

In fact, along with deregulating banks and waging endless wars, that's the only thing these pussy politicians are effective at. Obama included. They can't do anything whatsoever about anything, but they can sure send high-paying jobs overseas, even slash high-skill wages with H1-B visas, and I'm sure they're doing a million other things that I can't think of at the moment.

[Deja Q]

5. He has also said that we need to be 'looking forward'.

Will he continue to be a ping pong ball, going back and forth between "Bush created it" (somewhat true) and "let's move forward" (wholly true).

Continually referencing of the past can only work so far.

And if we, as a country, are a community, what can we do to turn this mess around? How do we move forward? President Obama can't do everything alone; he has said that and he is incontrovertible correct on that too.

Mind you, I haven't watched too much television so if I missed out on anything tangible, please let me know.

[No Elephants]

24. And he has looked forward. His D of J is defending the war criminals, for feck's sake, when they

should be prosecuting or extraditing them. And, so far, he has stayed away from investigating them.

Lord, but Pub talking points and echoes are tiresome.

[ixion]

7. That headline alone is BS

the rest of the article is just downright snarky.

And I'm not really sure as it even qualifies as news, since it is editorial at the core.

[No Elephants]

27. T H A N K Y O U!!!

[Wizard777]

8. Bush spent 8 years saying History will be his Judge.

Now the GOP is trying to prevent even History from judging him. Personally I think Obama should shut up about Bush and let a prosecutor remind us of how Bush destroyed this country. That way a Jury can Judge him.

[Optical.Catalyst]

13. The Bush Administration spent eight years in theft and conspiring against American freedoms

He started an illegal war to line the pockets of his buddies in the defense industry and to benefit big oil companies.

And when our President points out facts, facts that are verifiable in history, about the wrongs heaped upon us by Bush, the M$M turns it into a back handed swipe against President Obama by calling it a 'strategy'.

We know who really controls the media. We have two enemies to fight and the second one is the Republican Party.

[Thor_MN]

16. History may eventually decide he wasn't THE worst president ever

but there is no chance of that happening until everyone you know, their grandchildren and their granchildren's grandchildren are dead and buried. Anyone who knows someone who knew of first hand knowledge of George W Bush's utter failure of a life knows that he is the worst. Until the words George W Bush have no personal meaning, he will be the worst and even then he has strong arguements for the title of worst President. Who knows, maybe Sargon 7 will be impeached in 2347 and steal away Bush's title, but until that happens Bush = WPE.

[No Elephants]

29. Republicans have a great history revision machine. They call it think tanks, writing history

books that tell the "real" story (usually after everyone actually involved dies), blogging, etc., but those are just aliases.

[cutlassmama]

58. Speaking of books. Has anyone else heard about the "Bush Library"?

The repukes, along with Laura Bush are going to open a library with books to revise history on Bush. :mad:

[No Elephants]

18. Time after time, the so-called "Party of Personal Responsiblity" absolutely refuses

to take any responsibility whatsoever for its acts and omissions. It's the Party of "Blame Anyone and Anything But Us," (hereinafer BAABU}

[Wizard777]

23. They're bitching because Obama won't take responsibility for Bush's actions.

"Personal responsibility" Involves Bush taking responsibility for hs actions and Obama taking responsibility for his actions. No part of "personal responsibility" involves Obama taking responsibility for Bush's actions.

[Deja Q]

26. People should be personally responsible; not vote in clods or criminals in the future.

:D

November 2008, by and large, proved that.

[No Elephants]

30. Voters AND politicians should be personally responsible, but politicians much more so, especially

Republican politicians.

Why? Politicians hold themselves out as fit to lead voters (and nonvoters).

Why especially Republican politicians? Because those PAABUers continually babble about personal responsiblity.

[Irishonly]

43. When I read the headline I thought the same

Republicans are weird creatures. No matter how badly they screw up the country, no matter what crimes they commit or no matter what hate spews from their mouths, they are blameless. The dems did it. If they can't dazzle the public with BS, they will tell the same lie over and over again.

