In an interview with Harry Smith on CBS' "Early Show" Friday morning, President Obama called out Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh as purveyors of "vitriol" - creating a climate in which he's called a "socialist" and even a "Nazi."
He's been subject to vitriol? Does the president have no memory of the Bush administration, when President Bush was vilified as a Nazi and more? Or President Reagan who was condemned as a war monger who'd get us into a nuclear war? I'll even throw in President Clinton who had plenty of attackers. But, of course, only President Clinton's attackers were riled up wrongly by "talk radio". The press never wrung their hands over the anger directed at Bush 43 or Reagan, but the president shouldn't mistake their bias for the idea that he is uniquely afflicted with dissent.
You know, I let it pass at the time, but this whine fits well with the State of the Blame Address that was just pathetic:
Last night President Obama reminded us that "one year ago, I took office amid two wars, an economy rocked by severe recession, a financial system on the verge of collapse, and a government deeply in debt."
Yeah, the president has problems to address. Why the financial system problem is solely Bush's fault without a nice assist from certain allied Congress people is beyond me. And perhaps it would be fair to admit that one of those two wars left to President Obama was left as a victory winding down--one his vice president claims could be one of the administration's greatest successes.
But what I'm more interested in is the bizarre notion that history takes place in neat chunks of time that conclude and start anew in sync with our presidential elections.
Did the president "inherit" problems to solve? You betcha. He indeed inherited a financial crisis and recession. I'll even add another problem he didn't mention: the general war on terror against jihadis. Funny that the president just defined that war away rather than add it to the bitch list of unfairness that is hindering the capacity of the rubes to appreciate his greatness.
Every president "inherits" problems!
In 2001, George W. Bush inherited Osama bin Laden on the loose with a plan to hit us on 9/11, with nothing done to stop the man responsible for the Cole bombing or our East Africa embassy bombings. And Bush inherited a defiant Iraq under sanctions and no-fly zones, and a Balkan peacekeeping missions and Russian anger over Kosovo in particular (which had no UN authorization for our war, I might add.). Plus, bush inherited his own economic problems from the dot com bust.
In 1993, President Clinton inherited Saddam and Somalia. Although he also inherited the end of the Cold War, so Clinton's job was not as tough as others.
In 1989, Bush 41 inherited the Cold War but at least had the Russians heading out of Afghanistan and on the verge of collapse. Not the worst inheritences.
In 1981, Reagan almost had the Hostage Crisis passed on. But he did have the Russians in Afghanistan, apparently on the march, and the angry Iranian mullah regime. Plus the Sandinistas. He had stagflation and a US military still recovering from the Vietnam War.
In 1977, Carter had the Cubans acting as Moscow's foreign legion in Africa, inflation, a US military in deep crisis after the war in Vietnam, and a general belief that America was doomed to second-tier status. Oh, and polyester.
Let's not even bother with the many problems that Ford inherited in 1974.
And shed just a little tear for Nixon for the raging Vietnam War and hippies. The economy was none too great, too, if you'll recall wage and price controls.
I'm sure you could go back throughout our history and map out more. The fact is, we don't wrap up our presidencies in neat packages like a movie that ties up loose ends after 120 minutes. Or is President Obama implicitly promising that he'll leave a clean slate for his successor in 3 or 7 years?
President Obama's whine that blames anger against him on broadcasters leads to the question of who we can blame for the Bush Derangement Syndrome that afflicted Bush 43?
Bush didn't whine about hostility toward him or even seem to be affected by it. Nor did Reagan. Heck, Clinton didn't whine, either, and let it get to him.
But now our president wants to whine that he isn't universally loved? Did the Greek columns get to him? Did he really believe that revisions to Mount Rushmore would start within a week of his coronation?
This is a big country. Even if President Obama proves to be a good president, many will not like him for what he does. That's the way it is. And whining about talk show hosts and claiming the son got in your eyes as a reason for your problems are not very presidential.
Man up, for Pete's sake. You're the only president we have. We need you to at least act like you have a handle on your office. Allies, neutrals, and enemies are still making judgments about how resolute you are in order to guide their policies.
Do you really think this latest excuse-fest bit helps you at all?
