More Lip Reading the SOTU Audience

Left wing bloggers ignored the Supreme Court diss and focused on Senator John McCain mouthing "blame it on Bush" instead.  Here is the lead in to the video at Crooks and Liars:

Obama finally threw some blame for the sorry state of this country at the feet of George Bush and conservatism. Cutting taxes and starting wars doesn't lead us to economic prosperity.

Yeah, how about that, Obama finally threw some blame on Bush.   I thought he would never get around to blaming Bush personally.  Well, that's not entirely true, I did mention in an earlier post we might be hearing something about Obama's inherited problems tonight.  In that same post I mentioned Paul Ryan would have been better off had he mentioned that it is Congress that passes the budget and Democrats have controlled Congress since 2006.  Obama voted for some of the deficit he now claims came to him like a bad gene inherited through some biological twist of fate.

Think Progress also has no problem with Obama's "Blame Bush" rhetoric:

  Stating facts is not blaming Bush. A CAP analysis concludes that 41 percent of the source of increased spending in 2009 is attributable to the financial rescues begun by Bush.

CAP, the Center for American Progress, is a Progressive group, I am sure their analysis is completely unbiased.  The financial rescues begun by Bush were carried out by President Barack Obama, he was under no obligation to continue those policies.  Still he claims to have rescued us from the brink of eternal damnation or something because he bailed out the banks.  Now, how did he bail out those banks, with Monopoly money?  Well maybe they think it was Monopoly money but it was money from those darned financial rescues begun by Bush.

Here is the clip of Senator McCain sharing his "Blame it on Bush" comment with Senator Graham.   He made a similar comment later on Hannity, out loud for all to hear as well:

"What we're hearing tonight is 'BIOB' -- let's call it that from now on. Blame it on Bush. Whatever has gone wrong, let's blame it on Bush. I think the people of Massachusetts last Tuesday pretty well rejected that line of conversation."

Via Memeorandum

Gallup Poll Shows Obama Failing on Voter's Top Priorities

Gallup's latest poll shows major problems for this administration:

Polling has shown voters prefer Obama to concentrate on cutting the deficit, yet on this factor Gallup shows the lowest approval and highest disapproval to date.  There can be no dispute that Obama has put an inordinate focus on healthcare policy and here too Gallup shows Obama failing.  With just 43% approval and 51% disapproval, Obama has failed to convince the majority of Americans his healthcare policy will make things better. 

With 46% approval on the economy and 51% disapproval, Obama has great reason to worry as Gallup shows him starting with a 59% approval.  A 13 point slide in 8 months in an area that largely got him elected shows Obama to be now weakest on areas once thought to be his strengths. 
H/T: Hot Air

Again With the $1.3 Trillion Inherited Deficit?

This time from Bruce Bartlett, a conservative economist who should probably know better than to make a statement like this:

In January, the Congressional Budget Office projected a deficit this year of $1.2 trillion before Obama took office, with no estimate for actions he might take. To a large extent, the CBO’s estimate simply represented the $482 billion deficit projected by the Bush administration in last summer’s budget review, plus the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, which George W. Bush rammed through Congress in September over strenuous conservative objections.

Ahemmm, which branch of government votes on the federal budget? Why Mr. Bartlett would that be the Legislative branch, meaning the House of Representatives and the Sentate? Next question, which party has had control of the House and Senate since 2006? Why that would be the Democratic party, wouldn't it? Now, trick question, what man who happens to reside at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., was a member of The US Senate last year? If you guessed Barack Obama, you would be correct. How did he vote on that TARP legislation:



Of course, this is not Mr. Bartlett's sole argument in this piece. He argues that had McCain won the election the economy would be as bad as it is right now and that our anger should be targeted on George W. Bush. Bush is not President and has no control over where this country goes in the future, what's the point? Whether the economy would be the same under a McCain presidency is not certain. I am pretty sure we wouldn't have had the $800 billion porkulus bill rammed down our throats leaving the bill for our children to pay. I am sure we wouldn't have the extra $400 billion Omnibus spending bill. I am pretty sure we would not be talking about "single payer" health care or a "strong public option," whatever that means. Whether or not the economy improved under McCain or was at least equally bad, we wouldn't have added to the deficit in such a massive way and irresponsible way.

We most likely wouldn't have pent up demand for deals and mergers in the health care industry as well as in other facets of the economy. It's hard to imagine a President McCain would have nationalized the automobile industry and in so doing sent the precarious message to all, contracts don't mean what you think they mean. It seems to me with McCain we would have at least had rules, and with rules you have certainty. Markets love certainty, they like to know the rules. With a President Obama, the only thing certain is the uncertainty.