Taking Responsibility Is Characteristic of Genuine Leaders — Last Night, President Obama and Speaker Boehner Tried to Avoid Responsibility by Blaming “Washington” for the Nation’s Woes

© 2011 Peter Free

 

26 July 2011

 

 

“Them guys did it, it weren’t me!”

 

Dana Milbank blow-darted both these hypocrites with an obvious truth:

 

The president, in his address to the nation from the East Room of the White House, warned of “a deep economic crisis, this one caused almost entirely by Washington.”

 

The speaker, in his response, complained that “in Washington, more spending and more debt is business as usual. Well, I’ve got news for Washington: Those days are over.”

 

Obama said Americans are “fed up with a town where compromise has become a dirty word.”

 

Boehner complained about “phony accounting and Washington gimmicks.”

 

There is something rich about the president of the United States and the speaker of the House pretending that they are somehow not part of Washington. If these two aren’t Washington, what is?

 

Americans see “the same partisan three-ring circus here in Washington,” Obama-the-outsider said. “They see leaders who can’t seem to come together and do what it takes,” he said – as if he held no position of authority in this town.

 

Boehner then said that, when he came to Washington, “I was amazed at how different Washington, DC, operated than every other business in America.” He didn’t mention that he arrived in Washington 21 years ago.

 

© 2011 Dana Milbank, Obama and Boehner take on Washington, Washington Post (25 July 2011)

 

 

Another obvious point — did none of these political miscreants see a reduced national credit rating coming?

 

In this last week before default can be avoided, “Washington” has suddenly awakened to the fact that the fiscal mess will probably lead to the nation’s first reduced bond rating ever.

 

If that kind of economic disaster happened to a major corporation, shareholders would be in a tizzy and heads would roll.

 

In short, “Washington” should have been anticipating problems with the nation’s credit rating years ago.  Yet, last night President Obama and Speaker Boehner both tried to act as if other (significantly less powerful) people were responsible for driving us up to Disaster’s Precipice.

 

 

The moral? — Responsibility-dodgers aren’t going to take this nation anywhere good

 

Top dogs who blame others for errors in leadership are obviously not suited to the positions they hold.