COMMENTARY | According to ABC OTUS News, President Barack Obama spent at least part of his weekly address blaming the Republicans in Congress for a lackluster economic recovery. This is likely a song we're going to hear the president sing often and with increasing volume over the next few months. And, in many ways, it's a truthful song. But he's only singing one verse of it. He's forgetting the other part of the blame song: the verses that tell of his blame in the country's current problems. The verses that tell of his party's blame.
It could certainly be argued Obama, as the leader of the country, bears the largest part in the blame game. After all, wasn't this the president who said he was going to unite us? That he was going to reach across the aisle? Granted, it's rather hard to reach across an ever-widening gulf and grab the hand of someone on the other side who is unwilling to take that hand. Point taken. But I must say, I don't remember the last time the president legitimately reached across the aisle. He may have called on Republicans to compromise.
He may have said he wanted to work with them. But those compromises tended to be more of a matter of "agree with me" than "let's see if we can meet somewhere in the middle." I don't recall him, on any substantive issue at least, even attempting to reach across the aisle. Did it ever happen? And if so, when did it happen and for what cause?
Obama says the Republicans in Congress haven't lifted a finger to help the country out of its dire condition. And he says this isn't about who wins or loses in Washington, it's about jobs. Why wasn't it about jobs before? While Congress was duking out the first two years of Obama's term on a health care bill the Supreme Court may or may not declare unconstitutional, where was the concern for American jobs?
While Obama's administration was fighting against the state of Arizona over illegal immigration (which is also now in the hands of the Supreme Court justices), where was the concern for U.S. jobs? While Obama was rejecting the Keystone Pipeline because he didn't like being rushed into a decision by the Republicans, where was the concern for jobs?
It seems to me like the president's main concern with jobs is to make sure that we all understand that it is the Republicans in Congress who are to blame for them. Not a mention of his own party's failings and not a mention as to what these "big ideas and technical solutions" he says his party has are specifically. Now he wants to invest in infrastructure and education and tax breaks for small business owners. Why now? Because it's election year?
It may be too little, too late, President Obama.
