The Press and Obama: Where’s that Lovin’ Feeling?
It began, as many love affairs do, with infatuation. The MSM fancies itself to be a cynical watchdog, speaking truth to power and capable of toppling the mighty. But when self-described cynics fall in love, they can fall pretty hard.
That’s the way the press fell for Obama, complete with unaccustomed leg thrills and oohing and ahhing over his perfectly creased pants. He was an ultra-liberal dream come true, the one they had been waiting for.
But that was then; this is now. Obama has been president for a bit less than a year and a half, and during that time he’s increasingly treated the press with the callous disregard and outright contempt displayed by those who are so certain they are loved by a worshful underling that they fear neither abandonment nor loss of affection.
As Linda Feldmann writes in the Christian Science Monitor:
…[I]t’s not just the infrequency of hour-long press conferences (six since taking office, including just four during prime-time). Obama has had far fewer short question-and-answer sessions with the press pool than did his two immediate predecessors: only 53 in his first 15 months in office, versus 176 for President Bush and 312 for President Clinton, says Martha Joynt Kumar, a political scientist at Towson University in Towson, Md.
It’s a classic pursuer-distancer dynamic: as the distancer in the love affair plays hard to get, it only increases that person’s perceived desirability in the eyes of the smitten pursuer — for a while, anyway. As Obama continued to distance himself, the press courted his favors, dutifully blamed Bush for bequeathing him “inherited” problems, gave him advice on how to fix things and credit for a bipartisanship he never demonstrated, applauded his big-government goals, admired his pugnacious attacks on the opposition, winked at his hypocrisies as being necessary for strategic reasons, and denied or ignored his lies.
But something has changed lately. Many of Obama’s supporters in the press have become increasingly perturbed as they have come to sense that there is something “off” about the man.
Some of this reaction in the press may be the bubbling up of resentment at having been treated so badly. But there appears to be more than that going on: disappointment and bitterness and even embarrassment are starting to set in, much of it coalescing around Obama’s performance regarding the oil spill. This particular event has presented the left with a highly visible crisis concerning an issue that means a great deal to them — energy and the environment — and on which Obama was supposed to lead in a manner completely different from his predecessor Bush.
Did I say “lead”? That’s exactly what Obama has not done, and the left and the press are shocked and stunned.
It has been especially difficult to pin this disaster on Bush, although there have been half-hearted efforts in that direction (and there’s always bad guy BP to blame). But even the left and Obama’s supporters in the press seem to realize that Obama has come to own the oil spill, and that there has been something really, really wrong with his reaction to it.
That “something” is hard to describe. But it is more character than policy-driven, and more of an absence than a presence. Obama’s supporters were always attracted more to personality traits they saw (or imagined) in Obama than in his actions or his thin resume. And now it is once again personality traits that are the main focus, although this time as a problem: Obama is seen as strangely passive and passionless, tongue-tied and stalled.
How bad an executive and leader Obama has shown himself to be has genuinely surprised the left and the MSM, although neither failing should have been a surprise at all. But as a result the press is now caught in a trap of its own making — one that, strangely enough, Obama foresaw and described.
In The Audacity of Hope, Obama made a famous comment likening himself to a blank screen on which people projected their views, and added that therefore, he was bound to ultimately disappoint many of them. He attributed this blankness to his newness on the political scene, but others have attributed it to his seemingly deliberate vagueness; a phenomenon that encouraged people to imagine him to be whatever they wanted.
The press cooperated by projecting mightily, just as Obama intuited they would, envisioning him as a president who would not only right the wrongs of Bush, but do it with style and flair and incisive intelligence and efficiency. And now, if they criticize Obama, they must eat their previous words, as well risk banishment from what little press access they have, and ostracism from the cozy club of the like minded.
But there may be no turning back for the press. Rhetoric and promise can only take a president so far. Events happen, and they must be dealt with.
David Broder of the Washington Post gets it, comparing Obama’s performance during the oil spill not to the obvious analogy, Bush and Katrina, but to an event even more distant in time and space: Carter and the Iran hostage crisis, which Broder calls a “demonstration of monumental futility and incompetence.” As for the oil spill, although Broder refuses to condemn Obama, he admits that now he “owns” the oil spill and must suffer the consequences.
