"taking" "responsibility"

Just wanted to make a brief comment on an aspect of the the whole nut-bomber terrorism thing that I haven't seen elsewhere. I want to talk about something fun, something exciting, something all the kids are raving about these days--yes, I'm referring to responsibility.

Obama, in his review of what happened, outlined "the intelligence and other government failures leading up to the botched December 25 terror bombing" (as summarized by CNN). He also said, "the buck stops with me."

That was him being the leader accepting responsibility. It's what he had to do, what most would insist is proper. And I agree, it is. But, let's be honest, he's not really accepting responsibility. He's dancing a little dance we all agree to ignore. He's simultaneously blaming others, blaming a system, and then playing the martyr in a way he knows no one but his most determined opponents will believe (and they would blame him no matter what he said). He's saying, "Here are the people and structures that caused this, people and structures that are not me or of my making--but I will allow you to blame me, wink-wink." We all know he doesn't mean, "this is my fault," we all know, at some level, he doesn't really expect us to believe it's his fault--and yet we all demand that he says it's his fault.

Just another little game of politics that we don't acknowledge but that we play. I'm not saying Obama should really accept all the blame--after all, the systems that were in place were in place when he took office. And I grant that some of his meaning was that he accepts responsibility for fixing the problems. Still...I think the whole thing is funny. It's a mass self-delusion--probably part of the mass self-delusion that we have that the president can really control many things. Perhaps the "buck stops here" thing is less about appearing a mature leader and more about maintaining the fiction of presidential omnipotence.