When should Obama stop blaming Bush?

[downwardspiral 0]

http://caffertyfile.blogs.cnn.com/2009/10/20/when-should-pres-obama-stop-blaming-the-bush-administration/

There is only so far you can go with blaming your predecessor before you're thought of as equally incompetent.

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Susan writes:
Obama shouldn't stop blaming the Bush administration at all, because Obama knows that if he stops doing this, then people will easily forget who started it. So, I would always remind the people whose war it really is and how we got into it. How soon we forget.

This quote was an answer from a citizen put on the air. How soon we forget yes indeed.

www.FourWheelerHB.com

[shropshire 0]

Some of the stuff that Bush and his government did is inexcusabvle.... so, on some subjecta, the answer must be never.

(.)Y(.)
Chivalry is not dead; it only sleeps for want of work to do. - Jerome K Jerome

[billvon 2,990]

Probably as soon as republicans stop blaming Clinton for everything. Say, 20 years.

[downwardspiral 0]

Did you two read the blog? It's about what is going on in Afghanistan.

www.FourWheelerHB.com

[billvon 2,990]

>Did you two read the blog? It's about what is going on in Afghanistan.

Right. Bush made some mistakes there. Obama will try to fix them. He may succeed, he may not. He may make his own mistakes which I am sure you will blame _him_ for; in fact, you have already started doing that, which is a little bit of the pot calling the kettle black.

Ignoring Bush's mistakes is as bad as blaming everything on Bush and refusing to try to fix it.

[Andy9o8 2]

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Did you two read the blog? It's about what is going on in Afghanistan.

There are 249 post and counting in that blog. Here are a few more:

Michael from Alexandria, Virginia writes:
When we stabilize Afghanistan (finish cleaning up that mess) and pass a tax bill which deals with the mounting deficits caused, in large part, by the Bush tax cuts, the unfunded expansion of Medicare and the expansion of the military. That will be a long time, Jack.

Steve from Los Angeles
Oh, I think we'll all be blaming the Bush administration for the damage it's done for the next fifty years.

Maryann
It was under the Bush administration that the country went to hell. Bush initiated two wars, one which was unnecessary. The economy went in the toilet, the rich got richer and the poor got poorer. Bush laid the plans for the problems Obama is trying to resolve. Why shouldn't he blame Bush?

Matthew from Orange,CA
When do you stop blaming a black eye for your inability to see?
When the swelling goes down, and its going to take more than nine months for the soreness we feel from the last eight years to go away.

[downwardspiral 0]

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>Did you two read the blog? It's about what is going on in Afghanistan.

Right. Bush made some mistakes there. Obama will try to fix them. He may succeed, he may not. He may make his own mistakes which I am sure you will blame _him_ for; in fact, you have already started doing that, which is a little bit of the pot calling the kettle black.

Ignoring Bush's mistakes is as bad as blaming everything on Bush and refusing to try to fix it.

Please point out where I have blamed Obama for anything.

www.FourWheelerHB.com

[downwardspiral 0]

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Did you two read the blog? It's about what is going on in Afghanistan.

There are 249 post and counting in that blog. Here are a few more:

Michael from Alexandria, Virginia writes:
When we stabilize Afghanistan (finish cleaning up that mess) and pass a tax bill which deals with the mounting deficits caused, in large part, by the Bush tax cuts, the unfunded expansion of Medicare and the expansion of the military. That will be a long time, Jack.

Steve from Los Angeles
Oh, I think we'll all be blaming the Bush administration for the damage it's done for the next fifty years.

Maryann
It was under the Bush administration that the country went to hell. Bush initiated two wars, one which was unnecessary. The economy went in the toilet, the rich got richer and the poor got poorer. Bush laid the plans for the problems Obama is trying to resolve. Why shouldn't he blame Bush?

Matthew from Orange,CA
When do you stop blaming a black eye for your inability to see?
When the swelling goes down, and its going to take more than nine months for the soreness we feel from the last eight years to go away.

The reason I included Susan's post was because she has apparently forgotten why we are in Afghanistan. That bothers me. Things may not be going well for us in Afghanistan at the moment but I will never forget why we are there.

www.FourWheelerHB.com

[FallingOsh 0]

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He may make his own mistakes which I am sure you will blame _him_ for; in fact, you have already started doing that, which is a little bit of the pot calling the kettle black.

Yes... don't blame him for his mistakes. That would just be wrong.

--------------------------------------------------
Stay positive and love your life.

[lawrocket 3]

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Bush made some mistakes there. Obama will try to fix them. He may succeed, he may not.

And he may make it worse. We may ascribe past debt to a former president - though I give that to Congress.

The deficit in 2011, however, cannot be ascribed to a former president with much intellectual honesty. "He cut taxes. Had he not cut taxes I would have had more revenues to spend. What? Are you crazy? I can't NOT spend money just because I don't have it. Yes, Bush did the same thing. It's why we have to spend more money that we don't have that Bush did. Bush's mistake was in cutting taxes. I'm not proposing tax cuts because we would have to spend more money. Raising taxes means that we must spend much more. Again, Bush started this. And Reagan."