[Deja Q]

25. It's not destroyed yet.

[dkf]

9. Nate Silver calculated that he probably has 18 months

to show improvement on the economy before he starts to take heat.

He was elected over John McCain because people believed he would do better with the economy.

He really did risk everything on that stimulus package. If it is inefficient he is the one who will bear the brunt of the blame. Nancy Pelosi and David Obey wrote his future with that bill. I hope it works, but I think they messed up.

[No Elephants]

31. If it FAILS, he will take the brunt of the blame. I guarantee it will be inefficient. And

Bush, who pushed the economy into a black hole, is the one who forces Obama to cure it or be a one term President.

BTW, polls showed that people did believe that Obama would be better with the economy once that became such a huge issue, but Obama was leading McCain in the polls all along, except for the Palin blip. So, there were reasons besides the economy that Obama appealed to people. McCain's conduct once the economy hit the fan, however, gave people the Willies, including George Will.

[treestar]

49. The pundits will blame Obama but Bush created the mess and

if Obama can't fix it, it is not his fault - maybe it cannot be fixed.

The media was the one with the meme about the economy. Obama went up in the polls because of the economy. We take that as fact, but we don't really know - the polls asked who the person would vote for, not why. Maybe they just realized Obama was more intelligent and up to date.

We should blame ourselves as a country rather than just single out the President. I've even thought that about some of *s actions. We elected the guy and let 911 get to us and elected him again. We don't get to just step aside and let the Decider ruin the country.

With Obama's election, we wised up enough to know we are a democracy, not a bunch of sheep completely dependent on a leader. Obama has said repeatedly we are all in this together, and he is not like Bush you basically said, I'll be the Decider who protects you. If we've finally grown up, we're not going to just sit around expecting the President to fix it for us.

[dkf]

50. In normal situations, the President alone can't do it.

But in this situation, that is not the case.

Government is the only one who can keep faith in our economic systems. They are the only ones who can borrow at low low rates, benefiting the banks that are in need of capital. They are the only ones who can create regulation that will give people confidence that inappropriate risk taking will not be there.

Lax regulation and an anything goes attitude of financial cowboys are what caused this mess. By bailing out firms in order to keep our economy from blowing up, we have created no downside for risking other people's money.

It is President Obama's duty to fix these problems so that this really will never happen again.

[treestar]

51. Congress has to agree with him

And ultimately the judicial branch. Your last sentence does not describe the duties of the President, but rather the duties of a CEO in relation to a company. The President is not a king.

So we voters have to vote in a congress that cooperates. We have a duty to put in congressmen who even agree. We let too many Republicans into this Congress - so we can take some responsibility. If we believe government should do all this, we have a duty to elect enough Democrats to make it happen.

[dkf]

53. He has to convince Congress to go along with him.

This has to happen. Its not really optional. And we have enough Democrats in office to do all this. Maybe we wait for Al Franken, but we have the numbers and if we can't pick off one Republican it is sad. We should ask Arlen Specter to join the party.

[treestar]

55. Ultimately convincing others in not in one's control

One cannot lay the blame on someone for not convincing another of a thing. Argue with freeper types and you will soon learn that no amount of talent in persuasion is enough to lay a duty on the persuader.

Then we must not be hard on Obama for "caving" where Spector, Snowe and Collins or whoever else are concerned. If he has to get a bill through, he has to get one through the Congress we gave him.

[ejpoeta]

10. what's wrong with the truth?? it wasn't his mess. he's here cleaning up someone else's mess.

It's a very important point, because all the republicans whining about Obama's plans to fix this mess... their way of 'fixing' the mess is to do the same things that got us into the mess. Or to have a spending freeze. one of those two things. and it is important to remember that there was a reason that obama was elected.... because he promised to do something different. and he is DOING just what he promised he would be doing. I don't blame him for making sure people remember he inherited the mess. The republicans and their media counterparts have been trying to make it sound like this IS obama's mess. and it isn't.

