Roanoke Times...Obama also did some campaigning for himself, defending his administration's efforts to fix the economy and blistering Republican critics, who he blamed for creating the crisis he inherited.
"I expect to be held responsible," Obama said. "But I don't want the folks who created the mess to do a lot of talking. I want them to get out of the way so we can clean up the mess. I don't mind cleaning up after them, but don't do a lot of talking."
Obama accused his GOP critics of having "selective memory" about the economy and said, "When I walked in we had a $1.3 trillion deficit. That was gift-wrapped and waiting for me when I walked into the Oval Office."
Now this might just be red-meat speechifying for a Democratic crowd, but you really hope he's serious. Republicans have killed the idea of bipartisanship by rejecting anything that comes from Obama or the Democrats out of hand. The ruling principle of the GOP these days is kneejerk reactionism, where nothing they do or suggest is right. In fact, if it comes from Obama or Democrats, it's automatically the worst thing ever and will almost certainly destroy the United States.
If Republicans can't play nice, then it's time to kick them out of the pool. The only thing they're interested in scoring cheap political points by making sure that absolutely nothing gets done. If Republicans come back from recess and find bipartisanship dead, they might want to take their hands away from the corpse's throat before they start complaining about it.
