Obama’s Blame Game Reveals True Character

Obama blames George W. Bush for handing him a deficit. Never mind that because of Obama’s wild spending spree, the national debt will double by 2019, threatening the country’s financial stability.

Obama blames Bush for the financial crisis. Never mind that Democrats and Republicans in Congress blocked Bush’s efforts to bring Fannie Mae, which was at the core of the crisis, under control.

Obama blames Bush for “torturing” terrorists. Never mind that the “torture” consisted of painless waterboarding of three individuals who as a result disclosed plans for more catastrophic attacks. As detailed in the Newsmax story Obama’s CIA Actions Belie 9/11 Words, waterboarding saved thousands of American lives.

Some say Obama’s blame game is a sign that he is still in campaign mode. I say that blaming others and not taking responsibility is part of who Obama is. It is the same victim mentality we see in the Democratic Party and in many segments of the black community, including in the fiery rhetoric of the Reverend Jeremiah Wright Jr., Obama’s minister and mentor for 20 years.

Watching the 1984 Democratic National Convention that nominated Walter Mondale for president, Condoleezza Rice became turned off by an endless refrain of appeals to “women, minorities, and the poor, which basically means helpless people and the poor,” she has said. She did not see herself as a victim in need of government help. She decided that she would “rather be ignored than patronized” and became a Republican.

As we see with Obama’s finger-pointing at the Bush administration, the politics of victimhood requires concocting misinformation. In his speech on race, for example, Obama excused the Reverend Wright’s world view—including his claim that America created the AIDS virus to kill off blacks—by saying that for the “men and women of Reverend Wright’s generation, the memories of humiliation and doubt and fear have not gone away; nor has the anger and the bitterness of those years.”

In fact, while Wright no doubt had brushes with discrimination growing up in Philadelphia, he lived in an integrated neighborhood, and his parents had good jobs. Wright attended the elite Central High, comparable to the Bronx High School of Science and Boston Latin School. Ninety percent of the students were white.

Condi Rice, in contrast, grew up in segregated Birmingham, Ala. Rice had to sit at the back of buses. When more whites got on, the driver would move a “Colored” sign farther back in the bus, making less room for blacks. Rice could not eat at the same restaurants as whites unless the restaurant had a separate room with a separate entrance for blacks.

But Condi Rice never carried a chip on her shoulder. She is proud of America and the opportunities that everyone now has. That stands in contrast to Michelle Obama’s repeated comment that because of her husband’s run for the president, the Harvard Law School graduate was proud of America for the first time. The same negative attitude shows up in Obama’s blame-America rhetoric: He never fails to apologize for this country’s failings as he perceives them, especially when he is overseas.

So don’t expect President Obama to stop blaming Bush any time soon. There is a reason Obama spent 20 years listening to Wright and his paranoid claims about America: Playing the blame game is part of Obama’s character.

Ronald Kessler is chief Washington correspondent of Newsmax.com. View his previous reports and get his dispatches sent to you free via
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