Obama may have tried to stay positive during the campaign, but over the past month, as his approval ratings have dropped to 60 percent, the president has repeatedly reminded Americans—with increasingly explicit language—that he's dealing with “inherited” problems. "By any measure, my administration has inherited a fiscal disaster," he said on March 4. Rahm Emanuel defends the president's new tone: "The truth is that 98 percent of his speeches are about the future, and 2 percent are about inheritance. Whereas I think for Republicans, it's 2 percent about the future, and 98 percent hope that the people have amnesia."
