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MEMBER DIARY
Obama Is Running on Excuses
From the diaries.
Harry S. Truman famously said of the presidency, “The buck stops here.” President Obama might as well make his slogan: “Pass the Buck.”
His record of failures and broken promises has left him with no record to run on. But instead of holding himself accountable, the president blames everybody but himself.
Of course, as with many things, he promised it would be different.
As a newly inaugurated president in February 2009, he told a town hall meeting in Fort Myers, Florida, “I’m not going to make excuses. If stuff hasn’t worked and people don’t feel like I’ve led the country in the right direction, then you’ll have a new president.”
Now, he’s going back on his word, presumably because he sees that “stuff hasn’t worked” and that Americans do not feel we are heading in the “right direction.”
Indeed, more than three years into the Obama presidency we’re suffering from chronically high unemployment. Gas prices, groceries prices, and healthcare prices have skyrocketed. Far too many families are struggling just to make ends meet. Thanks to massive government regulations, out-of-control spending, ObamaCare, and higher taxes, the economy is weak and growth is sluggish. His $831 billion stimulus failed to create millions of jobs, but succeeded in creating government waste.
It is clear that President Obama’s policies have made things worse, not better. But who does the president blame? An earthquake, the Arab Spring, ATMs, airport kiosks, and “bad luck,” among other things.
Last June, in response to questions on the difficult economy, President Obama made this excuse: “There are some structural issues with our economy, where a lot of businesses have learned to become much more efficient, with a lot fewer workers. You see it when you go to the bank and use an ATM…or go to the airport, and you’re using a kiosk….”
In August, he pointed to “the Japanese earthquake and the tsunami’s effect on supply chains.”
President Obama blames his predecessor, ignoring the fact that he’s been in office for well over three years.
He blames Congress, apparently forgetting Democrats controlled Congress for two years and still control the Senate.
When confronted last month on the failure of Solyndra, President Obama replied, “But understand: this was not our program per se.” Of course, it was the Obama administration who gave the now-bankrupt company over half a billion dollars in taxpayer loans.
Before the company went under, President Obama was proud to take credit for Solyndra. Less than two years ago, at Solyndra headquarters, he declared, “The true engine of economic growth will always be companies like Solyndra.”
If that’s what the president believes, it’s no wonder the economy is stalled.
Only a president with a failed record would resort to such ridiculous excuses in trying to save his job. A successful incumbent could run on his record, but President Obama has to run on excuses.
In 2009, he promised that if he didn’t fix the economy in “three years,” then his presidency would be a “one-term proposition.” After 38 months of unemployment above 8 percent and with 12.7 million Americans out of work, he’s now changed his tune.
Last December, with that three year mark approaching, he attempted to backtrack: “We understood that [the economy] was bad, but we didn’t know how bad it was.”
That’s not what he said at the time.
Here’s what candidate Obama had to say in September 2008: “We are going through the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.”
In November 2008, President-Elect Obama declared, “We are facing an economic crisis of historic proportions.”
It certainly sounds like Obama knew “how bad it was.” He just didn’t know how to fix it.
Unfortunately for Americans, these excuses won’t pay the mortgage. They won’t create jobs. They won’t balance the budget.
And that’s why they won’t win Obama a second term.
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