by Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n
National Review Online<\/em><\/p>\n Meet the Obama whiners. \u201cThey did it\u201d is the new administration\u2019s credo when things go wrong. Most often, the culprit for disappointment in Obama\u2019s hope-and-change agenda remains George W. Bush \u2014 a sort of modern-day fallen angel Azael, whose wickedness is persistent and omnipresent.<\/p>\n Nine months after his departure, the former president insidiously still has his hand in almost everything that seems to plague Barack Obama\u2019s utopian plans. At other times \u201cthe Republicans,\u201d \u201cthe far Right,\u201d \u201cconservatives,\u201d or even the \u201cmob\u201d have kept America from getting the future it deserves. One would never guess that the Democrats have held the Senate and the House since 2006, own the executive branch, and enjoy the support of the ever-obsequious media.<\/p>\n Instead, demons everywhere are busy at work to stall Obamism.<\/p>\n Civil-rights problems? \u201cCowards!\u201d Attorney General Eric Holder yells at his countrymen. Energy stasis? \u201cTeenagers!\u201d we Americans are, Energy Secretary Steven Chu sermonizes about the ill-informed electorate. More problems with terrorists? The old bogeyman Bush created a \u201cglobal war\u201d mindset that served only to \u201cvalidate al Qaeda\u2019s twisted worldview\u201d \u2014 or so insists the new terrorism czar, John Brennan.<\/p>\n Persistent joblessness? It can only be the aftereffect of the Bush-induced financial panic of over a year ago \u2014 not past bipartisan criminality at Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, or present failed stimuli, or massive deficits, or the current climate of chronic uncertainty, given that business has no idea of the cost of promised high taxes to come, healthcare reform to come, cap-and-trade to come, or anything else to come. We have forgotten that John Kerry ran in 2004 on the notion of a Bush-induced \u201cjobless recovery\u201d \u2014 when unemployment was at 5.4 percent, just a little more than half of what it is currently.<\/p>\n Obama\u2019s signature healthcare reform is being stalled by mob-like right-wing tea parties and town-hall racists who have mysteriously nullified Democratic majorities in Congress. Few fault Obama\u2019s insane idea of outsourcing the reform bill to the Democratic House and Senate, which cobbled together an unreadable 1,000-page free-for-all spending mess at a time of a $2 trillion deficit.<\/p>\n The failure to charm Russia, denuclearize Iran, or commit to Afghanistan? All these problems likewise persist because of George W. Bush, who antagonized the misunderstood Putin, wanted to \u201cwage war\u201d against a troubled Ahmadinejad, and \u201ctook his eye off the ball\u201d in regard to the \u201cnecessary war\u201d against the Taliban. Even when we push the reset button, Bush still manages somehow to confound the new diplomacy and prevents the Russians from helping with a mysteriously stubborn Iran.<\/p>\n Supposedly outspoken generals like Stanley McChrystal are fouling up administration policies in Afghanistan, getting dangerously close to tipping the balance between civilian and military authority \u2014 not at all like the noble \u201crevolt of the generals\u201d during the Bush-era controversy over the surge, when dozens of high-ranking officers, present and past, took turns, candidly or stealthily, trashing the chief executive.<\/p>\n Obama jetted in to Copenhagen to lobby for a Chicago Olympics. He spent a little over an hour there. Both he and Michelle wowed Europeans with inspirational stories from their Chicago neighborhoods. Most of the anecdotes proved implausible or inane: Michelle sitting on her father\u2019s knee (at 20?) watching Carl Lewis, or learning from her dad to throw a right hook (at a time when the world was watching YouTube snippets of a wild Chicago street slugfest). Obama found himself playing the role of a 19th-century Irish pol finagling for the home tribe \u2014 at a time when the natural consequence of his serial apologies and postmodern transnational rhetoric would be the selection of Rio as host to the 2016 games.<\/p>\n No matter. It was Bush who lost Chicago its sure-thing bid \u2014 literally, according to Illinois senator Roland Burris. He claimed that the judges were still angry at Bush\u2019s America, rather than peeved that Europeans were being treated by Barack and Michelle almost like teeny-boppers at a Beatles concert who were supposed to weep in adulation and seek autographs.<\/p>\n State Rep. Susana Mendoza (D., Chicago) added, \u201cI feel in my gut that this vote today was political and mean-spirited. I travel a lot.\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0I thought we had really turned a corner with the election of President Obama. People are so much more welcoming of Americans now. But this isn\u2019t the people of those countries. This is the leaders still living with outdated impressions of Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n The president unwisely boasted upon coming into office that he would close Guantanamo within a year. He apparently forgot that Bush had wanted to phase out the detention center since 2006, but faced a bad\/worse choice of having to put unrepentant out-of-uniform terrorists somewhere else.<\/p>\n So when Obama soon discovered the same existential challenges that had plagued his predecessor, his administration immediately came up with a \u201cBush did it\u201d excuse. Here is Obama\u2019s Guantanamo czar, Greg Craig: \u201cI thought there was, in fact, and I may have been wrong, a broad consensus about the importance to our national security objectives to close Guantanamo and how keeping Guantanamo open actually did damage to our national-security objectives.\u201d Craig still has not fathomed that it was a Congress controlled by the Democrats that balked at the administration\u2019s promise.