President Obama’s response to the latest dismal federal jobs report was as predictable as it was weak. Speaking on his bus tour of Ohio, he repeated the theme we’ve heard so often since January 2009: It’s not his fault. Only this time he not only heaped blame on the administration of his predecessor but also claimed the problems dated to the Clinton administration, which heretofore Democrats have spoken of as a golden age of prosperity:
“We’ve got to deal with what’s been happening over the last decade, the last 15 years.”
It’s not clear what event it was that happened in 1997 — when his secretary of state was serving as First Lady and President Obama had just begun his first term in the Illinois State Senate — whose impact was so far-reaching that even today the administration is helpless to ameliorate its effects. But whatever it was that the president had in mind when he threw out this puzzling alibi, blaming Bill Clinton is about as pointless as pointing the finger at George W. Bush, Obama’s usual punching bag. But the way things are going for the president, one more bad jobs report and he may be blaming the elder President Bush as well his son and Clinton for all of his troubles.
As even a liberal stalwart like Robert Reich pointed out today at the Huffington Post, the excuse that he inherited the worst economy since the Great Depression is “wearing thin.” In fact, it has already worn out, a fact made all too clear by the president’s obfuscations about the jobs numbers that Reich was honest enough to report.
Though the president preferred to take a “glass half full” approach to the jobs numbers, as the New York Times delicately described his rhetoric, Reich was more frank about Obama’s excuses. Far from the creation of 84,000 new jobs being a hopeful sign, the truth is very different:
Remember, 125,000 new jobs are needed just to keep up with the increase in the population of Americans who need jobs. That means the jobs situation continues to worsen.
After a good week in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s ObamaCare decision that led to more focus on Mitt Romney’s weaknesses, the jobs report brought the president back to the reality of a sinking economy that, as even Reich pointed out, he owns. The voters don’t care what he inherited. After four years, the Bush alibi, not to mention the swipe at Clinton, isn’t fooling anyone.
Reich also stated the obvious when he noted that Obama hasn’t any real ideas about dealing with the crisis. Even worse for the president — and the country whose fiscal affairs he is steering into the ditch — at this point the European debt crisis and China’s economic slowdown are likely to only make things a lot worse before they get better. Democrats may hope voters aren’t paying attention to the election and economic statistics until Labor Day, but by then the president’s goose as well as the economy may already be cooked.
What Mr. Obama needs to do is tell America that his plans, his regulations, and his administration, are the problem. Mr. Obama needs to tell us that he made mistakes, that what he has done has hurt our economy and has made a bad situation worse. What we are seeing is an America that once led the world, now being led by the world and to no good end. n nMr. Obama, to be credible, must admit his mistakes. Should he do that, and with such an admission, map a clear path back to prosperity, Americans may forgive his incompetent economic behavior. That is the only way to gain back the trust of America. n nSuch an admission, however, would be humbling to a man who sees himself as something more than other men. For Mr. Obama, humility is one virtue (among others) that he does not possess. So, the president is paralyzed. He cannot move forward because that is the way to further failure. He cannot move back because that would be an admission of his poor policies. He is stuck. And with him, we as a nation remain stuck in a stalled economy.
Well said!
If he didn't know how to fix the problems in years 1-4, how is an admission of his mistakes or failure going to change the fact he doesn't know how to do the job? He doesn't know how to create a clear path back to prosperity. If you owned a huge company that was about to go bankrupt, WOULD you hire a community organizer to fix it? I wouldn't, and neither would any other reasonable person.
Something Romney needs to emphasize is that hiring takes place when businesses are optimistic that there's a market for the increased production. It's a leading indicator of employer confidence. It doesn't really matter what happened five years ago, if businesses were optimistic about the future, they'd be hiring. The lack of hiring is a sign that businesses are not optimistic that times are going to get any better as long as Obama is President. n nThe same holds true for private sector non-investment spending. Spending goes up when people who have money feel comfortable that they're not going to wish they had saved that money, as may be the case if they lose their jobs or when their taxes go up, they have to pay more for health care and energy and so on. It is the same lack of confidence in Obama that is making people sit on their wallets.
