At the one-year mark, President Barack Obama is set to deliver his first State of the Union address. Over that time, Democrats have been apt to use the mantra - aimed squarely at the Bush Administration - that one cannot expect to fix in one year what took eight years to create. A position Obama is sure to utilize in his speech, while maintaining his hope for change rhetoric. Yet, Democrats cried foul on Republicans for the exact same stance at the one-year mark of the Bush presidency, which placed a majority of blame on the policies of the previous Clinton Administration for the state of the economy to the fight against world-wide terrorism. Though just a sampling, the routine laxity to address Iraq’s continual violation of U.N. sanctions, pushing legislation creating the housing bubble that led to the eventual market collapse and the failure to eliminate the threat of Osama bin Laden on multiple occasions when the opportunity existed - all labeled the fault of George W. Bush, not Bill Clinton, after one year in office, despite the facts to the contrary.
Now, with the tables turned, the Bush Administration still gets the blame after a year out of office. How can one administration be blamed for its predecessor AND its successor? To listen to Democrats over the past decade, Clinton and Obama have been the saviors of the United States. If that is not political hypocrisy, then nothing will ever come close again. Under such logic, Democrats want to take all the responsibility of success, and none of the blame of failure.
The thing is, each administration shares an amount of blame. Policies in each have caused problems in the attempt to address issues, and come down to the simple matter of taking responsibility for their failure – something Democrats are hard-pressed to accept. It is much easier to play the blame game than take responsibility for actions (or inactions). It will be interesting to hear what road – either the low or high – Obama takes in summarizing his first year in office, and the course to be taken thereafter. Because in the end, he will only have himself to blame.
Now, with the tables turned, the Bush Administration still gets the blame after a year out of office. How can one administration be blamed for its predecessor AND its successor? To listen to Democrats over the past decade, Clinton and Obama have been the saviors of the United States. If that is not political hypocrisy, then nothing will ever come close again. Under such logic, Democrats want to take all the responsibility of success, and none of the blame of failure.
The thing is, each administration shares an amount of blame. Policies in each have caused problems in the attempt to address issues, and come down to the simple matter of taking responsibility for their failure – something Democrats are hard-pressed to accept. It is much easier to play the blame game than take responsibility for actions (or inactions). It will be interesting to hear what road – either the low or high – Obama takes in summarizing his first year in office, and the course to be taken thereafter. Because in the end, he will only have himself to blame.
©2010 Steve Sagarra
No comments:
Post a Comment