Snappy newsletters. Simple Facebook sharing. Spirited comments. Sweet features are waiting… GET THEM NOW!

Hot on Facebook

Uproar After NC State Agent 'Fixes' Girl's Lunch Preschooler has to eat chicken nuggets instead of mom's meal »

It's Not Bush's Mess Anymore

Obama needs to stop complaining about what he inherited, start fixing it

By Rob Quinn, Newser Staff

Posted Oct 23, 2009 5:47 AM CDT

(Newser) – President Obama needs to stop complaining that he inherited a mess and realize that the mess is now all his, writes Peggy Noonan. The White House is once again reminding people what dire straits the country was in when Obama's presidency began, but—as the president's free-falling poll numbers prove—that excuse doesn't work any more, Noonan writes in the Wall Street Journal.

President Bush—when he had been in office for a shorter time than Obama has been now—truly owned his presidency from the moment he stood atop the rubble of 9/11, Noonan writes. Obama, standing on the rubble of a battered economy, now owns his presidency whether he likes it or not. "Excuse-begging and defensiveness won't work," Noonan writes. "Everyone knows he was handed horror. They want him to fix it."

[Images (2)]

[Quotes (2)]

President Obama speaks at a campaign rally for Gov. Jon Corzine in Hackensack, N.J., Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2009. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

President Barack Obama waves as he boards Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2009. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

« Prev« Prev | Next »Next » Slideshow

What they inherited was, truly, terrible: again, a severe economic crisis and two wars. But their recent return to this theme is unbecoming. Worse, it is politically unpersuasive. It sounds defensive, like a dodge. - Peggy Noonan

The problem isn't his personality, it's his policies. His problem isn't what George W. Bush left but what he himself has done. - Peggy Noonan

« Prev« Prev | Next »Next » Slideshow

To report an error on this story, notify our editors.

More Newser Stories

Detroit Bust Would've Been Better Than Bailout

Ex-Prez Bush says bailout his idea, and a good one

(NEWSER) - Three years ago, Mitt Romney wrote that President Obama should " Let Detroit Go Bankrupt ," instead of bailing out the struggling auto industry, in a famous New York Times column. And today? Even with the American auto industry on the rebound, Michigan's GOP primary looming on Feb. 28, and Rick Santorum breathing down his neck in the polls , Romney still thinks bankruptcy would have been better than the president's "crony capitalism," he writes in the Detroit News . "I believe that without his intervention things there would be better," he writes. More»

US Drones Return to Hit Rescuers, Funerals

Strikes occurring every 4 days under Obama: report

(NEWSER) - A few days back, President Obama said that US drone attacks in Pakistan had "not caused a huge number of civilian casualties." But a Bureau of Investigative Journalism report finds that somewhere between 282 and 535 civilians, including 60 children, have been "credibly reported" killed in the campaign. Secondary strikes target groups of rescuers shortly after attacks, while other drones have killed dozens at funerals. Obama has drastically escalated the drone program; some 260 strikes have occurred an average of once every four days under his administration. More»

How Much Did Obama Really Add to Deficit?

Ezra Klein crunches the numbers and comes up with a lower total than you think

(NEWSER) - Mitt Romney has taken to carrying around a debt clock, blaming President Obama for the ever-climbing number it shows. But the clock doesn't show how much Obama has actually added to that debt, so Ezra Klein set out to find out. "There are two answers," he writes in the Washington Post . The first, which is "simple and wrong" is $4.7 trillion. That's what you get when you subtract the debt when Obama took office (about $10.5 trillion) from the current debt (about $15.2 trillion). More»

Geithner: Obama Won't Ask Me to Stay

Treasury secretary says he's done after election

(NEWSER) - Tim Geithner is pretty sure he's going to be joining the ranks of the jobless after the election: The Treasury secretary—the longest serving member of President Obama's economic team—tells Bloomberg that Obama is "not going to ask me to stay on, I’m pretty confident. I’m confident he’ll be president. But I’m also confident he’s going to have the privilege of having another secretary of the Treasury." The White House announced in August that Geithner would stay put through the election, amid Beltway rumblings that he would step down. More»

Bush's CIA Chief: We Ruled Out Iran Strike

Michael Hayden says it would have backfired then, and would now, too

(NEWSER) - George W. Bush's administration pondered an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities and ultimately rejected it, says former CIA and NSA chief Gen. Michael Hayden. He and others concluded that an attack on Iran's nuke factories "would guarantee that which we are trying to prevent—an Iran that will spare nothing to build a nuclear weapon and that would build it in secret," Hayden said, according to Foreign Policy . The same rationale holds true today, he warned: Go with diplomacy and back channels or risk pushing Tehran into speeding things up. More»

NEWS FROM OUR PARTNERS

What is Newser?

Face it: there's too much news. At Newser, we choose the most thought-provoking and entertaining stories from hundreds of US and international sources and reduce them to a headline, picture, and two paragraphs. And we do it 24/7—you can come back morning, noon, night (and in between) for something new that matters. Read less, know more.

Learn more »

Partnering with: Slate

View Newser on the mobile website

It's Not Bush's Mess Anymore