The Era of 'Blame Bush' for Obama Is Over

With President Barack Obama's decision to escalate the war in Afghanistan by sending 30,000 additional troops to battle al-Qaida and the Taliban, he has put his imprint on the war on terror and, at the same time, is giving up Democrats' most famous fallback position: Blame George W. Bush.

Couple that with the economy and the analysis of the stimulus plan and we are seeing the end of the president's first year in office coincide with his having to accept full responsibility for the condition of the country.

Obama rode into office on the "blame Bush" tidal wave, as the nation sickened of everything he touched. The economy? Bush was horrible at stewarding. Giving banks billions in TARP funds? Dumb idea by Bush and Treasury Secretary Hank "Mr. Wall Street" Paulson. Sick of billions going to the war? It was all the fault of Bush and his chief crony, Vice President Dick Cheney.

The blame Bush mantra proved effective because it totally silenced Republicans, who were loath to defend a conservative president who took a surplus and ended with a deficit, as well as the architect of a war based on never-proven claims of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. They couldn't even muster the strength to call him a conservative.

In the short term, President Obama's Afghanistan decision is being approved by the majority of the country. A USA Today/Gallup poll taken a day after the speech at West Point showed a slim majority — 51 percent — approving of the plan. A CNN/Opinion Research poll was far more generous, with 6 in 10 supporting the president's plan. Two-thirds of those polled continue to blame Bush for the situation in Afghanistan, but escalating the war there was all left to Obama, and he has to hope this action plan works.

But none of this will be easy. Just look at those who support the president. He has been taking incoming fire from MoveOn.org and other progressive/liberal groups that are angry with him for not pulling troops out and instead sending more in. He needed their fervor to win the nomination and the presidency. Can he withstand their aggressively pushing back?

This week saw 10 members of the Congressional Black Caucus withholding their support for an overhaul of the financial services industry because they feel that the administration isn't being specific in addressing the effect of the economy on African-Americans.

The move caught the White House by surprise and clearly brought out in the open the friction between the nation's first black president and a caucus he was a member of during his time in the U.S.

The White House spent a lot of time trying to make the argument that the $787 billion stimulus would save or generate thousands of jobs, but according to Black Caucus members, their constituents have been left out in the cold. They are threatening to join up with Republicans to defeat some of the president's measures unless they get more. Will he call their bluff or advocate a black economic agenda? He told USA Today there will be no specific plan of action for African-Americans. Now the ball is back in the court of the CBC.

As the criticism piles up, ranging from the economy to the war to promises kept and those broken, the Obama administration is knee-deep in governing, and everyone knows that is far different from running for office.

In talking with multiple White House officials, I've found that they are convinced they are doing the right things to correct the direction the country is going after eight years of Bush. But he's gone now.

With the midterm elections less than a year away, President Obama has to hope that there is more light at the end of the tunnel, e.g., the report just released that showed unemployment dipped and only 11,000 jobs were lost in November.

Americans continue to like the president personally. But that has eroded steadily since he's taken office, and unless things change for the better, he and his party likely will suffer at the ballot box next year, and it might get ugly.

So instead of bringing up Bush, maybe they ought to spend more time driving home their message of making the right moves at the right time to get the country moving in the right direction. Bush is gone into retirement, choosing not to speak negatively of President Obama. (Unfortunately, we still have to hear Cheney and his rants.)

If we are to move into a new year and a new way of governing, going back and talking about the past doesn't help. It only gives the impression that you don't have enough good things to say about your own agenda.

It was fun while it lasted, but we don't have ol' Bush to kick around anymore. Now the heat will be applied fully to Obama, and we'll have to see whether Mr. Calm, Cool and Collected can handle the tough moments as easily as he's enjoyed the praise and adulation.

Roland S. Martin is an award-winning CNN analyst and the author of the forthcoming book "The First: President Barack Obama's Road to the White House as originally reported by Roland S. Martin." Please visit his Web site at www.RolandSMartin.com. To find out more about Roland S. Martin and read his past columns, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

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