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“Last night, we had our day of reckoning,” Mrs. Bachmann said. “Eventually it hits the fan.” In Congress earlier this week, she was among the House Republicans who voted against raising the debt ceiling and the budget compromise that was negotiated by Speaker John A. Boehner and Republican leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell. She singled out Mr. Obama for criticism, but she said there was plenty of blame to go around. “The responsibility is of those in Washington, D.C., who put the deal together,” Mrs. Bachmann said in a brief exchange with reporters. “But the real problem in all of this is that President Obama has failed to give leadership on this issue.”One can't help thinking that this serves as further illustration of the general ignorance within Washington at the moment: in thinking that one man is to blame for all the United States' problems. Indeed – in any part of the world – there seems to be the general sentiment that the head of state can be held accountable for every single issue, in spite of the fact that those with whom he must agree have been shamelessly destructive and obtuse, unabashedly obstructive and difficult. How impudent and impertinent of her to make such bitter remarks when she, herself, should be held accountable. Accountable, that is, as part of the collective, Congress, whose feet should surely be held to the fire.
It's all-too-often forgotten that Obama is only the president. Sometimes, I must admit, it's amazing to think that people simply assume he's the source of their every issue, and should be the ending-point for their every qualm and complaint. Just as Obama wasn't the miracle-working Messiah some perceived him to be when he entered office, we cannot expect him to be the crisis-healing president we might hope for, particularly in this kind of 'filibustering' political climate. Just a little reminder. That is all.