[No Elephants]

12. Yeah. It's not like the Bush and other Pubs ever blamed anything on Clinton or

other Democrats or anything.:sarcasm:

And please, Bush not only crippled this country and a lot of the globe, but he also cooked the books. Wasn't Obama supposed to mention that, once he and his peeps discovered it? Of course, Republicans would have been too delicate to do anything like that, right? :sarcasm:

If the Republicans own that and stop trying to hang everything on Obama's 50 days, maybe Obama won't have to keep reminding people of the actual causes.

REALLLLY slow news day at MSNBC, I guess

[IDemo]

19. GOPedia same ol' strategy: conflate

[PaulRevere08]

20. I guess hearing a President speak the truth must be confusing

to the folks at MSNBC. I can hear it now:

MSNBC Staffer: "Hey, listen to Obama, what are those words he's using?" "They sound like the TRUTH!"

MSNBC Editor: "What's he up to?" "What's his angle with all this truth stuff?"

MSNBC Staffer: "He must be employing some new strategy, something to confuse the opposition."

MSNBC Editor: "Crap! Does that mean we are going to have to listen to what he says now when we report on his comments?" "It was bad enough that he speaks intelligently and you can actually understand what he says." Sigh, "Things were so much easier when we could just pretend."

[AndyA]

22. The economy has continued to deteriorate during this time frame.

President Obama understands a lot more now about what led up to this mess than he did earlier. I'm sure the change in wording reflects his increased knowledge of who is responsible for this mess. And the GOP continues to try tagging it on Obama, like he somehow created the recession a year before he was even the President. Before, in fact, he was even the Democratic nominee!

As the Republicans continue to point fingers at Obama, I'm glad to see he's correcting their lies. It's about time, if you ask me.

[Deja Q]

28. Well said.

And he has information we don't; and he does have to keep mentioning he inherited the mess - and convince those who don't believe it. Facts really are not useless things.

[No Elephants]

33. Facts are not useless, but, to politicians, especially Republicans, facts are often inconvenient.

[razorman]

32. To be fair, I have to cut President Bush some slack on this.

NO president has much, if any, real control over the economy. It is too big and too complicated. There might be too much government involvement in this area, or too little in that area. No one has a complete picture. That being said, I am sure that President Obama will unfairly receive much blame if things do not improve rapidly, just as he will get credit if it does. It is traditional that presidents get blame or credit for whatever the economic situation is at a given time.

[CJCRANE]

46. So record profits

for Halliburton and Big Oil during Bush's time in office were just a coincidence?

IMO the POTUS has a big effect on the economy. That's why 18 months ago I started to pay off my debts because I knew Bush would f*** up the economy based on his policies and past failures.

If you have any spare cash I suggest you look at Obama's policies and see where would be good to invest.

[denverbill]

35. What clueless retard wrote this crap? I seem to recall a break in the election.

When both Obama and McCain went back to Washington to deal with the crisis. When the Dow dropped 1000 points. When Shrub's Treasury secretary demanded $1 trillion no questions asked to give to the banks.

But now, if Obama has the temerity to claim that he inherited a crisis, he is playing the blame game?

Jesus, the Dow went dropped 6500 points from Oct 2007-Nov 2008 (14100-7552), and the day Obama was inaugurated stood at 8100, but the fact that it dropped another 1500 before recovering a bit makes this whole shit mess Obama's fault?

[bluestateguy]

36. The Bush people blamed Clinton for 9/11

That was in September. It is nw March.

[Tyler Generation]

37. How is this new?

When the hell was he not talking about inheriting Bush's problems? Isn't that what McCain/Palin were whining about in the primaries?

[ohio2007]

38. and this strategy will get him re elected how ?

finger pointing to the past instead of focusing on the hopes in the future is a recipe for -

[SlingBlade]

39. GOOD, The GOP has been blaming Obama

Since day 1 of his administration. Every talking head out there
seems to forget that the Bush Administration ever existed.

