LETTER: Republicans should share the blame

To the Editor:

Joel Pederson is correct in saying that President Obama did not accomplish all he had set out to do. But apparently Mr. Pederson is not aware of the reasons for this failure.

President Obama made the mistake of believing that there would be enough patriotic Americans in the Republican Party willing to take a bipartisan approach to solving the country’s problems. Instead he was faced with the declaration by the Republican Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell, that “our party’s No. 1 priority is to make this president a one-term president.” And so the Republicans became the “Party of No” – voting against any proposal, any legislation that could possibly be successful in solving the nation’s problems and therefore increase President Obama’s chances to be re-elected.

There were moderate Republican members of Congress who believed in the bipartisan approach and who put the nation’s welfare above their own success, but sadly they were defeated in the last election and replaced by Tea Party members.

It is the height of hypocrisy for Mitt Romney and his party to criticize President Obama for not solving our continuing problems of high unemployment and the debt crisis when they know full well that the blame is theirs for refusing to give him any cooperation and support.

Ingrid Kizen

New Richmond

Tags: letters to the editor, opinion