Making excuses is Obama's talent

In the course of conversation with a good friend this morning, said friend, in reply to the question "Do you think Barack Obama is a good president?" stated, "He's better than Bush was." Not only was that a nonanswer, it is highly debatable, and history will judge who was the better of the two presidents.

A case can be made that Obama is smarter than Bush because of the following facts. Obama's negative numbers (unemployment, reckless overspending, the economy, housing, etc.) are much worse than Bush's were. But when Bush was criticized for his negatives he didn't say, "Sure, we are in bad shape under my watch, but if my policies weren't initiated things would be much worse." In other words Bush wasn't smart enough to invent the Obama excuse.

So we have an ex-president with not so good numbers compared with a president with horrible numbers who is smart enough (or maybe cunning enough) to use a stupid excuse for his inefficiency, relying on the public to be dumb enough to buy it.

Gene Maril

Arlington Heights