"I inherited these problems"

I love this post.

As a teacher, I do accept that excuse from a student if it is backed up with fact. If the student's last teacher was useless, taught him nothing, but passed him anyway to make herself look good, then it is not the student's fault that he cannot perform up to the grade level. As a supervisor, when one of my instructors cannot teach a child the entire contents of a level because he got a child in his class that experienced a teacher like the one in my first point, and he has to spend half the session making up for the previous teacher's incompetence, I do accept "I inherited these problems" as an excuse. When my boss forces me to work long hours or do two people's jobs at once because her boss forces her to meet a budget that is too small to pay enough people to do the work without being under stress, I don't like it, but I do accept that it's not her fault. If a paramedic could not save my loved one because of faulty equipment that was supposed to be replaced and kept up to date by someone else, I would be upset at the person whose fault it was, not the paramedic. Now that I've got that out of the way: The "I inherited this" line is a favorite of all politicians. To a certain extent it is true. You can inherit a debt, and you can inherit a set of promises, made by your predecessor, that force you to pay out even more money you don't have for the next 2,4,10 years or whatever. But if you inherit a debt, you can't keep increasing it due to your own decisions and then blame your predecessor. That is cowardly lying.

Hear Hear!!

I think anyone who has ever managed ANYTHING has inherited problems. I've been in management positions in my last 3 jobs and in every single one I've inherited problems. I was promoted to my current job less than two weeks ago. I just learned yesterday about something that both my predecessor and her boss (who is now my boss) neglected that is pretty serious and has to be dealt with immediately. It should have been dealt with over a month ago. I have till the end of the day Monday to get it fixed. I can assure you, upper management doesn't give a crap that I inherited this problem. My predecessor is retired and my boss is retiring the 19th. It is nobody's problem but mine and blaming it on their incompetence won't make the director any happier. I simply sent an email saying "Thank you for informing me of the problem, it was not addressed by my predecessor or my boss which is why I am dealing with it now. I have already taken X steps to deal with it."

Would I accept that line from anyone else? I have to say that I kind of liked Rebecca's answer here. Still, I would accept it as a reason...not an excuse. Excuses are just an excuse to explain away poor performance.My father was a very respected teacher and he took into consideration poor performance when a child had previous bad teachers or came from a dysfunctional home. His job was to inspire them to overcome their obsticles and succeed. Here's where I question the comparison because who is to "inspire" the president to overcome his obsticles ...we all have them everywhere you go. I would have to say that by the time you are old enough to run for president that you best already have that inner strength. Now...not to single Obama out. I think all our politicians suck. I hate the elections. I can't remember the last time I voted and felt good about it. We get choices like McCain and Obama??? I hate have only 2 choices that I really don't like equally!

I think Obama jumped in to this thinking it can't be that hard right? and his friends who where around him and that he is close to where like we think you can do it you where a leader in these groups and other things that Obama was the leader or team member on. So I think what happened is for the first time Obama might of just jumped himself into a high stress no reward job where nothing and I mean nothing he does makes everyone happy and I think from how he looks and everything in the videos and in pictures I have seen of him it seems he was the guy who would moderate and issue tell both sides where happy and well with the President it is more like being a boss where you have to make a decision that is good for the Big picture but will not make everyone happy. That is what happens when you are the top guy on the chain of Command you get to make the hard choices that not everyone is going to say good job Obama on. So I think it is more of he jumped in thinking I got this only to realize what the F###K did I get myself into. And well he hasn't stepped down because well he has pride.

I agree. I've always wondered why someone somewhere has not called him on that. After all, he begged for the job. He spent millions on a campaign and worked hard to get the job that he whines about now. He knew what he was getting into. I'm still amazed that there are so many Americans that are stupid enough to elect someone who talks so much but says so little. It almost makes me wish for a law that confined voting rights to property owners, or people who are employed, or prevents people on public assistance from voting in a presidential election. I wish people had to take a test before stepping into the voting booth to be sure they knew the issues and what candidates stood for. A bunch of greedy, self-absorbed idiots are who elected Obama, people who think the gov't is a cash cow to be milked, people who do not believe in self sufficiency and independence but want everyone taken care of by a nanny state.

Obama wants us to not pay attention to what he's doing, so he shifts the spotlight to what Bush did. And he's encouraged his followers to do the same. I just got a creepy feeling when typing the word 'followers'. I just realized that we've all been using that word instead of things like 'constituents' or 'voters' to refer to those who support him. It carries a subtle hint of 'religion' in it. I just realized that.

What is excuses? Learn this from my ex-boss, he said, excuses is just a reason to make yourself feel better, where you actually showing that you do not know how to do or solve the matter. So, do you feel better after giving some excuses for things that you cannot handle?