"It’s All ________ Fault"

There is an erroneous assumption applied to whomever occupies the Oval Office. The assumption is that the President will be allowed to take credit when times are good. Conversely, the President is the one who gets dumped on when times are bad. I’ve alluded to this ridiculous idea before. Allow me to demonstrate...

Let’s just take one area in which the President is involved: the economy. There are many factors at work influencing our money: supply, demand, and all the sub-factors that support supply or demand, valuation of our currency, monetary policies set by the government, and so on. The President has a very small part in the economy. Granted, it is an influential part through his choices of Treasury Secretary, Federal Reserve Chairman, and any policies he will propose to Congress regarding our economy. Even though the President is just a small cog in a very large machine, he will take credit when the whole machine is running smoothly. It’s not a fair attitude, and everyone knows it. Yet everyone uses it to their advantage depending on who is in office at the time.

This all came to mind when I saw the latest John McCain smear, I mean commercial. It shows a gas pump in the middle of a pristine wilderness. The voiceover asks, “Who can you thank for rising prices at the pump?” At this point, a crowd starts chanting, “Obama, Obama, Obama” and soon an image of Barack Obama appears on the screen. The voiceover continues that Senator Obama has voted against offshore drilling.

So, now we know! It’s all Obama’s fault! Wow, I’m glad Senator McCain told us this because it sure took a load off my mind. McCain has all the answers; he knows what and who is right and what and who is wrong.

Okay, let’s spin this sucker around 180 degrees...

The fact that McCain is solely blaming Obama for our gasoline woes is an admission that he knows who will win the election in November — and it won’t be him! Poor Obama is taking the heat already, and he hasn’t even been elected yet. Also, if the fairness doctrine applies, then we should see a counter-commercial on our television screens. I believe an image of a moose standing nonchalantly at your local Wawa will fill the bill nicely...I don’t know what it would mean, but I digress.

I remember a few months ago when people objected to Obama’s candidacy due to his inexperience. After all, he has only served one term in the Senate, they reasoned, and therefore he wouldn’t make a good President. We can turn this to his advantage when we note that McCain has been serving as a Senator much longer. He’s had more time to get an offshore drilling moratorium lifted, yet he has been unable to do it. It appears that McCain has been ineffective in convincing his colleagues that more domestic drilling is good for the country. So much for inexperience!

Hey, wait a minute, McCain served in Vietnam! We lost in Vietnam! Does this mean that our loss was all McCain’s fault? Using the logic he used on Obama and gasoline prices, we can answer, "Hell, yes!" Why not?

Why not...because it’s a silly notion, that’s why not. Yet my saying so won’t stop any of us from holding one man to this standard. After all, if we elect someone President of the United States, we don’t expect them to be a chief executive. We expect them to be God!