Broder understands what was the final straw for Carter’s popularity and his reputation. The Iranian hostage crisis precipitated and crystallized a public perception of almost endless failure and impotence on the part of the chief executive. That is what Obama risks now, and that is what the left is understandably tense and troubled about.
Broder writes of Carter:
The chart talks demonstrating that we had figured out where the hostages were being held didn’t do Carter a lick of good when voters were aching to see the captives walk into their families’ arms.
And now, as the oil gushes from a pipe near the ocean floor and oozes onto the beaches of the Gulf, and coats the feathers of the birds of the sea, voters are aching to see Obama either work some sort of leadership and live up to a portion of his hype, or at the very least to ache with them. The indisputable fact that he has failed to do either represents a moment of truth for those who believed in him, and did so visibly and in print.
Never let a crisis go to waste, and the catastrophic crisis of Obama’s ascent to the presidency must now be used as a weapon against those in the press who helped elevate him. The words that these pond scum used must now be wielded as weapons to slice and stab at the Dowds and the Brookses and the Sullivans and the Chris Matthewses until they’re ripped to ribbons and thrown from their perches of privilege. The havoc that Obama has wrought and will continue to wreak must be slung around their necks until they bow and stumble under the crushing weight of their betrayal of the American People. Ther can be no penance for the damage they have caused.
amen
Morton, give credit where credit is do. The public could see the same things we saw, delusions of grandeur, a rooster of associates right out of cheap noir flick, no experience, and an understanding of world politics compatible to a naive twelve year old’s, but for some reason the public choose to vote on the basis of American Idol criteria. The press supplied a demand for fantasy abilities, but they tried the same thing in every election since at least 1960 and usually lost. The big difference is that previously all the candidates had better resumes than Obama. The main guilty party here is not the press but an immature electorate. Easy times must have bred soft heads, I can think of no other explanation.
Sir, you are absolutely correct. The corrupted press betrayed this country as surely as the poser they promoted has. Disgrace isn’t punishment enough I personally yearn for banishment to Cuba. Let them live with the liberal socialist ideals they’ve tried to foist on the U.S. I’m sure Castro would welcome them with open arms and a shack to live in.
Obama is apparently rejecting oil spill help in order to kowtow to unions:
http://hotair.com/greenroom/archives/2010/06/12/what-is-the-jones-act-and-why-wont-obama-waive-it/
Better to kill the environment than to offend organized labor.
Interesting, thanks for this link. I suspect he is also hoping this incident will be big enough to kill offshore drilling, the way Three Mile Island put an end to new nuclear power plants.
Spot on, David…
the PUSH for crap’n'tax is HOT on the heels of the Gulf crisis… after all its not a ‘crisis’ unless it helps the O-regime push some backasswards policy, eh?
WindMILLS and GREEN technology PUSH is NEXT… because AGW LIVES! Forget your cars… as America slowly grinds to a halt.
Literally…
Is anybody still interested in Three Mile Island and the “incident”. In which nobody died, NOR were numbers of innocents genetically damaged, NOR were innumerable children damaged/burnt from fall -out, NOR in which the environment for MILES AND MILES around wsa radiactively polluted for who knows how long, nor which was an ACCIDENT. That horrendous episode from the USA government as a deliberate test of their power to destroy at will. Made into a movie starring that exemplar of Love during the Vietnam War and her active support of the “enemy”? That beloved actress Jane Fonda. WHEN ARE WE TO EXPECT A MOVIE FROM HER AND MICHAEL DOUGLAS, i.e. Hollywood on that minor, forgettable “incident” called Chernobyl, from which ALL of the above results obtained for other people?
subject of a film starring that actress
who had earlier made a name for herself for political support of the “enemy” during the Vietman War. Seems tho that she was tired of political comment in the guise of “entertainment” because we have seen NO FILM STARRING JANE FONDA ABOUT THE CHERNOBYL INCIDENT. hcnapion of the Ameri
Cancel all your print subscriptions. If you can tolerate it, cancel your cable as well or at least stop watching network “news.” If you do this until the next election is over, not only will you save a substantial sum, you will hurt the propaganda press where it really hurts – their wallet. Turnabout is fair play – they have helped your wallet shrink and it’s time to pay them back.
