Obama fails at root cause analysis

In an article in the Washington Post where president Obama bemoans his lack of fundraising versus Republicans and versus his own efforts in 2008, there's a very telling passage.

“In 2008 everything was new and exciting about our campaign,” Obama told the unidentified donors, according to the Daily Beast. “And now I’m the incumbent president. I’ve got gray hair. People have seen disappointment because folks had a vision of change happening immediately. And it turns out change is hard, especially when you’ve got an obstructionist Republican Congress.”

(emphasis added)

Change is not hard because of an obstructionist Congress. Change is hard when change is ill-conceived.

Obama was elected on the basis of 'hope and change' in the midst of an economic crisis. The hope was economic, but he spent his political capital on health care reform. That reform proved to be quite unpopular but the Democrats pushed ahead anyway. The town halls, the Tea Party, nothing could convince them to cease and desist. They had a triple majority - presidency, House and Senate - and to paraphrase Obama, they won. They could do whatever they wanted and so they did.

Then at the first chance to rebuke them, in the 2010 Congressional elections, they did. The did so in a really big way. The message was not received. Not only did Democrats use it as an opportunity to blame Republicans for everything, they did not get that the reason they now faced a Republican Congress was because they had acted recklessly when they had the keys to the car (to again paraphrase the president).

Now the president likes to blame the Republicans for obstructionism. He doesn't realize that his own bull-headedness caused the situation and when he had the chance post-2010 election to act in a post-partisan way, he instead doubled down using blame as his instrument. The Republicans aren't obstructionist, they have a different way to solve things. It doesn't fit the president's agenda, which was ill-timed and ill-conceived, so he rails against them. But in reality, he is in a situation of his own making. Even the lack of sufficient donations confirms that.

The blame-Bush president, is still busy finger-pointing, and I hope he continues to do so until the election because it will ensure that he fails to be re-elected.