The excuse is not getting weaker, but stronger. n nContinuing to endlessly blame Bush is weak and silly and has already become embarrassing. But conjuring up an entire era of mistakes, incompetence and crimes is smart. The mess Obama was handed took decades to grow and crystallize, it took far more than just the Bush administration to create. It can't be untangled and put right in just one Obama term. n nThat is Obama's message: the nation's ills are deeply rooted, the derailment is so massive putting the country on the right track again needs patience, needs time, needs giving the president a second term. It makes sense, and to bet on it appearing ludicrous is a mistake. n nIt needs to be attacked as a function of the president's megalomania. The challenge is so huge only someone meant to change the tides is up to it. Not a fella who drives the family on vacation with his dog on the roof. n nAs to Reich, sure he is truthful, but he is also not running for reelection.
SO WHAT!!! He wanted the job to fix it.. he failed… made it WORSE even. One and DONE. sadly America will suffer for decades due to his Marxist, socialist vision of Utopia that he has forced on us.
It’s not clear what event it was that happened in 1997 <–Back up one year and you may have an answer. Perhaps Urkel is inadvertently admitting his culpability in the subprime scandal which was a direct precursor to this ugly mess. n nLet's dispel this tragic myth that somehow UNDER regulation brought on by the BUSH admin caused the 2008 subprime crisis. I entreat you to do a little investigation..in fact it was OVER regulation that precipitated the collapse of the housing bubble..brought on by abuse of CRA. (Community reinvestment act) made law by Carter and a DEM congress in 78. Beginning in 1992 the Clinton-RENO justice department put that well meaning but flawed law on steroids forcing banks to make garbage loans to the unqualified due to the flawed theory of 'redlining'. By 1996 one Barack Obama was ready to enter the stage. Google Obama-Acorn-Citibank and you will see that it was a young lawyer working for Acorn that FORCED banks to make these loans. That's right..Barack Hussein Obama. In subsequent years to come Clinton signed the law REPEALING Glass-Steagal, a 1934 law that separated investment banks from mortgage banks. NOW enter FNMA-FMAC guarantees that underwrote these bundled loans into investment equity and placed them onto the open market and all the pieces were in place. In fact, during his terms, Bush is caught on tape no less than eleven times berating the new regulation and warning of a terrible calamity to come. The DEM response? Cries of RACISM, since people of color were a large portion of unrecoverable loans. NOW, Barry has the temerity to blame BUSH and greedy wall street for this? Incredible. This is what the MSM will NOT tell you for it destroys Obama's cover and his 'blame everyone but me' posture. And guess what? Rather than changing this paradigm for the better, Obama and the dems have doubled down and STILL insist that these garbage loans are still being granted. This is FAR from over and the NEXT implosion is soon to come. Now if you don't believe it..try googling some of this. It's all out there if you care to look. Post back to me and I will LEAD you to VIDEO that proves this to be true.
The economy and foreign policy of The Obama White House is setting not only The United States, but the entire world ,up for dire standard of living adjustments and very possibly a military confrontation with regimes encouraged by Obama’s reckless abandonment of US obligations to it’s allies. Abandonment in favor of an amorphous, perhaps even juvenile adherence to a fairy tale agenda which acts to directly appease enemies of The United States and Europe and demand that it’s allies do the same or suffer consequences.
The good news is, there is one antidote. The defeat of BO in November. We need to get Beyond BO.
This quote from Pres 0bama is a summary of his whole administration, "True engines of economic growth will always be companies like Solyndra." That is his Dept of Energy, economic advisers, Timithy Geithner, Miss HHS Sebelius, the whole cabal and the camarillo.
‘“We’ve got to deal with what’s been happening over the last decade, the last 15 years.”
It’s not clear what event it was that happened in 1997 —’
Glass-Steagal was repealed in the late 1990s. That’s a left-wing shibboleth, so maybe that’s what he meant?
Obama's excuses may be getting weaker but Romney needs to take a more ideological stance and attack Obama as a big spending liberal on the most leftist wing of the Democrat Party to effectively couner the Obama campaign. Right now he is not doing this and simply emphasizing his job creation skills. This is not enough.