Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due -- George Bush

Conservative talking head Michelle Malkin was in Livingston County Wednesday whining that George Bush hasn't been given enough credit for things that President Obama has done.

OK. Let's give him more credit.

Let's give George Bush full credit for the economic meltdown that started in 2008 and from which the nation has had to recover during the first two years of President Obama's administration. Every single ounce of credit. Would that make Malkin happy? We'll give him credit for the hundreds of thousands of jobs lost, the near death of Michigan's auto industry, the millions of homes foreclosed on, the billions of dollars of wealth Americans lost in the values of their homes and their retirement plants, and the shrinking of not just the U.S. economy, but the entire world economy.

George Bush, I hereby promise that I will always give you 100 percent credit for that. Not "joint credit," which is what Malkin wants for the successful raid authorized by Obama that killed terrorist Osama bin Laden.

No, I will give George Bush 100 percent pure and unadulterated credit.

Feel better?

I doubt it. People like Malkin and the Bush administration minions that appeared on Sunday talk shows demanding that George Bush get credit for bin Laden's death only want credit for things that go right after they leave office. They want credit, not responsibility, which means accepting blame when things go wrong.

Here's what I mean.

Suppose information that was key to Obama's decision to launch the raid that killed bin Laden had actually been developed under Bush's administration. (It wasn't, but let's pretend that it was.) And let's pretend that President Obama authorized the raid, knowing that there was only a 55 percent chance that the information was correct. (Which there was.)

And let's say that the intelligence turned out to be wrong. It wasn't bin Laden in that compound at all. It was some Saudi prince who had the compound built as a hide-away. And instead of killing bin Laden, the Navy SEALS killed the Saudi prince and a huge international incident resulted that threatened U.S. relations with Saudi Arabia and our oil supplies.

The nation would be in crisis.President Obama would be in major trouble. But since the faulty intelligence that led to the raid was developed under Bush's administration, George Bush and members of his administration would step forward to claim "joint credit" with President Obama for the fiasco.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure they would. I'm pretty sure Malkin would come to Livingston County and demand, yes demand, that George Bush be given "joint credit" for the fiasco.

I'd pay money to see that.