Perino: Bush Deserves Credit For Recent Market Uptick

Former White House spokesperson Dana Perino said on Sunday that the Bush administration, while presiding over the start of the current recession, nevertheless deserved some credit for the modest uptick that Wall Street experienced this past week.

Appearing on CSPAN's Washington Journal, the last of Bush's press secretaries said it was "not a secret" that the current economic mess started under her boss's watch. But, she cautioned, the public had yet to realize the full extent to which the past president's policies "alleviat[ed] the downturn." Take, for instance, the improvement in the Dow Jones Industrial average this week.

"You were just speaking earlier about the possibility that since we had a little bit of a better week on Wall Street does that spell a turnaround?" Perino said. "Can all the credit go specifically to President Obama? Well, I would say no. We are just going to have to take a while to let all of this settle down and let the policies that our administration and the new administration are trying to put in place have a chance to work."

The Dow Jones Industrial Average had gone, roughly speaking, from a high of 14,000 to a low of just over 9,000 in the last two years of Bush's tenure. It rose from slightly below 7,000 to slightly above 7,000 this past week.

The effort to credit the market boost to Bush administration fiscal policy comes at a time of renewed debate over what role the former president played in the recession. On Sunday, former Vice President Dick Cheney said he didn't think it was fair to blame Bush for creating the current economic woes. That followed a speech by Barack Obama, saying that he had inherited the mess from which he was trying to dig the country out.

Asked how long Obama would be able to cast blame on his predecessor, here was Perino's response (per the C-SPAN VIdeo Library):

"For a while, I guess. He can do it as long as he wants. The question is, is this the smartest communications strategy to be doing it? Remember, President Bush inherited a recession as well. That is when the Internet technology stocks and the companies all fell apart. The question is not who the blame. You couldn't blame the technology bubble all on President Clinton himself, absolutely not... That aside, every president inherits big problems because you are the leader of the free world and there are going to be problems that you inherit. The danger I think - and I would say we fell into this a bit as well - is that if you constantly blame the person before you, you are not able to move forward and look forward and I do not think that necessarily the country wants that right now."

Comments

[Otaku1031]

Who is she kidding? During the last few months of the Bush fiasco, W kept his head so far down that he might as well have been invisible. He couldn't wait to get out of the White House. The only thing he was interested in doing was getting his buddies all the cash they could carry while the country burned to the ground. To give that criminal credit for improving anything is beyond my comprehension. He was simply a rubber-stamp for the GOP and their insane policies. Sounds like Perino is digging for book deals.

[cdrach]

is it just me, or is she the hottest little Ice ueen to ever come down the pike?

[Galvanized Democrat]

every president inherits big problems because you are the leader of the free world and there are going to be problems that you inherit.

Yes and what a P*H*E*N*O*M*E*N*A*L inheritance Bush left to Obama....
* 2 wars, one that we should never have been in and the other in a place where no nation has ever
triumphed
* An economy that is so threadbare that there's virtually nothing left with which to mend it
* A face that we can barely show to the world due to a disgraceful disregard of ethics from our leaders
* A congress more divided and partisan than ever in history
* A Constitution that has been beaten and bloodied and disregarded in favor of spying on American
citizens.
* A major city that has yet to return from catastrophe that happened 4 years ago.
* An infrastructure that is rapidly decaying
* National resources that have been auctioned off to the highest bidders

Yeah, Dana, I'm just sittin' here hummin' "Thanks for the Memories". So the next time you want to
whitewash your administration, think about it twice because we don't want to blame, we want some accountability.

[Galvanized Democrat]

Perhaps if the neocons weren't so busy rewriting history, they could stand up and take some responsibility for the state of the nation.

BTW, Dana, remember that budget surplus that you inherited from Clinton just how did that turn into the biggest deficit in our nation's history? Hmmmm, could it be because on an unholy war that we should never have instigated?

[jjgg5]

Ms. Perino, you no longer work for Mr. Bush. What need is there to present yourself as naive and ill informed?

[quillsinister]

I wonder if all of these people--Perino, Fleischer, Baghdad Bob, et al--have some place where they all go to exchange tall tales of the BS they've perpetuated. The Prevarication Cafe, they'd call it. And they'd always have the best seats reserved.

[NTexasHillbilly]

Why is it that Bachman, Perino and Palin all have big eyes? The better to see themselves with?

[Galvanized Democrat]

Please, don't forget Catherine Harris. She's gotta be a top contender for the Most Empty Headed Repub Female.

[Galvanized Democrat]

Oops, almost forgot the ungracefully aging Carly Fiorrino (spelling?). You know the one who brought Hewlett Packard to its knees and then skated out the door with 40 million.

[CoolwithCoolidge]

I want to be blonde news spokesmodel when I grow up.

[jackjava]

This coming from a woman who did not know waht the Cuban Missle Crisis was all about. Come on, she is a dim bulb and was horrible as Press Secretary. Way overmatched, but at that time in the Bush Presidency, no one would take the job. I believe she is one of the 75% Bushies who's still unemployed.

She looks and soundslike a Stepford wife

[Wilsonv]

Do these people get paid by the number of lies they tell? Wow, talk about drinking the kool-aid.

[kareemachan]

And the whitewashing continues...

[cyclobenzaprine9]

I don't even know how to respond to this, except, Barack Obama was President during last week's market "uptick" and Bush No. 43 was the worst president in ever.

[Eyeheartfreedumb]

They continue to confuse the market (and all of it's manipulations of paper, not money) with the ACTUAL ECONOMY that all of us rely on to EARN a living.
If Wall Street blows up tomorrow, it doesn't affect me. My job is still here, I'm still employed. If America spends all of its money trying to bail out the stock losers, then neither will survive.

[bigbluevan793]

She might as well be Marie Antoinette and tell us all to eat cake. Off with their heads. Heres to the new Jacobins.

[MrJoyboy]

I could never understand how any woman can support a woman-hating party.

[grammy11]

She must have taken lessons from Sarah Palin.

[kareemachan]

And Condi.