This front page story in the Washington Post today is confusing. As the headline indicates, the story is about President Obama’s “new tack” in strategy, blaming President George W. Bush for the problems Obama’s administration has inherited.
In his inaugural address, President Obama proclaimed “an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas that for far too long have strangled our politics.”
It hasn’t taken long for the recriminations to return — or for the Obama administration to begin talking about the unwelcome “inheritance” of its predecessor.
Over the past month, Obama has reminded the public at every turn that he is facing problems “inherited” from the Bush administration, using increasingly bracing language to describe the challenges his administration is up against. The “deepening economic crisis” that the president described six days after taking office became “a big mess” in remarks this month to graduating police cadets in Columbus, Ohio.
Hold the phone. I see the point in the article that Obama himself (not his staffers) is now talking more about what he has inherited, but hasn’t Obama been ready and willing to bring up the past eight years from the campaign to to his inaugural address? In fact, the following comes from that address:
Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.
I doubt Bush appreciated that line. Or this one:
But this crisis has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control. The nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous.
And how often did Obama talk about Bush’s eight years of “failed policies” during the campaig? A ton.
So is anything about this tactic new?