<p>The Republicans have enjoyed great power in the last 8 years, with a president who once got record-breaking approval ratings, and solid control of Congress. But whenever a problem comes up, they never seem to want to accept responsibility for it. Either this is the most ineffectual presidency ever (I know Bush is man-child, but is there really a regent behind the scenes?), or the Republicans just won't man up to their mistakes.</p>
<p>Allow me to illustrate:</p>
<p>1) 9/11: blamed on Clinton</p>
<ul>
<li>occurs almost a year into Bush presidency</li>
<li>numerous reports show that the Bush administration was warned many times of an impending attack by one Osama bin Laden, yet it did nothing</li>
</ul>
<p>2) Economic recessions: blamed on Clinton</p>
<ul>
<li>despite inheriting a booming, robust, and deficit-free economy from the Democrats, Bush presides over a net loss of jobs in his first term</li>
<li>instead of re-examining controversial policies like the Bush Tax Cuts (once opposed by a once-principled John McCain), Republicans pass the buck to Clinton and claim that the dot com bubble was the only thing that elevated the 90s economy</li>
</ul>
<p>3) Faulty intelligence on Iraq War: blamed on George Tenet, British intelligence</p>
<ul>
<li>despite stern opposition from various experts like Hans Blix, Scott Ritter, Joe Wilson, and Richard Clarke (to name a few), Bush administration heads into Iraq anyway; when they inevitably and expectedly end up with egg (and blood) on their faces, they blame Tenet and British intelligence, as if America is some naive child that can't discern fact from fiction </li>
</ul>
<p>4) Hurricane Katrina and the destruction of New Orleans: blamed on FEMA and Michael Brown</p>
<ul>
<li>Bush administration passes buck to Michael Brown, the head of FEMA, despite the fact that Republicans cut funding to FEMA</li>
<li>not to mention the fact that when an American city is being destroyed, it's kind of the job of the president and not the head of FEMA to provide leadership</li>
</ul>
<p>5) Subprime mortgage crisis and the collapse of investment banks: blamed on Democratic congress that's been in power for less than 2 years</p>
<ul>
<li>despite a steady process of deregulation that began in the Reagan years under Republican watch, the Republicans choose to attribute all the nation's economic ills to the 20-or-so months that the Democrats have been in power in Congress</li>
</ul>
<hr>
<p>Look, you can't be in power for 8 years and not be responsible for anything bad that comes along. That means you're utterly weak and ineffectual. At least salvage some dignity and stop pretending to be some kind of puppet regime.</p>
<p>But perhaps, the greatest shirking of due responsibility is just coming up:</p>
<p>6) Disaster of Bush presidency: blamed on Bush, and Bush alone</p>
<ul>
<li>conservatism is great, Republicans are great, but Bush was bad</li>
<li>now that we don't need him anymore, we can pretend he was some kind of renegade, and all the problems he caused were because he wasn't conservative/Republican enough</li>
<li>vote for his ideological partner, McCain and Palin!</li>
</ul>