One year on, Obama cites struggle with Bush legacy

OK alright. I think its time to move on Mr. President.

A year after his historic election, President Barack Obama sought to remind Americans on Wednesday the biggest problems he is grappling with -- from the economy to the war in Afghanistan -- are the legacy of his predecessor, George W. Bush.

With his approval ratings down from once-lofty levels and Tuesday's Democratic election losses raising questions about his political clout, Obama held no special ceremony to mark the anniversary of his election as America's first black president.

He instead traveled to Wisconsin to appear before a friendly audience in a school gymnasium and promote education as a pillar of his economic recovery efforts.

in.reuters.com...

Whatever happened to the cocky campaigner that talked his way into the White House without having any experience whatsoever? I think he is just maudlin because people are finally realizing that they were bamboozled a year ago. The man that campaigned as a moderate has turned out to be a radical progressive in sheep's clothing. Surprise!

Sorry Charlie. You can only blame yourself after you have been in office this long. BTW. What's going on with the Gitmo closure? That was a bold promise on your first day in office. Don't blame Bush for that one.

Stimulus? Where are the shovel ready projects? Where are the jobs? Better yet, where is the bulk of the money? Meanwhile, our nations infrastructure continues to decay. I would love to replace the 100 year old water mains in my town. The clay soil is the only thing holding them together.

I'll stop here and let the wolves get a whiff of blood in the air.

One more thing... Still waiting on a decision in Afghanistan. Obama spoke boldly back in March and has yet to act like a President regarding the matter. In or Out? Pull everyone out bring them home and spend the money here in the US. Let the Iraqis and Afghans sort things out for themselves.

[edit on 5-11-2009 by jibeho]

Well, to be fair, he did inherit a hell of a mess from the Bush admin. I don't think anyone can rationally deny that. I also don't think anybody rationally expected him to clean up Bush's mess after only one year in office. I don't even think our country will be back on the right track for another decade at least, if ever. To truly fix our economy we need progressive social programs combined with fiscal conservatism, and drastic changes in our foreign policy that will result in less spending overseas. Obama doesn't seem to be doing any of that, and Republicans don't seem to want to do it, so frankly I think we're #ed.

However, I certainly agree with you that he needs to drop it already. Bush has been out of office for quite some time now, and we all know how bad he left things. Obama doesn't need to constantly remind us, and it kind of comes off as an overly defensive response to criticism. Yeah, you're not doing that great of a job, Obama. It's not Bush's fault anymore. What happens from now on is on you. The country is in shambles, and you said you'd put it on the right track. So.... get on it already.

Of course he is going to blame bush. Just like Bush blamed Clinton. You blame the predecessor because it buys time. This is all just politics.

We got fooled again.

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

reply to post by jibeho


I think its just what many of us said last year. He's completely in over his head. He expected to walk in and everyone would bow down and give him every idealistic plan out of the progressive playbook that he could think of. Reality has been quite different, and he's found that the moderates even in his own party aren't biting.

So, they need a fall back strategy. Unfortunately for them and us, they're too tied to their ideology to walk back from the edge of the abyss, so they go back to their one tried and true strategy: blame Bush. Of course, a year into this, that's starting to get really old for the rest of us. No one likes excuses and certainly, no one likes a whiner. Right now, the public perception is becoming that he's making excuses. That's bad enough, but if they continue blaming Bush every time they run into a problem they can't solve, that public perception is eventually going to shift to the view that this administration is a bunch of whiners.

This administration needs to man up and start taking responsibility for the position they've been elected to. Sure, they walked into a hornet's nest, but you know what? They applied to walk into this hornet's nest. If they're not up to the task, they need to get out of the way so we can find someone who is.

[edit on 5-11-2009 by vor78]