For icing on the cake, send your savings to a conservative candidate in ANY state willing to put them on the Nov. ballot. Join a Tea Party Patriot group.
EZ2,
Can I shout out a big amen?! This is exactly what I have done. I have given more money to conservative candidates than ever before and it is June, not October. I stopped reading the Boston Globe two years ago, very tough to do because of it’s sports section. Stopped watching the old networks 6 years ago, except for sports. No more NPR which I stopped about 10 years ago.
I also have joined The Heritage Foundation and The Club for Growth.
Samizdat – are you the famous blogger? I appreciate your comments and laud your actions. Based on your comments, we may be channeling each other – i.e. Heritage Foundation; Club for Growth.
The camaraderie I felt in DC for the first 9/12 project about a year ago was phenomenal. The left is about to experience a surge of true patriotism this coming November that will absolutely and forever change politics in America; for the better. I feel honored to be in such company as you.
EZ2
I don’t think you would confuse me with anyone famous, though I do like to comment on a variety of topics and it sounds like there is a political affinity between the two of us.
Keep up the fight, we have a long way to November 2nd. I have never seen otherwise apolitical people I know so angry. If we keep funding and keep holding the lefties accountable, independents are going to step all over them in the midterms. I hope they are stupid enough to pass bailouts, Cap and Tax, and amnesty before November. Tax payers are going to be on the warpath even more so than now.
Don’t forget that a cornered animal is at its most dangerous and is unlikely to go quietly.
Dear Dr. Bones,
So. The pajamatarian e-gutter is not, after all, sunk below shame. Not altogether. Not as long as a single PJ neocomradlin’ or neocomradess or neocomrade hesitates to disclose its/her/his day name.
If the KSM be doin’ as well as movement kiddie selfservatives have been makin’ out lately, I have trouble imagining what the N-NC mechanism can be afraid of. Still, there may be special circumstances: perhaps it is a mole at the DNC or Media Matters?
Under the circumstances, and given the announced topic, ’tis no wonder that the quiddity of the mechanism’s neo-neotericity does not emerge. Actually, this is one of those scribbles that makes one wonder how even the KSM kiddies themselves can tell one KS from the next — after the supposed fashion of the heathen Chinee, don’t you know?
The announced topic would allow a genuine destructive creationist to do some bridge-burnin’ and idol-smashin’. How if this scribbler had decided to PRAISE those lamebrain mediums, now that their Perot cards and AstroTurf™ leaves and crystal balls have started having reservations about Absolutely The Greatest POTUS Since George XLIII?
But no, I guess not. Wally Wombschool and Cindy from Wasilla would probably not cotton to that plan much, it is likely to do no more than confuse them. Their faction’s enemies — ALL their factional enemies, every last name on Rupert’s List! — must be wrong even when they right, as it were; otherwise the kiddies may misremember which team to cheer for, and who could want that to happen? Cruelty to sweet puppies, to wish such a thing! Even just to envision it!!
The neoneonoisemaker does not much run to Persian apparatus like crystal balls itself, you’ll notice: where would ‘we’ be, and what would come next, if it were really the case that Citizen Broder and (say) Neocomradess Ann, Kiddiedame Coulter, entirely agree that Barry O. is a perfectly insufferable ratfink?
Rather a fun question, that one. Suppose that stout Master Wally and pretty little Miss Cindy simply can not tell the difference between the ‘news’ from Foxcuckooland and the news from CNN (&c.) Imagine that all of the pictures the Picture People regale themselves with nightly squatting on their potatoes and/or couches are equally balanced and fair and make no effort to hide the fact that President Summers and Mr. O’Bama and Jimmy Crater and Benedict Arnold are soulmates, give or take James Buchanan and Attila the Hun and maybe even the Edsel. What would come next after that?
