In the 2000 Presidential campaign, then Governor Bush liked to talk about responsibility. He used the theme of the Responsibility Era to great effect. For instance, he said the following:
From the first day of this campaign I have talked about the goal of a responsibility era for America. And even before that, it was one of my priorities as governor. For too long our culture has sent this message: if it feels good, do it. And if you've got a problem, just go ahead and blame somebody else. Each of us must understand that's not right. Each of us must understand that we're responsible for the decisions and choices we make in life.
If you look at the TV ads the president just unveiled today, you quickly see a main -- probably the main -- theme of his reelection campaign: it's not my fault.Yes, there are all sort of bad things going on. The economy's been rough. The deficit is deepening. Job growth is barely registering. There's all sorts of chaos on the international stage. But it's not my fault. When I got here there was a recession already, which I didn't have anything to do with. That's was Clinton's fault. And the same with all the corporate scandals. And then Osama bin Laden got involved and that wasn't my fault either. And that Iraq thing didn't completely work out. But that's the CIA's fault. So if there's anything that's bad now it's not because of anything I did. It's because of 9/11. And if it's not because of 9/11 then it was already broken when I got here. So don't blame me.
Think of it as "leave no excuse behind".
Posted by: the talking dog at March 3, 2004 09:40 PMMight the history books of 2050 be likely to sum up Bush 43 something like this: "Soon after his disputed election to the presidency, Bush abdicated his responsibilities in favor of his vice-president, Cheney, who proceeded to make disastrous national security and economic choices that condemned Bush to be a one term president like his father" ?
Posted by: Bob H at March 7, 2004 12:27 PM