Excuses, Excuses

According to the New York Times, Obama is a prisoner of the economy, not the other way around. Somehow, I can't imagine a New York Times column like this written for George W. Bush's benefit.

The bleak jobs report on Friday predictably had heads snapping toward the White House, looking to President Obama to do something. Yet his proposed remedies only underscore how much the president, just five months before he faces voters, is at the mercy of actors in Europe, China and Congress whose political interests often conflict with his own. 

So, according to the Times, it's the Chinese who are forcing Obama to impose strangling regulations, impose illegal moratoriums on Gulf of Mexico oil drilling, block the Keystone XL oil pipeline, force up energy prices, etc?