Predictions about the nonfuture are not in fact much easier than the other kind, but my guess is that we would be present at an interesting experiment in Soc. Sci., an acid test of so-called ‘branding’? Ex hypothesi, the only thing different about the Ailesian TV news product would be that it is labelled “Product of Foxcuckooland” rather than “Made in China.” How long would Wally and Cindy keep on cheerin’ and hisssin’ the way they cheer and hisss at present?
It occurs to me that some smart-ass social-scientiser may have tried it already. It would be easy enough to fill up cans or bottles labelled ‘Coca-Cola’ or ‘Pepsi-Cola’ with the local supermarket’s generic carbonated mouthwash and then check how many avowed Cocaholics and militant Pepsiphiles can tell the difference when there isn’t any difference to tell. (This, too, is not a nice trick to play on sweet puppies, but then social-scientisers are, perhaps, not really very nice puppiemasters? Bicycle-challenged perfessers they tend to be, after all, ….)
To predict even the occurence of such an experiment is rash, and naturally to predict its outcome is even rasher, even though none of it is going to happen anyway. Still, I betcha Wally, an’ Cindy, an’ Rio Limbaugh generally, would score better than the National Psocialist Radio crowd, assuming that ‘better’ is defined as “exhibiting more residual loyalty to the now meaningless brand name.” [1]
Over at NPR, I guess the same results would be interpreted quite differently, with ‘residual’ glossed by or replaced with some less gentle and more unkind phrase perhaps involving the word ‘inertia’. And everybody knows how bitterly Psocialists despise loyalty! (Almost as bitterly as the AstroTurf™baggin’ Community despise solidarity, don’t you know?)
But Talcott Parsons knows best.
And I wish you, sir,
Happy days through affordable healthcare.
You’ve forgotten to take your meds again, haven’t you?
He has taken his meds….LSD ER
He has taken his meds…LSD ER
Whoops! Oh well, it’s worth restating.
JHM: Gibberish…gibberish…gibberish. Beelzebub…Beelzebub…Beelzebub.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qndcrnOOBA
JHM,
Is that sarcasm, parody or something else? It would be far more effective if it had a thread and could be followed. You would serve your cause better if you tightened up your prose…considerably. But if it serves you, by all means goobledegook away.
Wow…while using a Screen Name, you complain that others don’t use their real names, then launch into a Clinton era Agenda, called, “The Disrupters.”
I thought all you guys were dead now, killed off, but, it’s only logical that hidden, super secret Offices (that I penetrated) would slither through the Bureaucracy, and, surface again when the climate was ripe (as in oderous), spewing nonsense and circular logic twisted into spheres.
Ciao, have fun, but, be aware that I’ll be watching…because you sound vaguely like that NASA-bred Disrupter/Destructer, James Oberg.
Such unintelligible, bombastic garbage can only have been written by an academic. Are you nperhaps Dear Leader’s speech writer?
A perfect example of who so many bloggers don’t allow comments. Shame really…
One of the effects from the main stream media’s deliberate avoidance of certain subjects and events is that the majority has come to believe that there are many important things we’re not being told. So media silence about Obama’s ineptitude and crassness plays into the suspicion that, while the nation’s economy slowly crumbles, its foreign relations deteriorate, its enemies wax in power and its beaches get icky, Obama is busy with a hidden agenda.
What would that agenda be? It’s hard to say with complete assurance; the inferences we might draw from his actions to date are all unpleasant. But what matters most is the public’s unease about him. That could develop into something truly nasty.
Consider: Two sources have reported the Egyptian Foreign Minister’s claim that Obama told him that he (Obama) is a Muslim who “supports the Muslim agenda.” Is this true? It seems dubious, since Obama did attend a kinda-sorta Christian church for two decades. No such report has yet appeared in any conventional organ of the press. But if this claim is given wide dissemination, a lot of people will believe it because the MSM has said nothing about it. That’s the effect of a widespread belief that we’re being deceived by omission.
And given the low estate to which “journalism” has fallen these past few decades, there isn’t a thing anyone can do about it.
Something ”off” about Obama? That’s hilarious, masterful understatement.