It’s like they go From Clinton straight to Obama when talking
about this mess and President Obama’s attempts to solve it.

Fighting back is not a strategy, It is the truth and the Truth is the
only thing that can snuff out these Republican Lies

He should be even MORE forceful in stating how and when
this mess was started, Even if it means taking on some of these
so called Conservative Democrats.

Go get em, And don't let off

[OneBlueSky]

40. "Tell It Like It Is" . . . Aaron Nevillle, 1966 . . .

it's called dealing with "the reality-based world" . . . something BushCo claimed they avoided, preferring instead to create their own reality -- a reality based on fiction, wishful thinking, and amorality . . .

tell it like it is, Mr. President . . . the country knows, but we have a short attention span, are easily distracted (Americal Idol, etc.), and need to be reminded regularly about just whose pile of shit you're trying to dig us out from under . . .

[Dappleganger]

41. The #1 Rule in the Dappleganger house...

OWN YOUR SHIT!

Everyone needs to do this so we can come together and dig ourselves out of this mess--Republicans, Democrats, Independents, pundits, Wall Street as well as Main Street. Yes, there are differing degrees of culpability, but the longer people take to own their own shit the longer it will take to get out of this mess.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

44. What's this? MSNBC headlining RWcon strategy, only putting Obama's name to it?

Wow, what a surprise. :eyes:

[CJCRANE]

45. WTF is he meant to do?

He's blamed Bush all long because that's exactly where the fault lies.

Every time the MSM squeals you know it's because the truth hurts.

[TankLV]

47. It's not "new", it just the "truth" and IT'S ABOUT FUCKING TIME!!!

AND NEVER EVER LET UP!!!

I LOVE how the media whores are all squeeling when confronted by the TRUTH - from that fuckwad Cramer to beck and the rest...

It's a pleasure to behold...

[Life Long Dem]

48. Who knows what this is focused on?

What about the actual focus of Congress and who's standing in the way of the recovery?

This subject is just a subject with no content. :nuke:

[Alcibiades]

52. Obama: responsible for global economy on day 1

Bush: off the hook for 9-11 in September of the 1st year of his first term.

Where was Scotty's outrage then? Fuck you, Scotty. You are a shill.

:puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke:

[zulchzulu]

54. Obama mentioned Bush's eight years of failure in speeches in 2007

I have them on tape. So I guess it's a "new strategy"?

:crazy:

[Cha]

56. I saw that shit on the front of my msn exlorer.

I'm going to write/call them.

MSNBC
- Phone: [phone] EMAIL: [email protected]

[ErinBerin84]

59. lol

What a stupid headline.

[regnaD kciN]

60. Obama's new strategy: saying sun rises in east and sets in west...

...there's a difference between "recriminations," and simply stating facts that are as clear as day.

[bluestateguy]

61. It worked for Governor Granholm in Michigan in 2006

She became governor in 2002, amid a deteriorating economy in Michigan. John Engler (R-Obese) had been governor for 12 years. By 2006, the situation was no better, but she was able to claim that she was still in the process of cleaning up Engler's mess. In 2006, she had an opponent, Dick DeVos, with tons more money than she had, but Granholm won a double digit victory.

[amandabeech]

62. DeVos was, of course, one of the worst candidates put out there in recent memory.

I'm from West Michigan, and even my most Republican friend couldn't stand him.

I was back visiting Mom for a few weeks. I could not believe how idiotic the commercials were, and they were on constantly. That Senate candidate was a disaster, too. Taxes, taxes, taxes. You had to give him credit for staying on message.

[cooolandrew]

63. The economy is the economy that doesn't directly blame anyone and culpbility was on lots of levels.

levels but if those see as an attack on Bush then they are only saying they know he had his share in the blame.

[and-justice-for-all]

64. well YEAH!!!

"my administration has inherited a fiscal disaster." and then some.