Obama deserves a year before we judge him

Dan Olivier, Bullhead City, Ariz.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009 | 2:05 a.m.

Regarding Shirley Moore’s April 13 letter to the editor, headlined “Fox tells the truth, for those who want it”:

Ms. Moore writes that “our country is going to hell fast.” Conservatives, welcome to reality, as it is a fact our country has been “going to hell fast” in the eight years since George W. Bush stole the 2000 election with the help of a conservative Supreme Court.

President Barack Obama has been in office three months. So I ask: How could things possibly have gotten this bad in that short length of time? Everything that happens in a new president’s first year has roots in his predecessor’s term (well, almost everything), so I suggest that those who agree with Ms. Moore’s view just sit back and hold their tongues until January 2010, at which time the presidency will be completely owned by Obama — good and bad.

The recession can be blamed in part at least on the business cycle but was made almost a depression by Bush’s supply-side policies of cutting taxes heavily for the rich and deregulation of the housing and financial markets. And anyone with any sense gives the Iraq debacle exclusively to President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. Obama has earned the “pleasure” of straightening out this mess. So give him a few more months at least.