• CLIMATE CHANGE AND GOP STUPIDITY

    Jon Stewart Rips Right-Wingers A New One
  • RIGHT-WINGERS BLAMING THE VICTIMS

    When Unarmed Blacks Are Killed By Cops
  • STILL NO SCANDAL

    No Wrongdoing With Benghazi
  • EBOLA AND ISIS

    Right-Wingers Fuel Racism And Paranoia

Monday, August 23, 2010

"You Don't Lead Because You Take Responsibility!"

Lindaman writes:

Now, my administration has a job to do, as well, and that job is to get this economy back on its feet. That's my job. And it’s a job I gladly accept. I love these folks who helped get us in this mess and then suddenly say, "Well, this is Obama’s economy." That’s fine. Give it to me. My job is to solve problems, not to stand on the sidelines and carp and gripe. --- Barack Obama, July 14, 2009

What a difference a year makes. From "Give it to me," to "Don't blame me."

You can't get out of it that easily, Conservatives. He's willing to clean up the damage, but that doesn't mean you guys aren't responsible for it.

Well, I hate to tell you, Mr. President, but the economy is yours, not just because you're the man at the helm of the American ship or because you said the economy is yours. It's because you took decided action that impacted the economy. From the "stimulus package" that failed to stimulate anything but the wildest dreams of bureaucrats

Yeah, the stimulus certainly didn't help the private sector. You know, the private sector that is in the best shape it has been for a long time? Huge amounts of cash? No policies actually threatening them? Only not hiring out of pants-pissing fear, based on nothing? They've got the money. Now it's up to the private sector to actually create the damned jobs. The actual actions taken by the administration - you know, real things - have led to one of the best periods for business to act in. That's a fact. The private sector's failure to act, is not Obama's failure to give them the opportunity to act.

to the various spending proposals that will add to the debt without adding much to the economy, the current economic situation is as much Obama's as it is Bush's, if not more so.


Is stimulus some kind of magic bullet? Hell no. At best, it's an economic 'time out' so that the economy can retool to a new reality. Without the stimulus, we were bordering on another damned Great Depression. We slapped a tourniquet on the economy with the stimulus; it kept us alive.

Bush dug a giant hole. Obama has not been able to fill it yet. The hole is still Bush's.

But you'd never hear the President say that these days. Oh, no, he "inherited" this economy according to Obama, so he can't be to blame. However, who will be front and center to take credit for any good economic news? You guessed it.

That's the sign of a weak leader.

You keep saying this over and over again. Trying to tell others what constitutes a leader. And you're someone who is a follower. You punch in a clock and work for a boss. You can't even get followers on your own blog. You take soundbites from other pundits and use them as your own. You haven't lead anything in your life, and lord knows you've tried. You couldn't lead a lemonade stand. But you're the authority on what a leader is?

Although Obama and his followers like to compare the President to Ronald Reagan, there is a vast difference between the two men. Reagan didn't care who got the credit for getting something done as long as it was done.

What a whopper! Reagan took credit for the Iranian hostage release, when it was Carter's administration that sealed the deal. Reagan took credit for the fall of communism, as if Russia's crippling economy had nothing to do with it. Reagan took credit for halting inflation, when it was Paul Volcker who should have gotten the credit (another Carter official). He even took credit for many of Carter's defense programs! And when something bad was exposed (Iran Contra), he acted like he didn't remember! Accountability was never Reagan's strong suit.

Obama cares about getting the credit, but avoids any criticism, regardless of whether it's legitimate.


Yes, what a difference a year makes. Obama laid claim to the economy, but only when it makes him look good. The problem: he laid claim to it when he thought his plans were going to work. Now that they haven't, he's stuck with it.

He's taking responsibility for cleaning up right-wing messes, just like Democrats have done for ages. But taking responsibility for the clean-up, doesn't mean you can get a pass on who caused the problem to begin with.

This just in: the economy does not suddenly reverse itself when a different party takes control. It takes months to years to change the course of the economy with any economic policy. If you actually believe that the current recession is the fault of the Obama administration and congressional Democrats, you either never took an economics course that went beyond basic supply and demand, or failed economics horribly. Calculus is a liberal conspiracy.

And it was fine for Reagan to blame his 1982 recession on Carter, but it isn't fine for Obama to blame Bush for a recession that began on his watch and has continued since that time.

I love it when right-wingers start mirroring the legitimate complaints against Bush with false ones on Obama, hence proving that Bush was an awful president and that his political party wants to get back into power and make everything worse.

While the President has tried to act upon his promises and sought to move the country in what he and the majority of voters saw as correct direction, the Republicans have continually yelled "NO!" at everything he's handed to them, with their idea of bipartisanship being "Do what we demand." All the while, as soon as the fallout of their screwups started to hit, they began pointing at the Democrats saying "See, all this stuff is coming down because of THEM!" Let's not forget that the Right was already declaring this "Obama's Recession" as early as November 2008, months before the man took office, days after his election. Would they dare take their share of the blame? Had the Republicans not become a caricature of themselves by proposing that there's not a problem so big another tax cut or tax credit wouldn't fix it, or by maybe acting like actual fiscal conservatives instead of market-worshiping, fear mongering war hawks, then maybe, just maybe, they'd have at least a shred of credibility remaining. As it stands, the same fools that are complaining about Obama now, are the same fools who mistake the Invisible Hand with No Hand.

People are going to blame Bush for things for decades. And guess what? Most of it will be justified.

The Party Of Personal Responsibility!


(lol)