Obama: Not "Re-Litigating the Past" at State of Union Means Bashing Your Predecessor?

Last night, during the State of the Union speech, President Obama told us in a matter-of-fact way: I'm not interested in re-litigating the past.

I am not sure what he mean by re-litigating the past; did somebody sue the past and lose?

Whatever he meant, Obama certainly had no problem pointing back and tossing the blame for all our problems on the last administration. If you managed to slog though the 75-minute monologue, here are several examples of Obama not "relitigating the past":

One year ago, I took office amid two wars, an economy rocked by a severe recession, a financial system on the verge of collapse, and a government deeply in debt. Experts from across the political spectrum warned that if we did not act, we might face a second depression.

One year ago is certainly not the past, is it?

At the beginning of the last decade, the year 2000, America had a budget surplus of over $200 billion. (Applause.) By the time I took office, we had a one-year deficit of over $1 trillion and projected deficits of $8 trillion over the next decade. Most of this was the result of not paying for two wars, two tax cuts, and an expensive prescription drug program. On top of that, the effects of the recession put a $3 trillion hole in our budget. All this was before I walked in the door.

Certainly no criticism of past presidential decisions here.

So I supported the last administration's efforts to create the financial rescue program. And when we took that program over, we made it more transparent and more accountable.

Darn that last administration, why does the last administration have to be in past so Obama can't criticize how non-transparent and unaccountable they were?

Now, even after paying for what we spent on my watch, we'll still face the massive deficit we had when I took office.

When I took office (a year ago) sounds like a reference to the past. Maybe Obama means by not re-litigating that he wants to move on without blaming the Bush administration for all our problems?

The problem is that's what we did for eight years. That's what helped us into this crisis. It's what helped lead to these deficits. We can't do it again.

Well, that's not it.

That's why -– for the first time in history –- my administration posts on our White House visitors online.

Not a swipe at the past, but a boring and meaningless self-aggrandizing plug. Wow, look how many times SEIU chief Andy "There are terrorist in the Senate" Stern has visited Obama! I wonder how many of his other visitors are completely insane?

Again, I have no idea how one re-litigates (or litigates) the past, but Obama sure spent a lot of time passing the buck backwards. Regardless of your opinion of President Bush, aren't you getting a little weary of Obama tossing out the "Blame Bush" mantra and carping about all the problems "he inherited"?

Come to think, if Bush hadn't created all the problems that Obama is whining about, odds are on that Obama would not be president today.