I’m not going to spend my time criticizing him. There are plenty of critics in the arena. He deserves my silence.” George “W” Bush, Calgary, March 17, 2009
ATLANTA – So why did George Bush say that Barack Obama deserves his silence?
Didn’t Mr. Obama ruthlessly excoriate Mr. Bush throughout the 2008 presidential campaign and exploit his unpopularity to win the presidency? And since taking office, hasn’t Mr. Obama sought to pin every ill this nation faces on the failures of the “last 8 years”? Further, isn’t Mr. Obama making some pretty sharp breaks on policy decisions regarding Guantanomo Bay and interrogation?
There is much for Mr. Bush to criticize. And yet he (largely) has stayed out of the picture. Why?
Mr. Obama has been rapidly digging his hands into every sector of our struggling economy while simultaneously blaming the Bush Adminsitration for any bad economic news to deflect criticism. In five months, he has taken over General Motors, crushed the financial sector with regulation, begun a potentially disastrous foray into universal health care, and most recently pushed a sprawling and devastating cap-and-trade bill through the House of Representatives.
All the while, unemployment and gas prices steadily go up, consumer confidence plateaus and comes down, and the nation’s eyes are turning away from (the silent) George W. Bush.
Not surprisingly, those eyes are turning ever more frequently to the Messiah. And Mr. Obama’s approval ratings are starting to show signs of cracking, as seen in the chart above, because people are losing confidence in his ability to make sound decisions for the economy.
Some people in Obama’s Administration actually wish George W. Bush would speak up a little more frequently. They suggest it was easier for Mr. Obama to gain popularity when Mr. Bush was in the media everyday, drawing the public’s ire for Iraq and the 2008 economic collapse. Those people want him back in the forefront, speaking up, raising cane and making himself more prominent so that Mr. Obama doesn’t have to accept responsibility for the sour turns the economy has been taking since January.
Instead, Mr. Bush is silent and Mr. Obama’s approval ratings are trending downward.
With this in mind, and given all the times Mr. Obama has run Mr. Bush into the ground, do you suspect there was something sinister in Mr. Bush saying Mr. Obama “deserves my silence”?
TennesseePaul
Stephen VanNuys
Brooklyn Daniel
The Freedom Thinker
“Mr. Obama has been rapidly digging his hands into every sector of our struggling economy while simultaneously blaming the Bush Adminsitration for any bad economic news to deflect criticism. In five months, he has taken over General Motors, crushed the financial sector with regulation, begun a potentially disastrous foray into universal health care, and most recently pushed a sprawling and devastating cap-and-trade bill through the House of Representatives.”
This is the one thing I actually have to give Mr. Obama he has gone big and will either go home or see it payoff in spades. I highly doubt the latter, but I do have to say that he has done more in the first few months of a Presidency than I can remember or recall reading about (maybe Roosevelt).
I don’t like the changes, but he has managed to get quite a bit done.
I remember a PoliSci professor (acted like a Flamingo) once saying that the reason the economy flourished under Clinton was that he was unable to pass any sweeping legislation that affected the economy. I also am able to now see that I think Clinton was a pretty damn good supply-sider. Obama is stuck in the middle in my opinion and the middle is what has killed the system.
For follow-ups
Interesting perspective, BMM. I agree Obama has done more in his first 5 months than any president in a long time, possibly all the way back to FDR (I, like you, don’t know enough to say so definitively).
But, I did read a very good book on FDR and the New Deal entitled “the Forgotten Man.” And that book made some incredibly salient points about the impact the New Deal had on discouraging the creation of the private (sustainable) jobs. It really altered my views of what FDR truly accomplished (which was not much, if you consider that the depression began in 1929 and did not end until the early 1940′s).
At any rate, the author of the book made a very solid case that it was precisely the New Deal’s dizying activism that squelched sustained recovery during the period. The tax structure, monetary structure, regulatory structure, fiscal policy structure- everything was always constantly in flux. The regulatory regime in particular was stifling, with agencies set up to dictate business practices down a “T.”
Businesses had a terrible time planning, and taxes on “undestributed earnings” as well as government subsidized competition in the utilities sector and government-mandated union membership cramped profitability and discouraged investing in future growth.
All that to say, it is not a surprise to me that job losses are suddenly higher than previously thought. Take a look around at the uncertainty in the business environment that the Administration is encouraging (and in fact demanding). Proposed dramatic changes in the taxing of offshore earnings, the potential “employee free choice act,” the great of a government subsidized competitor to private health insurance, a complex “cap-and-trade” system that will effect every business and every industry, the threat of tax increases on those earning over $200k (which would pummel small business owners), vast regulatory changes in the financial industry.
This isn’t right wing ranting and Rush Limbaugh fear-mongering.
This is reality. I just don’t understand how you can expect a business to decide to invest in the future and add headcount in this environment. Maybe a few can, this stuff never effects everybody the same way all at once. But on a whole, I can’t imagine big (productive) investments happening to add people and expand businesses for another year or two, until we have a really clear picture of what the regulatory, fiscal, monetary, etc. framework is going to be. There’s just too much experimenting going on.
Anyway – just my thoughts. I’ve seen a few columnists reference this perspective in the last handful of weeks and I’m actually right there with them, based on my reading of the Forgotten Man and based on what I’m hearing at the workplace.
>the great of a government
Should read, the “threat” of a government…
Sorry for the typo. It will not happen again.