Oblamer

Nickname for president Obama that came about later in his first term, when he shifted away from the inspirational rhetoric of his first presidential campaign and started blaming a multitude of other people or groups for his administration's failures and the country's problems when questioned, instead of taking responsibility like a real leader should. Blame for others came both directly from Obama and from his spokesman, Jay Carney. Initially, the blame for failures under the Obama administration was directed toward the previous administration (Bush). The blame game reached new heights in Obama's second term when, during the partial government shutdown of late 2013, the president said repeatedly that he would not negotiate with other elected officials, and continued to place all of the blame and responsibility for the shutdown on others (notably, Republicans in congress), even resorting to highly inflammatory rhetoric. The administration was able to get most of the media (directly or indirectly) to go along with this story line. The Obama administration subsequently made many eye-raising decisions about what to keep up open versus what to close from the general public during the shutdown; these decisions appeared to be made to make the American people "feel the pain" of the shutdown who would have otherwise not noticed, and drum up anger and blame toward congress.