Finger Pointer in Chief

I was in the midst of writing a new post for my blog, when President Obama came on the news, for a short briefing after meeting with various members of the administration, to discuss the tragic oil spill of BP's oil rig, off Louisiana's coast, in the Gulf.

I left my seat at the computer, to go stand in front of my TV to see what Mr. Obama had to say. In his initial remarks, he immediately lamented the embarrassing display of deflecting blame and finger-pointing done, by the executives of BP, Transocean and Haliburton, in their testimony before one of the Senate inquiries into the disaster. Visibly upset, the President spoke of the "ridiculous spectacle" of finger-pointing, by the oil companies and the American people's being fed up of this kind of unwillingness to accept responsibility.  With this disaster of an oil spill, surely, responsibility should be owned and accountability should be enforced.  That concept, however, cuts both ways.

I wondered, at that moment, if anyone else but me was struck by the irony of the President's words. Standing there alone, I still found myself muttering under my breath - "This from a guy who, over a year into his presidency, deflects blame and responsibility for anything...ANYTHING that's bad...wrong of just messed up, to the eight years previous to his administration."  I was soon back at the computer, putting the new post on hold, so I could write this. 

That eight year window of time, is where all the country's current ills can be traced. Never at all, anytime before then...and certainly, no time since. The anemic, jobless economic recovery since a near trillion dollar stimulus....Bush. The continued inaction by the Federal Government to do anything about illegal immigration or securing our borders, um...Bush. Anything bad in this administration, was inherited or the direct result of failed, previous policies.

There has to be a point, when you've taken over the candy store, where you are the one responsible for the candy.

The American people probably aren't surprised by the behavior of the oil executives on Capitol Hill. They just want someone to do what needs to be done, to stop the titanic gush of oil pumping out at the bottom of the sea. If, more than a year from now, they're still pointing fingers of blame at the other guy and things are getting worse, instead of better...the American people will be fed up for sure.