Blame Bush: Obama Now Taking Credit For Wind-Farm Jobs Created By Bush Subsidies

I'm not a fan of Bush's subsidies, either. And I always hated having to argue that Bush should get credit for initiatives I didn't agree with -- like spending a king's ransom to fight AIDS in Africa. I wouldn't have done that; but he did. I guess even though I disagree with the policy, he should get credit for it from the people who find it creditable, that is to say, liberals. I don't love it, but since they're the ones pushing this billion-dollar feelgoodery, shouldn't they have to admit that our free-spending Republican president is a fan of billion-dollar feelgoodery?

Yeah. Weird argument to have to make, and yet many of us have made it.

So I don't think I'm a big fan of Bush's wind farm initiative, except in one way: I would rather pay a smaller amount of money to appease a public which irrationally believes we can wind-farm our way out of oil dependency then do nothing at all and then have them go full retard and demand cap and trade. Like, you know, negotiating with a child. No, the kid can't have ice cream again. He's getting chubby. But how about two Fig Newtons? Would that appease...?

I "support" energy initiatives like this only for that reason -- hey, instead of crippling the American economy pursuing vaporware and dreamstuff, would you like two Fig Newtons?

Anyway. Bush offered the public two Fig Newtons instead of ice cream. The Fig Newtons resulted in some windmills. Yayyy.

I'm not super-psyched about all this, but if it happened, and it's supposedly "good" in the minds of a solid block of the public that is convinced we could stop using oil if only we "got serious" about the power of wind (and, I suppose, the power of love, too; let's harness that while we're at it), then at least I'd like Bush to get the dubious credit for a dumb policy which is, despite my best efforts, somehow popular.

Obama, who doesn't have any real accomplishments to his name but thinks he ought to just because someone so Awesome should have some accomplishments, of course disagrees.

Even MSNBC finds his credit-thieving a bit too much.

Hot air? White House takes credit for Bush-era wind farm jobs

Administration claims 50,000 jobs created, but many projects were completed before funds were handed out

The Obama administration is crediting its anti-recession stimulus plan with creating up to 50,000 jobs on dozens of wind farms, even though many of those wind farms were built before the stimulus money began to flow or even before President Barack Obama was inaugurated.

Out of 70 major wind farms that received the $4.4 billion in federal energy grants through the stimulus program, public records show that 11, which received a total of $600 million, erected their wind towers during the Bush administration. And a total of 19 wind farms, which received $1.3 billion, were built before any of the stimulus money was distributed.

Yet all the jobs at these wind farms are counted in the administration's figures for jobs created by the stimulus.

I was playing Battleship with my friend's 4-year-old kid a few weeks ago. I tried to explain the rules of the game but he wasn't interested; he just wanted to put red pegs into ships. So we traded putting red pegs into each other's ships, me doing one, then him doing one.

As we approached the end of the "game," I saw that I was ahead, and this wouldn't do, of course. Kid's 4 years old. So I said to him, "Hey, kid, we have to do something here, you're behind."

He said it with admirable directness: "We have to make it so I win."

I mean, he didn't try to make up new rules, even. He didn't try to hide it. He was upfront about the end-goal.

He just said it. "We have to make it so I win."

I'll leave it to you to determine whether or not this provides any insight into Obama's basic psychology.

(Oh, here's a little insight into my psychology: I really didn't want to roll over for this 4-year-old. I really didn't want him to "win," given that we weren't even playing by the rules he wanted.

I wanted to win.

Now, yeah, I let him win. And I congratulated him. Reluctantly.

But my dad didn't teach me to roll over like a bitch for some 4-year-old punk.

But that's my problem. I don't hold high office so relatively few are affected by my pathologies.)

Thanks to AllenG.

posted by Ace at 11:31 AM

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