"What about the fact that Medicare and Social Security are now in the red? That's not Bush's fault, is it?"

"Sure it is. Just look at the numbers. Before Bush, we could raid those funds for whatever we needed and call the budget balanced. Since Bush allowed all those people to live longer it's costing plenty. He could have done something so that we would have those funds to access. We don't."

"When will you stop blaming Bush?"

"When the next two-term GOP president comes in. That's when we will point to how lousy things were when I got here, how we fixed it overnight, and how they next GOP president turned backwards the wonder of what my administration will accomplish."

"Just like a Republican would?"

"Exactly!"

[Reply]Ignoring Bush's mistakes is as bad as blaming everything on Bush and refusing to try to fix it.

[Andrewwhyte 1]

There are people on here still blaming FDR.

[downwardspiral 0]

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There are people on here still blaming FDR.

To be clear... this is about Obama blaming Bush for Afhganistan. Not you or me or anyone else. Obama.

www.FourWheelerHB.com

[Andy9o8 2]

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There are people on here still blaming FDR.

To be clear... this is about Obama blaming Bush for Afhganistan. Not you or me or anyone else. Obama.

It's not as black-or-white as you're painting it to be. Or as Jack Cafferty (who I like) is making it out to be. Mind you, if Jack's gonna make a living, he has to regularly come up with "threads" to "post" in his own professional "speakers corner" - even if he has to stretch a bit.

Paraphrasing, I take Obama to be conveying essentially this message: "Look, folks, we're doing what we can, and we all wish that, 9 months into the administration, more of what that screwed-up mess we inherited was fixed; but that mess is still so screwed-up from before we inherited it, that it takes some time. We can't fix in a few months what's been mis-managed for the previous 7 years."

Partisan demagogues will put a much uglier spin on it, but average guys will recognize it for what it is, and is not.

Is some of that "blaming the last guy"? Sure. But is some of it a perfectly reasonable thing to say? Also Yes. I, personally, have faith in the average guy's ability to discern the difference between reasonable statements and demagoguery.

[rhaig 0]

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Some of the stuff that Bush and his government did is inexcusabvle.... so, on some subjecta, the answer must be never.

I'd like to remind everyone here that it was not Bush's government. It was the government of the american people. It was our government.

--
Rob

[Andy9o8 2]

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Some of the stuff that Bush and his government did is inexcusabvle.... so, on some subjecta, the answer must be never.

I'd like to remind everyone here that it was not Bush's government. It was the government of the american people. It was our government.

Naively idealistic perspective. The way it was run, it most certainly was Bush's government. The government of the people in many ways was co-opted to the point that it ceased being the government for the people.

[downwardspiral 0]

So in four years when the war in Afghanistan is still viewed as a failure it would be appropriate for Obama to blame Bush?

www.FourWheelerHB.com

[Andy9o8 2]

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So in four years when the war in Afghanistan is still viewed as a failure it would be appropriate for Obama to blame Bush?

Depends on whether it's capable of being turned into a success. If it is, then I'd say no.

[vortexring 0]

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So in four years when the war in Afghanistan is still viewed as a failure it would be appropriate for Obama to blame Bush?

The blame game is inane!

'for it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "chuck 'im out, the brute!" But it's "saviour of 'is country" when the guns begin to shoot.'

[kallend 2,026]

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So in four years when the war in Afghanistan is still viewed as a failure it would be appropriate for Obama to blame Bush?

Sometimes the shooting victim dies despite the skill of the doctor.

Bush fought the wrong war for years and I have no idea if the damage he did is repairable.

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[downwardspiral 0]

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So in four years when the war in Afghanistan is still viewed as a failure it would be appropriate for Obama to blame Bush?

The blame game is inane!

I agree!

www.FourWheelerHB.com

[downwardspiral 0]

And there's the catch. If he fails then he can blame Bush and say it was irrepairable. If he succeeds then he can take the credit.

www.FourWheelerHB.com

[juanesky 0]

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Some of the stuff that Bush and his government did is inexcusabvle.... so, on some subjecta, the answer must be never.

Some of the stuff your incredibly arrogant ugly ass queen has done, is very, what was that word again, imperialistic, and I don't see you whinning about it? Hell, the mess in the middle east still has British signatures all over it. Pakistan, Iraq, Palestine, Egypt, Sudan, etc, etc.

"According to some of the conservatives here, it sounds like it's fine to beat your wide - as long as she had it coming." -Billvon

[Andy9o8 2]

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And there's the catch. If he fails then he can blame Bush and say it was irrepairable. If he succeeds then he can take the credit.

Name me the president about whom that has not been said.

[vortexring 0]

Here's a question for ya Hippy; what do you think you'd be doing if you were a young lad in Afghan where you'd the option to earn roughly $2 for being a standard grafter or $14 for being in the 'Taliban'?

That's the issue - the blame game is pointless.

'for it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "chuck 'im out, the brute!" But it's "saviour of 'is country" when the guns begin to shoot.'

[kallend 2,026]

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And there's the catch. If he fails then he can blame Bush and say it was irrepairable. If he succeeds then he can take the credit.

He can say what he likes, but historians have the final word.

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.