Nobody’s trying to duck responsibility or make excuses.
At the same time Mr. Obama said:
The financial crisis this administration inherited is still creating painful challenges for businesses and families alike.
Blaming a predecessor is not new. Reagan blamed Carter for the poor economy and raging inflation he inherited.
Clinton blamed the first President Bush and the younger President Bush blamed Clinton.
However, former Bush aides argue that Mr. Obama has done it more extensively and routinely than other presidents have, although this is denied by the Obama team.
An article in the New York Times (see link below) reports that at a certain point, a new president assumes ownership of the problems and finds himself answering for his own actions.
Challenges stacking up overseas may increasingly be seen as Mr. Obama’s soon enough too, say advisers, critics and some outside experts.
By sending an extra 21,000 American troops to Afghanistan and replacing the commander there, Mr. Obama has now made that war his, as many analysts in Washington see it.
Also, the forceful (some say anti-Semitic) position toward Israel adopted by Mr. Obama over settlement expansion makes the Palestinian conflict his own problem.
“Whatever problems he inherited walking in the door, they’re his responsibility now,” Mr. Axelrod said. “Nobody’s trying to duck responsibility or make excuses for them.
David Axelrod is Mr. Obama’s senior advisor.
He gets it.
Yet Barack Obama continues to “blame Bush.”
Link
A picture of my cave
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