by Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n
NRO’s\u00a0The Corner<\/em><\/p>\n There has been a lot of noise about the oil plume and the proper responsibility of government, but the real lesson is that, during Bush\u2019s two terms, the media began to hold presidents culpable for many things that used to be attributed to tragedy, and also for things that are in large part the proper domain of local and state governments.\u00a0<\/p>\n After Katrina \u2014 in which the mess was attributed to Bush rather than to the mayor of New Orleans, the governor of Louisiana, the miscalculations of generations of hydraulic engineers, and local communities\u2019 lack of initiative \u2014 we were indoctrinated into the notion that \u201che,\u201d the president, either fixes things or pays. The media, hurting after the 2004 election, either figured that a Democrat would not be president for a long time, or that nothing like Katrina would happen again, or that they, without much shame, could simply rewrite the rules of attributing culpability.<\/p>\n But Obama\u2019s flight to \u201cThey did it\u201d has been hard. Obama got more Wall Street and corporate money than did his Republican opponent; those contributors can\u2019t be cast in the role of \u201cthey.\u201d And \u201cthey\u201d can\u2019t be Bush; after 16 months, that argument has become shrill and monotonous. If Obama wants to philosophize, he will run up against this basic dilemma: Drilling at these depths is risky, but to transition to the next generation of new fuels without going broke, we must exploit what we have; oil drilling has risks and costs, just as do coal, nuclear, wind, gas, and solar power.<\/p>\n So if you can\u2019t blame Bush or the big money and you can\u2019t explain the disaster, you are left with the \u201cI\u2019m Obama, after all\u201d voting-present strategy, which explains the deer-in-the-headlights reaction we are seeing now.<\/p>\n \u00a92010 Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Victor Davis Hanson NRO’s\u00a0The Corner There has been a lot of noise about the oil plume and the proper responsibility of government, but the real lesson is that, during Bush\u2019s two terms, the media began to hold presidents culpable for many things that used to be attributed to tragedy, and also for things that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[587],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-ph","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1281,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/bush-come-back-bush-come-back\/","url_meta":{"origin":1567,"position":0},"title":"‘Bush… Come Back, Bush, Come Back’","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 5, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson PJ Media Why We Suddenly Miss Bush Various polls report that George W. Bush in some states is now better liked than President Obama. Even some liberal pundits call for Bush, the now long-missed moderate, to draw on his recognized tolerance and weigh in on the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "September 2010"","block_context":{"text":"September 2010","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2010\/september-2010\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1251,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/rethinking-george-bush\/","url_meta":{"origin":1567,"position":1},"title":"Rethinking George Bush?","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 20, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services Former President George W. Bush left office with the lowest approval ratings since Richard Nixon. In reaction, for nearly two years President Barack Obama won easy applause by prefacing almost every speech on his economic policies with a \"Bush did it\" put-down. But\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "September 2010"","block_context":{"text":"September 2010","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2010\/september-2010\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":637,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/tuning-out-a-president\/","url_meta":{"origin":1567,"position":2},"title":"Tuning Out a President","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 15, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson PJ Media Tuned-out Presidents Somewhere around early 2006, the nation tuned out George W. Bush for a variety of reasons, some warranted, but many not. Most thought the Katrina aftermath catastrophe was due to state and local officials (do you recall the utterly incompetent loudmouth Mayor\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Economy"","block_context":{"text":"Economy","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/politics\/economy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7645,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/are-obamas-advisers-unhinged\/","url_meta":{"origin":1567,"position":3},"title":"Are Obama\u2019s Advisers Unhinged?","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 9, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"by\u00a0Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review Online Surely reports that President Obama is going down to Texas at the height of the Katrina-like border debacle to raise money at the home of the popular but often polarizing filmmaker and Quentin Tarantino\u2013collaborator Robert Rodriguez are the stuff of right-wing mythology? No\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Opinion"","block_context":{"text":"Opinion","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/opinion\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4270,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/our-media-hurricane\/","url_meta":{"origin":1567,"position":4},"title":"Our Media Hurricane","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 19, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services Remember all of this about Hurricane Katrina? The destruction was the result of global warming. And it was made worse by too many troops off in Iraq. Endemic racism and neglected environmental legislation were as toxic as flood. Military assets were unused due\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "September 2005"","block_context":{"text":"September 2005","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2005\/september-2005\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1585,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/what-our-media-taught-me\/","url_meta":{"origin":1567,"position":5},"title":"What Our Media Taught Me","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 4, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson PJ Media I\u2019ve been over here in Europe for about ten days, getting a different perspective on our illustrious media and how it is handling the various Obama \u201ctroubles.\u201d Perspective and distance are sometime valuable. 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