On shooting the messenger

After weeks of predicting a calamity if the debt ceiling weren't raised, President Obama managed to get both the rise and the calamity. So now, after weeks of blaming Republicans for not doing it his way, he is undertaking to blame Standard & Poor's for its downgrade of America's credit rating!

The problem was never the debt ceiling. The problem is the debt. It was 40 percent of the national product--the sum of all our efforts to build, earn, and create--when he took office. It is now heading inexorably for 70 percent. It is not true, as Michele Bachmann has claimed, that Mr. Obama has borrowed more money than the preceding 43 presidents combined. But he has come uncomfortably close. Blue skies! -- Dan Ford