I wouldnt stress too much. I feel it is still there. yes the media has finally actually started being critical of obama, but no where near what they should or even close to what they did to bush(or any other pres for that matter). They are still pursuing their far left socialist adgenda, they are just upset ant obama, not for his adgenda which is far left, but for not forcing it on america fast enough. As soon as Obama raises taxes or makes another attempt to destroy capitalism, or subvert that pesky constitution, ole chrissy matthews will get his ‘tingles’ back
The press lost what little cred they had left by campaigning for the guy. I mean, they purposefully derailed Hillary’s all but certain nomination and pushed Obama in. Anybody paying attention saw that. Now they’re stuck with him. Good.
But so are we.
Are we really stuck with Hillary / Obama-Lite. Since the establishment Media have lied again again and again, by commission AND omission, AND open attacks on those who QUESTION the accuracy of their reports, why should they and those “stars” of that machine be given the benefit of doubt. Remember: fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
Hillary is Obama-lite, for sure. We are very fortunate that we have her on video bragging at the primary debates that she considers herself a “modern progressive”. Fine. Except now we know the damage progressives / liberals can and will do to the country. In case the DNC kicks BO to the curb in 2012 and puts Hillary out there, we can make sure that video runs a 24/7 loop to stop her.
Morton Doodslag has it exactly right: out Alinsky the Alinskyites. And one of the best ways to do what sage Morton suggests is to stop referring to Cap’n Kickass as OBAMA and start calling him OILBAMA always. The gooey crude is now inextricably stuck to Cap’n Kickass and the linguistic manifestation of this fact is captured perfectly in OIL+BAMA.
As the Great One would say, “learn it, live it, love it!”
Like a jilted lover who has been lied to, the Mainstream Media is finally realizing they backed a guy with absolutely NO executive experience, a guy who has run NOTHING in his entire life (not a town, a city, a state, or even a large and successful corporation). They are waking up the next morning after having had sex with the guy and now are really, really, regretting it.
Now they have to live with the fact that they have a President they helped get elected who doesn’t have a clue on how to run the largest and most complicated economy in the world. The only thing this man has run has been political campaigns and nothing else. He also isn’t that sharp when it comes to foreign policy (Iran or North Korea, anyone?), or dealing with a crisis (try the oil gusher for starters, and work your way up to dealing with terrorism). And don’t think conservative radio and TV show hosts are not going to replay the press’ slobbering wet kisses it gave to Obama again and again, especially when we survey the disaster of his presidency in 2012.
But what disturbs me most is that the Mainstream Media, what’s left of it, is supposed to look after the public’s interests, NOT be a partisan political supporter for any candidate, whichever party they belong to. Where was the same cynicism and bitter bile that the Mainstream Media showed constantly against George W. Bush throughout his presidency? Nope, there was nothing but constant adoration on their part for Mr. Obama, and now they’re stuck with it. Deal with it, people. No wonder your ratings are cratering, nobody is buying your newspapers, and magazines like Time or Newsweek will probably be out of business next year. You became partisan hacks for the liberal left by openly supporting this guy and now your reputation as “objective” journalists is in tatters. What a shame.
So, how’s that Hope and Change working out for you now?
Libertyship,
I have never bought the self important, supposed virtue, that the media is supposed to support the public interest. What the hell is that? Does it include the selling out of our own soldiers as they fight in combat as the NYT did 10 days ago when it trumpeted an increased rythm of special operations actions in the middle east? Just one example.
Each outlet ought to be doing a fair job of making a return for it’s share holders.
Given the rate of rapidly shrinking revenue for the likes of the NYT, Newsweek, ABC, NBC etc., how are they doing?
Not news, or new. Check out print and TV reports on the Vietnam War from the establishment networks — yes that far back. The history is already written, but give it a try and maybe, just maybe, you’ll arrive at different conclusions from those fed to you by establishment Meda. That’s when it began in earnest. And then remember that the Vietnam War was started and developed by “Democratic” Presidents, (WHY WAS THE US IN THAT WAR?) but it was a Republican President who carried the can. Then consider that a cabal of journalists, politicians, students, priests, professosrs, WORLDWIDE, TV and Hollywood stars were already trashing the US and her military. AND shattering the cohesiveness of American Society by censorship, calling it political correctness. Ordinary citizens were afraid to say what they really meant in public, or sometimes even with trusted friends. Having succeeded with that ploy they escalated their attacks by laws, ACLU the driving force, and language changes to effect their subversion of the American nation. And now, of course, they celebrate their triumph in the “election” of the present incumbents in Congress and the Executive Office.For a very long time – decades – the establishment Media have been handmaidens for the Change now being instituted. The ONLY REASON they have been found out is the INTERNET. NOT controlled by them. Citizens are no longer dependent on fraudulent and dishonest information media, from a limited “private club” of elites.. They now have new media, open and respectful of citizens’ input.
