It is inconceivable to me that if the much-reviled Gov. Sarah Palin had been POTUS when this oil spill occurred that she would not have done a much better job than the pathetic, flailing, clueless response we have seen from our Chief Executive, Mr. Obama. For one thing, she would have grasped the difference between stopping an ongoing disaster and suing for damages after all the damage has already been done. Mr. Obama is like a person standing on the sidewalk as a fire is spreading through a building, and people are screaming for him to do whatever it takes to put it out, and he stands there as the flames spread and the smoke plumes into the sky, and he says, “I will sue the person who caused the fire.” It is flabbergasting that the man seems not to even grasp the existence of the executive function. All he knows, all he is even aware exists, is assigning blame, and clutching at money in response.
Michael Barone wrote somewhere that the American people do not want the President to be a nice man. They want him to aggressively use the powers of his office to secure their well being.
Mr. Obama, faced with his first serious test, has shown himself to be a miserable failure on that score.
I knew he’d be bad. I had no idea how bad.
We can do better.
Your observation assumes Obama wants to stop the spill, remove the oil from the water, and protect the beaches and wild life. Obama’s every action, his every speech, shows that
1. He wants to shut down off-shore drilling
2. He wants to eliminate vehicles that run on gasoline or diesel
3. He wants to stop using coal or gas
He ia using the spill to advance this plan. The spill is a very simple thing to eliminate. Lots of companies have expertise in removing oil slicks and protecting beaches. Bur he has driven them away or bogged them down in paperwork.
He is using his magnificent oratory to convince people that a ctastrophe of Biblical proportions has occurred. He pretends helplessness in the face of the spill but his every action is calculated to prevent any effective action to stop the spread of the oil.
For example. He has promised to criminally prosecute BP employees as soon as they stop the leak and remove the spill. Can anyone believe that this promise will make BP employees get quick results?
Well, he proved one thing. Absolutely anyone can become President.
“We can do better”. Really? That’s three Presidents in a row who are just perpetual adolescents. Y’all made a horrible mistake when you failed to re-elect Bush the Elder. Warts and all, he was a grown-up.
I like the proposal that oil on the surface be burned off. Improves the analogy to the Reichstag Fire.
@ Dearieme
Is this, like, some Boomer versus older generations thing? The last generation of grown-ups versus the perpetual adolescents? (I never much like that pop culture stuff, it’s most likely highly inaccurate, but I couldn’t help thinking of the generational thing.)
Even by the mediocre standards of the past two presidents, don’t you think this President is awfully awful? He is going to ram through so much heavy handed regulation that our best efforts in the future may not undo enough of it to regain any kind of economic dynamism. ObamaCare and Cap and Trade: all of this is serious pressure on the future of our economy! Our dear President freaks me out. Is he capable of taking in new information and changing course as need be? He seems not to be able to.
– Madhu
“Our dear President freaks me out. Is he capable of taking in new information and changing course as need be? He seems not to be able to.”
Madhu,
I am increasingly feeling the same way. When Bush W. was president, I couldn’t stand to listen to him publicly speak. I found his style to be grating and almost embarrassing.
After President Obama’s address to the nation the other night, I told a friend of mine that I will probably with hold from watching him speak for a while. The reason being the he is starting to freak me out. His dogged adherence to his legislative agenda despite all outside resistance is bad enough. In fact, despite the fact that I hate that agenda, it’s not beside the point.
It is now clear that he is completely unprepared to deal with the crazy variable events that confront a President both foreign and domestic. I didn’t see an executive in the oval office speech.
What’s worse, we face the possibility of war in either the Levant or Korea, perhaps even this summer. I don’t think he’s up to dealing with such a dynamic situation.
And we have two more years of his on the job training to suffer through (with Joe Biden to act as the voice of experience). I can only hope that the congressional elections this fall go against him and lead to a purge of some of the more radical elements in the White House and perhaps brings in some more statesmen.
“… he is starting to freak me out.”
I have never been able to listen to him without alarm. The whole messiah thing freaked me out, way back when he was running against Hillary. I stopped listening, and I look at the text online if he says something supposedly important. That is enough to give you nightmares, all by itself.
To be fair, I did the same thing to Mr. Bush after his second inaugural speech, which was so insanely detached from reality it was hair-raising. My response when he finished was “can I give the Republican response to that?” I could not bear the sound of his voice after that.
What would I give to have a resurrected Dwight D. Eisenhower be president for the next six years?