Inheritance & responsibility

In our form of government, citizens rotate through positions of power and authority according to terms spelled out in our Constitution. Nobody has a birthright to positions within the executive, legislative or judicial branches. Citizens who seek office tell us what they like and/or don't like about the country, state, county or city and what they intend to do about it. If a majority or plurality agree with them and elect them to that office, they assume the successes or failures of the policies put in place by previous officeholders.

We constantly hear media and President Obama himself say that he inherited a economic recession...especially when the news of higher unemployment, falling wages, higher home foreclosures, less liquidity, falling retirement portfolio values, etc. comes out. The recession did start before he assumed office, but could it have been less severe or shorter? At what point is the new guy responsible for economic or other conditions resulting from his actions or inactions.

Vice President Biden recently said "troop withdrawals and a stable Iraqi government could be one of the greatest achievements of the Obama administration." I don't recall such a rosey assessment of Iraq before his becoming second in command of the very armed forces fighting over there right now. In fact, I recall that he had very low expectations of Iraq under Bush's command. He called for splitting Iraq into three states or nations because three ethnic groups couldn't be expected to co-exist. He opposed the troop surge. He was silent when the surge and the war were called failures. Are we to believe that in one year Iraq has changed from a total failure to a total success?

Let's assume they are correct; today, the economy is bad and Iraq is good. Well, you can't have it both ways...either you were dealt a bad economy and a good Iraq on Inauguration Day, or your policies made it that way. If after a year of your policies, the economy is still bad but Iraq is good, do you only take credit for the good and blame the bad on the last guy?

Take the bad with the good and strive to improve the bad. Own up to it. Stop blaming others. Take responsibility. You're in charge now. That's what the citizens elected you to do.