The time has come for President Barack Obama and his Democratic loyalists to stop whining about inheriting all the problems the Bush administration dumped on us.
They knew that from the get-go and most intelligent Americans accept it as fact. So, let’s get on to governing us out of this economic and geo-political hornets’ nest.
Obama himself not only artfully slurred President Bush during his inaugural speech but in recent weeks has ratchet up the rhetoric. One can hardly blame him as the White House digs and discovers the extent of the economic recession and apparent abuses of executive power involving national security.
The electorate last Nov. 4 essentially handed Obama a broom and told him to sweep clean the mess before him. That he is doing. But, we don’t need to be reminded of it every swish.
I appreciate Obama’s skills setting up Bush as the bad guy because if his domestic and foreign policy shifts succeed they will need to find room on Mt. Rushmore to carve his face.
But what he is doing to Bush’s legacy is not unlike what his people have done by painting the unpopular (polls, not audience) conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh as the leader of the Republican Party: Creating a straw man.
The executive orders overturning Bush policies and new laws signed by Obama are too fresh to pass judgment. Where Obama has failed so far is articulating a strategy for financial institutions to recover and start lending that would open the floodgates to new private investment in the stock market. We saw a trickle of hope last week as stocks rallied four consecutive days but there is no empirical evidence Obama policy had anything to do with it.
The lead on-line story in Saturday’s Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/13/AR2009031303486.html addresses the subject.
Cross posted on The Remmers Report
Jerry Remmers worked 26 years in the newspaper business. His last 23 years was with the Evening Tribune in San Diego where assignments included reporter, assistant city editor, county and politics editor.