Blame-Bush Tack Is Wearing ThinNo image available
Made popular 1195 days ago in Politics
online.wsj.com — Democrats are working hard these days to tell voters that the nation's economic problems were created by President George W. Bush. But that line of attack-which has buoyed the party significantly over the past four years-may be losing its edge.

In a string of recent elections, Democrats have tried to paint Republicans as Bush acolytes ready to lead a revival of his policies. One widely aired television ad in the recent Massachusetts Senate race showed a picture of Republican Scott Brown, and then shots of former President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. Mr. Brown won anyway.

The results suggest voters are beginning to worry less about what Mr. Bush did, and more about what President Barack Obama will do to dig the economy out.

Indeed, most polls suggest there is little debate about which president should be blamed. In the most recent Wall Street Journal/NBC News survey, 65% of voters agreed Mr. Obama had inherited the nation's economic problems. But by a 49% to 43% margin, voters also said they disapprove of Mr. Obama's handling of the economy, underscoring how they have shifted responsibility for the issue to the Democratic president.

Republicans, by and large, are shrugging off the attacks. In Massachusetts, Mr. Brown opposed the bank fee, called for across-the-board tax cuts and still won. He also studiously rejected any effort to link him to the Republican establishment and especially to Mr. Bush.

"As far as voters were concerned, it was like trying to tie him to Warren G. Harding," Mr. Fehrnstrom said.

Posted by james2044
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Is Blame-Bush realistic in 2010?
No, Obama & the Democrats are responsible
31%
Lean to no, Obama & the Democrats should be fixing things
5%
Not sure
0%
Lean to yes, Obama & the Democrats started with problems
12%
Yes, Bush & the Republicans are responsible
52%
This is not a scientific survey, click here to learn more. Results may not total 100% due to rounding and voting descrepencies.
User Comments
Posted 1195 days ago
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Budgets do not come from the White House. They come from Congress, and the party that controlled Congress since January 2007 is the Democratic Party. They controlled the budget process for FY 2008 and FY 2009, as well as FY 2010 and FY 2011. In that first year, they had to contend with George Bush, which caused them to compromise on spending, when Bush somewhat belatedly got tough on spending increases. For FY 2009, though, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid bypassed George Bush entirely, passing continuing resolutions to keep government running until Barack Obama could take office. At that time, they passed a massive omnibus spending bill to complete the FY 2009 budgets.
And where was Barack Obama during this time? He was a member of that very Congress that passed all of these massive spending bills, and he signed the omnibus bill as President to complete FY 2009.
Let's remember what the deficits looked like during that period:

If the Democrats inherited any deficit, it was the FY 2007 deficit, the last of the Republican budgets. That deficit was the lowest in five years, and the fourth straight decline in deficit spending. After that, Democrats in Congress took control of spending, and that includes Barack Obama, who voted for the budgets. If Obama inherited anything, he inherited it from himself.
In a nutshell, what Obama is saying is I inherited a deficit that I voted for and then I voted to expand that deficit four-fold since January 20th.
Budgets do not come from the White House. They come from Congress, and the party that controlled Congress since January 2007 is the Democratic Party. They controlled the budget process for FY 2008 and FY 2009, as well as FY 2010 and FY 2011. In that first year, they had to contend with George Bush, which caused them to compromise on spending, when Bush somewhat belatedly got tough on spending increases. For FY 2009, though, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid bypassed George Bush entirely, passing continuing resolutions to keep government running until Barack Obama could take office. At that time, they passed a massive omnibus spending bill to complete the FY 2009 budgets.
And where was Barack Obama during this time? He was a member of that very Congress that passed all of these massive spending bills, and he signed the omnibus bill as President to complete FY 2009.
Let's remember what the deficits looked like during that period:

If the Democrats inherited any deficit, it was the FY 2007 deficit, the last of the Republican budgets. That deficit was the lowest in five years, and the fourth straight decline in deficit spending. After that, Democrats in Congress took control of spending, and that includes Barack Obama, who voted for the budgets. If Obama inherited anything, he inherited it from himself.
In a nutshell, what Obama is saying is I inherited a deficit that I voted for and then I voted to expand that deficit four-fold since January 20th.

WAKE UP, AMERICA , BEFORE ITS TO LATE
Posted 1195 days ago
0 up votes, 0 down votes
sorry, this was a great e-mail i received and it looks like it was repeated by mistake..
Posted 1194 days ago
0 up votes, 0 down votes
His policies live on, Obama's policies have not taken effect. A takes a very long time for things to change course.
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