I was prepared to get all angry about this headline: George W. Bush's swipes at Obama
The former president publicly criticizes his successor for the first time. I am firmly of the belief that former presidents should spend most of their public time nodding and smiling. If they wish, they may do conspicuous acts of public charity, or play golf.
But actually, the "swipes" seem like pretty weak tea. Mostly, he's defending his own policies, not criticizing Obama's. And given that Obama has been blaming everything from his budget deficits to Swine Flu on one George W. Bush, you can hardly blame him.
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I don't have a problem with his comments at all. All that free market rhetoric, however, was a little rich coming from the guy that gave us TARP and -- more egregiously -- the auto bailout.
As you said, Obama has spent an unusual amount of time attacking Bush - just count how often he uses the word "inherited". Bush inherited a collapsing internet bubble, subsequent accounting scandals (Enron, etc.) and, arguably, the Sept. 11 attacks from the Clinton administration, but he didn't constantly attack Clinton or whine about how it was the other guy's fault. Obama knew about the financial crisis before the election, and he still asked for the job.
The latest attack by Austan Goolsbee was really over the top - to blame Bush for giving Obama what he asked for regarding the automakers! If Obama is going to spend such excessive amounts of time focusing on the last administration, surely Bush is allowed to occasionally respond.
"Swine flu"? Link please?
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I had the same reaction to the headline. It's one of those attempts to create a sensational controversy where there really isn't one.
That being said, I second Colin's point above -- W is not exactly my ideal spokesperson for the principles of limited government.
Didn't Drudge do the same kind of hyping yesterday about peas and lettuce?
That registration thingy doesn't seem to be stopping all the spam comments.
"Don't criticize the guy after you" is only half the tradition. The other half is "don't try to blame everything on the guy before you". Bush has every right to speak out.
I had almost the exact same reaction. I still think that Bush should have kept tighter-lipped, but it's hardly the breach in protocol the headline implied.
Megan, Trumwill, I agree 100% on all counts.
I really am moving from "strong dislike" to "loathe" of the press. The headlines were totally misleading and overdone.
As you can imagine, the Huffington Post lapped that headline up like milk.