<\/p>\n Throughout the campaign Barack Obama called for an end to the \u201cDon\u2019t ask, don\u2019t tell\u201d policy on gays in the military. That won him ample support from the homosexual community. And now? The two Bush wars apparently prevent him from following through on that promise as well. The national-security adviser, Gen. James Jones, complains that there is \u201can awful lot on his desk. I know this is an issue that he intends to take on at the appropriate time.\u201d Apparently we were not fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan when Obama made his grandiose campaign pledge.<\/p>\n There is a growing credibility problem with this young administration. When Barack Obama promises a public option in healthcare reform, or the passage of such legislation before the August break, or a renewed commitment to the necessary war in Afghanistan, or an end to lobbyists in government, or a new transparency, no one believes any of it anymore. Even worse, we know that the broken promises and policy mishaps will always be someone else\u2019s fault.<\/p>\n The problem with all this is that while Americans may tire of duplicity, they hate whining with a passion. Harry Truman became a folk hero for not blaming others for the myriad of crises that he inherited. In contrast, Barack Obama\u2019s legacy is shaping up as \u201cThe Buck Passes Here.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a92009 Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" According to Obama’s chorus of whiners, nothing is ever his fault. by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online Meet the Obama whiners. \u201cThey did it\u201d is the new administration\u2019s credo when things go wrong.<\/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":[651],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-zY","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8657,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-weariness-of-the-whiners\/","url_meta":{"origin":2230,"position":0},"title":"The Weariness of the Whiners","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 14, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ PJ Media Brandon Marshall, the New York Jets wide receiver and occasional sports commentator, charges that the National Football League is racist [1]. He alleges that the league favors white players over black athletes like him, especially white marquee quarterbacks. Aside from the fact that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "American Culture"","block_context":{"text":"American Culture","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/american-culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Photo via PJ Media","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/sjw_stormclouds_9-13-15-1-500x445.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3300,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/obamas-race-card\/","url_meta":{"origin":2230,"position":1},"title":"Obama’s Race Card","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 7, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton Private Papers The liberal media are in full Captain Renault mode, \u201cshocked, shocked\u201d to find race injected into the presidential campaign by a \u201cSwift-boating\u201d John McCain. How shameless can you get? The Obama campaign\u2013\u2013indeed, the whole of Obama\u2019s public existence\u2013\u2013is about nothing other than his perceived\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1846,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/mr-president-words-matter\/","url_meta":{"origin":2230,"position":2},"title":"Mr. President, Words Matter","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 7, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Obama, the rhetorician, learns people take a man at his word. by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online What is Barack Obama\u2019s real problem? Too many people here and abroad took him at his word, and he now seems quite angry at that. For two years Obama serially damned the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "February 2010"","block_context":{"text":"February 2010","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2010\/february-2010\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7985,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-democrats-waterloo\/","url_meta":{"origin":2230,"position":3},"title":"The Democrats\u2019 Waterloo","author":"victorhanson","date":"November 6, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Their refusal to acknowledge the administration\u2019s failures did not make them go away. by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review Online The Duke of Wellington said of his close-run victory over Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo that the French \u201ccame on in the same old way, and we sent\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "America's Future"","block_context":{"text":"America's Future","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/americas-future\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"(Pool Image\/Getty)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/pic_giant_110614_SM_Barack-Obama-Waterloo-G-500x291.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3342,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ideals-trump-interests-in-obamas-libya-policy\/","url_meta":{"origin":2230,"position":4},"title":"Ideals Trump Interests in Obama’s Libya Policy","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 15, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim Hudson New York President Obama's\u00a0recent explanation\u00a0for militarily engaging Libya is yetanother example\u00a0of how US leaders increasingly rationalize their policies via sentimental and idealistic platitudes, rather than reality or the long view \u2014 or just plain common sense. 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