Almost six years since he coined the phrase Bush Derangement Syndrome, syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer is accusing Barack Obama of having the same malady.
On Fox News's "Special Report" Tuesday, Krauthammer called out the President's constant negative references to his predecessor saying, "There is something truly disgusting about the way he cannot refrain from attacking Bush when he is being defensive about himself."
The topic under discussion at the time was the rising casualties in Afghanistan, and how Obama seems intent on deflecting blame to someone who has been out of office for ten months (video embedded below the fold with transcript, h/t Hot Air):
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: We are finally getting Afghan policy right after long years of drift.SEN. JOHN MCCAIN,(R) ARIZONA: The events of the past couple of days, I believe, lend some urgency to this process, and so I hope that the president will make the decision as rapidly as possible.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRET BAIER, HOST: More U.S. troop deaths in Afghanistan, and there you see the numbers adding up -- October, 55 deaths. This is now the deadliest month in Afghanistan since the beginning of the war in 2001.
And there you see 2009, 277 so far. We're not even through November and December, as the president decides on whether he will answer the request of General Stanley McChrystal, the commander on the ground in Afghanistan.
Let's bring in the panel, Jeff Birnbaum, managing editor digital of the "Washington Times," A.B. Stoddard, associate editor of "The Hill, and syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer.
Charles, this decision, as we've talked about, has been portrayed by the White House as thoughtful and not making the wrong decision at the wrong time to rush it. However, when days like today add up, you hear Senator John McCain and others speaking out.
CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER, SYNDICATED COLUMNIST: It does, of course, impress us with the urgency of the matter and how it has to be decided.
But I want to point out one thing about what Obama had said when he talked about the long years of drift. There is something truly disgusting about the way he cannot refrain from attacking Bush when he is being defensive about himself. I mean, it is beyond disgraceful here.
He won the election a year ago. He became commander in chief two months later. He announced his own strategy, not the Bush strategy, his strategy six months ago, and it wasn't offhanded. It was in a major address with the secretary of defense and the secretary of state standing with him.
And now he is still talking about the drift in the Bush years.
What is happening today is not as a result of the drift so-called in the Bush years. It is because of the drift in his years. It is because of the flaws in his own strategy, which is what he is now reexamining.
He has every right as commander in chief to reexamine his own strategy, but he ought to be honest, forthright, and courageous enough as the president to simply say I'm rethinking the strategy I adopted six months ago and not once again in a child-like way attack his predecessor.
Maybe just as important as Obama beginning to accept responsibility for his own policies is the media doing the same.
After all, if Bush-deranged journalists actually start holding the current President's feet to the fire concerning what's going on in Afghanistan, maybe he won't feel like he can get away with blaming it on his predecessor.
I'm just saying.
