While Obama seldom misses an opportunity to blame his problems on the situation he inherited from President Bush, he says nothing about all the hundreds of billions of dollars in stimulus money he inherited from the Bush administration. Incidentally, this "stimulus" money did not do any more stimulating under George W. Bush than under Barack H. Obama.
Nevertheless, Obama is an accomplished master at playing the blame game. Having gotten all the political credit for the money he has showered on his favorites from coast to coast, he now seeks to share the blame for the resulting financial crisis with Republicans, by maneuvering them into a position where they have to help solve the debt crisis that Obama created.
He has done this in great part by simply speaking of spending cuts mostly in the abstract, leaving it to the Republicans to be specific, and thus have them face the wrath from the constituencies who support the programs they want to cut.
However one might criticize President Obama's policies in terms of their effect on the American economy, those policies can turn out to be very successful in the terms that matter most to him -- namely, his own re-election.
A Washington Post-ABC poll shows that while 52 percent of the public disapprove of Obama's handling of the economy, 65 percent disapprove of the Republicans' handling of it.
The Republicans lost control of Congress in the 2006 elections. Whether the Republicans' ideas are good, bad or indifferent, they have not been able to pass economic legislation -- or any other kind of legislation -- for more than four long years.
Yet Obama is still ahead in the blame game.