Beam me to Planet Gore !
Posted on 06/16/2010 5:30:35 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
To the left, the oil spill is not an index of presidential competence or an issue in the political sphere. It is a daily gushing of poison into the Earth’s waters as a direct result of the president’s failure to stop it. They blame BP. But they already hate oil companies. And they blame Obama, too. And they are coming to dislike him.
When Obama attempts to recoup this damage to his political base by pushing new legislation on the environment or by resurrecting his cap and trade legislation or by bringing criminal charges against BP or by setting up a liability fund for the spill’s victims, it does not solve his political problem. With each day, 60,000 gallons gush into the Gulf, Obama’s equivalent of the body count in Iraq that caused the left to loathe George W. Bush. Rhetoric or programs or visits to the Gulf or posturing won’t assuage the negatives. Only plugging the hole in the bottom of the ocean can do it.
The right and center of American politics turned off Obama over health care. And now the left is leaving him over the oil spill.
Why can’t Obama plug the hole?
Because he has no administrative experience. I often saw Bill Clinton, as governor and as president, call in experts and ask the tough questions when he faced a new disaster. In Arkansas, it was tornadoes or floods or fires. In Washington, it was Oklahoma City. But, each time, he thoroughly familiarized himself with all the technical issues. He took a bath in the science and substance of the hazard and became as knowledgeable as those who had spent a lifetime studying it. So he knew what questions to ask.
Any CEO or COO or manager has similar experience. But a community organizer, law professor, state senator, US Senator, and president doesn’t have the requisite experience. He doesn’t know not to trust his own bureaucracy. He hasn’t been burned enough to realize that he needs to intervene to waive restrictions, set aside regulations, and open up the process to new solutions. He’s like JFK during the Bay of Pigs. He doesn’t know how to avoid being betrayed by his own bureaucracy and the industry it’s supposed to regulate.
Why did he not waive the Jones Act (he still hasn’t) to allow foreign vessels to ply our waters to clean up the spill? Not because he was against it. He couldn’t have been against so obvious a course as waiving it. It was likely because nobody told him about it and he never knew to ask.
Why did he let the bureaucracy use only US contractors to dredge the Gulf and build the berms that Louisiana wanted? Why did he spurn the offer of Dutch assistance (half the country has been dredged from the sea and is below sea level)? Not because he wanted the jobs to go to Americans. That would have been an insane consideration in the face of this crisis. it is probably because he never realized that our capacity for dredging needed augmentation. Because he never asked.
To the right and the center, these failings show that Obama is in over his head. But to the left, which bleeds for each drop of water in the Gulf and cries over every turtle or shrimp or sea bird, it is an unpardonable sin.
It is the nature of things that presidential mistakes metastasize into presidential character flaws. Bush’s inaction over Katrina comes across as insensitivity. Now Obama’s incompetence and inexperience is causing liberals to see him as arrogant, aloof, removed, conceited, suspicious of outside advice, and even lazy. Long after the oil has stopped spilling, these supposed character defects will haunt the president, just as Carter’s reputation of timidity and inability lasted long after the Iran hostages came home. These defects will last until 2012 and beyond.
I agree with Boardwalk -- the media did pick our candidate.
First of all, it had us all panicked into thinking, "Whoever can beat Hillary!" And that held on to the very end; Obama came out of the blue. But after having so many very big-government politicians on the Republican side, the center had shifted so far left that Obama was possible.
Second, the MSM did, and still does, manufacture the perceived popularity of candidates. The very truth that so many liberals win by vote fraud (Al Franken, anyone?) is proof enough that the popularity level is illusion. Democrats and liberals have to cheat to win because if they didn't, they'd lose because most voters would reject their guy.
Third, even purported conservative-friendly Fox snubbed Thompson, plain and simple. I lost all respect for Britt Hume. Thompson accomplished on a small budget and a fraction of the time frame of his opponents, to place equal to Romney; I remember in one state he beat Romney! He was right on his tail, and was the only candidate Rush Limbaugh identified, and I quote, as "the one conservative on the stage." If you watched the debate, you saw that he was the only candidate to buck the environmentalist global warming hooey, the THIRD RAIL.
People, I mean to tell you, no matter WHO the candidate ... that was newsworthy.
Yet nary a flicker of interest from Britt. Thompson was, to them, the invisible candidate. I like Fox, but I don't trust it any more than I trust the other MSM corporate-thinks.
It was disgusting. My contempt for the lack of honor in news reporting runs deep.
Thompson did not have the energy to run.
The media wasn’t the cause of that.
He was drafted to run because he didn’t really want it, and to win a nomination or a election you have to really want it.
Fred had the right stance on the issues, but it takes more than that. He didn’t have it.
Also the Wednesday, 6/16/2010 Speech after the BP Meeting ...
However, if Obama is a possible, but not sure-thing, candidate for the 'Rat nomination, it will be great fun to watch liberal heads spin as they try to decide to stay 'Rats and protect Obama, or re-register as republicans to throw the 'Pub nomination to Palin, who they believe could not possibly win the general.
Hillary vieing for the nomination could only make it more entertaining!
Do they sell popcorn futures? LOL
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FWIW, I’ve also got both those images set up as actual bumper stickers over here: http://www.zazzle.com/birds_died_bumper_sticker-128074832290588010?gl=oceander
and here: http://www.zazzle.com/dead_dolphins_bumper_sticker-128183993491236883?gl=oceander
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