'No responsibility' a far cry from 'buck stops here'

"The buck stops here ..."

"I take no responsibility at all ..."

Two presidents of the United States. The same country, but very different at different times.

Two years before either of them became president, very few people could have imagined either of them in the Oval Office.

Harry Truman was your average senator, product of the Pendergast political machine in Kansas City.  He became vice president as a compromise choice when FDR needed to dump Henry Wallace from the ticket.

Nobody expected much of him, but he combined intelligence, honesty and empathy and his eight years as president were successful enough that historians regard him as an outstanding president.

Truman was the last president of the pre-television era, one of the last presidents to make decisions without worrying what people would think of him.

He saw everything that happened in his White House as ultimately his responsibility.

The other guy?

Not so much.

Donald Trump rode inherited wealth, a massive ego and the complete lack of a moral code into the White House with the help of voter suppression, the FBI and a guy named Vladimir Putin.

In three-plus years in the White House, Trump has tried to take credit for every good thing that has happened in the world, from good weather to a strong economy. If a guy in Tickle Me, Idaho, bowls a perfect game, Trump takes credit.

On the other hand, anything bad that happens is someone else's fault, usually Barack Obama's.

Yeppers.

Trump himself has always said he never apologizes or admits he was wrong. He sees both as signs of weakness, so when he is obviously wrong (as in downplaying the virus at first), he just changes his position and pretends that was what he believed all along.

That's how he can say for several months that it was no big deal and we caught it very early, and when that proves tragically wrong he says he always knew it would be a pandemic.

We never had to worry about that with Harry Truman.

Heck, we didn't have to worry about that with the Milhouse guy. Or the Zipper. Nixon at least was opposed to the bad guys, and Clinton just wanted to get his rocks off.

Trump is completely beyond that. He lies just because he can, just to keep in practice. If you were to ask him the time of day, you had better have a second source to verify it.

America needs you, Harry Truman.

Somebody has to accept responsibility.