When going gets tough, Obama calls Bush

Whether he’s speaking about Afghanistan, health care, or the economy, President Obama begins each engagement by reminding America that the previous administration was an utter, abject failure. Time and time again, he tells us how he inherited a set of problems worse than any president since FDR. Everything that happened from 2000 to 2008 falls under attack, from the handling of 9/11, to the missing WMD’s and our failure to capture Bin Laden. Whatever the issue, wherever he appears, more than a year into his administration, the wisest, most intelligent president of them all, Barack Obama, is still attacking George W. Bush in nearly every speech he gives.

So why then, when the going gets a little too tough for him, does Obama keep calling his predecessor for help?

The begging began before Obama even took office, in November of 2008, when President-elect Obama asked Bush to support the $25 billion automotive rescue package. In January of 2009, Obama went back to the well, asking Bush to press Congress for the release of the final $350 billion TARP funds. It was an early sign that Obama’s ability to get things done, and his sway within his own party, may have been vastly overstated. Much to the chagrin of conservatives, Bush agreed to both requests, and pressed the legislative branch for the cash. After taking office, President Obama thanked him by constantly informing us that TARP, and the auto bailouts, were policies enacted by the failed Bush administration. Despite asking for them, Obama continues to act as if they‘re nothing more than pieces of the baggage handed to him as he entered the White House.

After being sworn in, Obama continued campaigning against Bush at every opportunity. His constant global apologies, the bowing, and the bogus humility, were designed to fix the damage caused by the former leader’s roughshod ways. Our president travels the world, painting a picture of America as a spoiled child, whining in the corner until getting its way or throwing an Iraq-style tantrum. For the last eight years, Obama implies, a tyrannical American president ignored the wishes of the world, flaunted our power, and treated the planet as little more than a plaything. One of the White House’s stated goals is to “repair America’s image” in the eyes of an international community fed up with our “cowboy diplomacy.”

Why then, when an earthquake leveled Haiti, did Obama pick up the phone and call that very cowboy for assistance? The president had Bill Clinton, the UN special envoy to Haiti, on his team. There was no need to bring in Bush. Yet there he was, front and center, ready to aid the administration and the Haitian people. If, as Obama claims, Bush is so universally despised, why would he want him to be the face of such a massive relief effort? If he was so painfully inept, why put him at the center of a situation that could have meant life or death to tens of thousands?

This week, the call went out again when the Northern Ireland peace process, begun 15 years ago under President Clinton, hit a snag. David Cameron, the leader of the United Kingdom’s Tory party, was threatening to hold the whole thing up. Obama, who’s snubbed England too many times to count, was apparently unable to do anything about it. So, who did he ask for help? Was it his Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton? Was it the president who famously began the process? Neither.