Over in Slate, Jacob Weisberg writes a piece about how Obama’s insanities in foreign policy derive from his sane desire to be the anti-Bush.
Bush, you see, was so bad that he’s still making Obama make mistakes. The evil of Bush was so evil that, in recoiling from it, the righteous understandably go too far in the opposite direction. Thus, for example:
Surely if not for Bush, Obama’s instinct after the Iranian election would have been to identify with those risking their lives to free their country, not to get back to his attempt at dialogue with Ahmadinejad.
George Bush is a lot like Global Warming: He’s the explanation for everything that goes wrong. When it’s hot—Bush did it. And when it’s cold—Bush still did it.
August 3rd, 2009 | 10:18 am
Glad to see “First Things” is continuing the tradition of the late Father Neuhaus in putting the GOP over God.
August 3rd, 2009 | 11:19 am
Rob:
So pointing out the absurd lengths that a good deal of the media will go to cover for Obama – in this case, making a ridiculous excuse for Obama’s foreign policy failings – is not only a mistake of perception and/or judgment, but is a moral and spiritual shortcoming as well?
August 3rd, 2009 | 1:31 pm
Rob,
What is it about this post that disrespects God?
August 3rd, 2009 | 3:47 pm
And Bush was such a terrible public speaker that Obama has to use Teleprompters.
August 3rd, 2009 | 4:01 pm
Rob,
By God did you mean Barack Obama?
August 3rd, 2009 | 5:13 pm
[...] Blaming Bush for Making Us Blame Bush by Joseph Bottum [...]
August 4th, 2009 | 9:48 am
OK, Rob goofed and I’ll leave it at that, without chastising or asking him to clarify a nonsequitur. We all make mistakes in the heat of the moment. Let’s get back to the meat of the article!
The article points out a particularly toxic tendency–to fawn over Obama, to think that the MSM needs to “ensure the success of the first black president”, etc. Obama’s lies and the incredibly bad policies he promotes must be called to account for the sake of the common good. Blaming Bush is the last thing we need at this point.
August 4th, 2009 | 10:05 am
“Over in Slate, Jacob Weisberg writes a piece about how Obama’s insanities in foreign policy derive from his sane desire to be the anti-Bush.”
This doesn’t seem to be a fair summary of the article. Weisberg criticizes Obama (albeit gently) for “over-steering,” which puts the blame on Obama himself for being just like so many before him (who are not portrayed to be “righteous”, but rather typical, flawed, and excessively eager to correct). Over-steering re: Bush but also over-steering re: Clinton, and Weisberg lists many ways in which Obama is going wrong or could be going wrong. Obama’s foreign policy, whether you think it’s “insane” or not, is also not blamed *solely* on Bush — Weisberg says Bush’s policies “fed” or “encouraged” Obama’s inclinations. Even if one finds much to dislike about the article, it seems like a stretch to think that in this particular article, Weisberg was simply another liberal journalist demonizing Bush.
I don’t understand the “GOP over God” comment, but perhaps Rob was reacting to what he thought was not a common-sense interpretation but rather an overreaction and misleading, though catchy, summary.
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