Media with ground rules essentially American in the freedom of expression emphasised. Then consider the history of the 20th century. The “Democrats” have been the party of Change. AND NOT ALWAYS FOR THE BENEFIT OF AMERICANS AND THE NATION. ( Republicans are not guilt-free in that many went along to get along…)
The best thing a real leader and good judge of men and women can do is surround himself with capable, experienced managers — a deep and effective bench. Bush was actually good at it. Obama? The Keystone Kops had a deeper bench of effective operatives than this guy. Like attracts like, though. Not good when the Esteemed One is as robotic in a crisis as Obama has proven to be, and his back up team is just as feckless, clueless and useless.
The MFM is like a battered wife. No matter how much Obama beats up on them, they will still slavishly stay loyal to him, even if Hillary challenges him in 2012.
Hillary, yuck!
Let’s all try to find a better candidate than Hillary for the 2012 election. She is an absolute snake. I believe nothing that horrible woman says.
After Obama, we simply must get a decent President who can restore the damage Obama is doing to the nation.
Women are trending right. Hillary’s time, if she ever had one, is over. Her tenure as Secretary of State, marked by her parroting of Obama’s brief, will bode her no good either.
Plus Hillary doomed her possibilities for future Oval Office occupancy by bragging at the primary debates that she’s a “modern progressive”. We’ll remember that from now on, no matter what she runs for. We now are very familiar with what a “progressive” is and what they do to the country.
The MSM has yet to figure out that the President emoting about the oil spill removes not one drop of oil from the Gulf. One would hope they have figured out that his lack of leadership has exacerbated the effect of the spill. His only response is “BP is bad, BP is going to pay.” Let’s hope the MSM totally figures this guy out.
You forgot the lawyers. Eric Holder and the lawyers. A real solution to cleaning up oil (sarc). Legal blackmail worked for Acorn and Obama to make banks loan to those who couldn’t afford housing, but it WON’T work here.
Matter of fact, blackmail doesn’t work in most situations, and certainly not from the highest office in the country.
reminds me of a song by the Canadian rock group The Northern Pikes: “She Ain’t Pretty She Just Looks THat Way”
The Obama presidency: interesting experiment, didn’t pan out.
If it was an experiment it failed miserably, but the only good point is is that it can be shown as a bad example of what a president should be, and not to repeat such an experiment…EVER!
What Morton Doodslag writes seems a very likely future. One by one, people will become angry and all the fires of hell will turn on those who pulled Obama into the White House. Everyone will try to disown it: even Obama himself will probably say that he didn’t really think he would actually win. Hopenchange will quickly go down the memory hole and the leg tinglees will desperately put it all behind them.
…and all the fires of hell will turn on those who pulled Obama into the White House.
Sounds like Paradise.
Reminded me of a Memphis,TN newspaper report,?18 years ago about a man,entered several women’s bedroom’s,when asked ‘who are you?’he said ‘I’m whoever you want me to be’.Individually these women never spoke further,never brought this to the polices’ attention.Until,finally,somehow,one women related it to another..and it came out.
But..for whatever reason none ever pressed charges.
I never saw what the “cult of Obama” saw in him, how easily they swooned over the “new guy” and convinced themselves he was the big story that would make their careers. Perhaps because of his blankness they could embellish him with their own dreams of glory. To others of us he was always the guy who liked to hear himself talk a little too much and did that because he had not done anything, he had not created anything.
