I'm sure that, like me, you can see it coming, from now through 2010.
You've banged your head against the wall hearing conservative pundits on TV complain about Obama's deficit spending as if he didn't inherit a $1.5 trillion deficit the day he took his new job, as if the vast majority of our national debt didn't accumulate under the presidencies of Reagan and W. Bush. You hear them blame Obama for job losses spurred by a financial crisis whose roots go back long before he even announced his candidacy. They even blamed him for the low Dow the day he was inaugurated, though of course with the Dow now hitting 10,000 those criticisms have long vanished.
You hear all this and it becomes clear: they want to pass their mess off as his. And the longer it takes him to clean it up, the more they think they'll be able to fool people into believing it.
Well, I personally believe a strong healthcare bill with a public option is going to pass by year's end or shortly thereafter (my money is on a state opt-out compromise; and my further money is on no state opting-out). I also think Obama's backloaded stimulus is going to spur some real growth in the coming months, so their strategy will be an epic fail, come 2010 and 2012.
But in the meantime, Obama's come up with political gold to counter any attempt to pass a Republican mess off as his own, or criticize him for not cleaning it up fast enough. And we need to repeat it ad infinitum and scream it from rooftops. This needs to become the political catchphrase of the next year.
Obama, October 15 at a DNC fundraiser in San Francisco:
What I reject is when some folks say we should go back to the past policies when it was those very same policies that got us into this mess in the first place. (Applause.)
Another way of putting it is when, you know, I'm busy and Nancy's busy with our mop cleaning up somebody else's mess --- we don't want somebody sitting back saying, you're not holding the mop the right way. (Applause.) Why don't you grab a mop, why don't you help clean up. (Applause.) You're not mopping fast enough. (Laughter.) That's a socialist mop. (Laughter and applause.) Grab a mop -- let's get to work.
Andrew Sullivan, over at the Daily Dish, knows gold when he sees it:
It's an inspired three-word challenge to the GOP. Devastating, actually - because it both reminds people of the damage the GOP did while not seeming to dwell on the past or to score partisan points (while actually doing both).
Now, understand here, I'm not trying to head off legitimate, substantive criticism of the president or his policies, be they from the left or the right. There's plenty of that and no three-word catch slogan could or should diminish those. But as a counter to the brain-dead, disingenuous, hypocritical, and often baseless criticism from the people whose messes he is cleaning, it doesn't get any better than this.
As one of Andrew Sullivan's readers put it:
If a Republican president had come up with this slogan, it would immediately have been put up as the main headline on Drudge (red font & siren optional), which inevitably leads to the main topic of conversation on conservative radio. Every damn Republican representative would be working every interview around those three words and the national narrative would be created ... unfortunately these are the Dems we're talking about, so the only people who will ever hear this are the ones politically interested enough to read blogs such as yours.
Sadly, (s)he's probably right. Unless we start hammering these words in now any time we see hypocritical and brain-dead talking points.
Republicans, you want to help this country? Then STFU and...GRAB A MOP!
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UPDATE 2: The President's Remarks (h/t KosTV)
UPDATE 1: It seems everyone is taking this in the proper spirit and realizing the great potential here. I must say, I feel vaguely....Republican...being rec listed for promoting a pithy three-word phrase, but the bottom line is this has traditionally been a Republican strong point. And as a result of it they've been able to cram some pretty bad policy down our throats -- and obstruct some pretty good policies. If we can use this well, it can help push some truly positive agendas. And it seems it really is catching on - HuffPo and Ezra are both reporting the President's fiery speech.
The modern Republican party may not be great with the mops, but (once again h/t Andrew Sullivan) a new ad has shown us the many uses they do have: