Since 2009, President Obama has often reminded audiences of actions taken by the "previous administration," nearly always to pass off responsibility for any bad news plaguing his White House.
As recently as Saturday, Obama sought to deflect any culpability for Iraq's deteriorating situation due to his decision to pull out all American troops by referencing the policies of the "previous administration" of President George W. Bush.
"What I just find interesting is the degree to which this issue keeps on coming up as if this was my decision," Obama said. "Under the previous administration, we had turned over the country to a sovereign, democratically elected Iraqi government. In order for us to maintain troops in Iraq, we needed the invitation of the Iraqi government and we needed assurances that our personnel would be immune from prosecution if, for example, they were protecting themselves and ended up getting in a firefight with Iraqis, that they wouldn’t be hauled before an Iraqi judicial system."
The buck stops there.