There are many ways the press can acquit themselves, vet him. Figure out how he deceived you and who he really is. Let’s assume he was born in Hawaii as he has said, how did he develop such anti-American values and attitudes? Why the secrecy about his birth certificate, is a father not listed? What names did he use throughout his college career(s), did he accept financial aid as a foreign student and did he travel on a passport issued by a government other than the USA? Who really financed his campaign and did his team really bus in thousands to caucuses across the country? Did he know about the Edwards scandal and how did it advantage him to remain silent?
The author is exactly right that Obama has been playing hard to get in order to generate interest and yet he has been over exposed, when he thinks he can control the encounter. The press developed a crush on this guy in early 2008 and did not do their homework, they did not check sources and they suspended their important role to compete for Fan Club President. There is still time for them to recover, which is more than I can say for the current Prez.
Whoa. Heavy, but truth. It’s going to be an exciting 2 1/2 years with this poser at the helm, and an awakening in the media.
If Bush had been in charge — or any Republican for that matter — he likely would have invaded Mexico and set the Gulf on fire with a nuke, with your so called MSM completely cowed into asking no more than besides-the-point and timid questions on Sunday morning talk shows. Sort of along the lines with what happened with the Iraq invasion.
Way to go BC! Bush has been out of office for 18 months. Is that all you have?
Face facts. Even Rolling Stone thinks Obama is incompetent. Even Dowd is abandoning him.
I don’t blame Obama for the explosion even though MMS didn’t do proper inspections of the Deep Water Horizon. His inability to contain the spill is where his fecklessness is exposed. His Coast Guard and FEMA can’t accept cleaning equipment and skimmers from the Dutch because he won’t waive federal law as Bush did. A Maine company, Pakgen, diverts production to make excess boom and tells Obama and the Coast Guard they have it ready to go. The government never contacts the company. A damn google search would have revealed their manufacturing capability. Governor Jindal asks to build sand berms as barriers. It takes the AC of E 6 weeks to finally say yes. Obama could have had yes out of his mouth in less than a week if he had any real leadership skills.
Keep up your juvenile defense of President Sniffles and keep dumping on Bush, you won’t know what hit you in November.
This guy has all the characteristics of a one term executive. The big question is will the country survive without huge further damage before he is out?
Pakgen is probably non-union.
I have one serious problem with that scenario: Tsunami.
Think about it, the entire Caribbean wiped out, everything from New Jersey, south, a denuded, waterlogged wasteland all the way to Venezuela, Aruba and Trinidad sunk beneath the sea.
I would hope that somebody, anybody, with their finger on “the Trigger” would have sense enough to re-target that Nuke to DC, before punching the button.
Tsunami?
Sorry Gordon, but a little history lesson may be in order here.
During the ’40′s and 50′s when there were many nuclear bomb tests in the Pacific (including subsurface detonations), the one thing that NEVER occurred was a tsunami.
Nice try at inciting panic though.
Well, I don’t remember any sub-sea Tests in the Pacific, but, I’ll take your word for it.
Arghh! I hate getting old, I’m sitting here trying to remember the name of the WWII Pilot that dropped the Bomb on one of the Atolls following the War…also developed the techniques used by Night Fighters in the Italian Theater (first Night Fighter Ace, P38 Lightning), and, the UN Chief Pilot taken captive by Patrice Lumumba in the Congo (delivering Food and Aid Supplies). I worked with him in Saudi Arabia in 1979/80, our Safety Man, and, he introduced me to another WW II Ace, the day after we met (also working in Saudi). Arghhh…I’ll think of it in a couple of…ah, Charley Bartel.
He told me a lot of things about the A-Bomb tests, but, never mentioned underwater tests. It’s not something I’ve studied.
Mentally, I was comparing them to ancient Meteorite strikes in the Ocean, worldwide.
The meteorite that killed the dinosaurs had several billion times more energy than even the largest nuke.
Even small meteroites have millions of times as much energy.
Gordon,
I didn’t mean to offend you, but I’m a big proponent of nuclear energy, and I just saw red with the tsunami comment.
You might like to check the internet re use of nukes in construction and demolition. It’s surprising what was done before the test ban treaty
Bush had 8 years, and never once even talked about invading Mexico. Outside your paranoid imagination, what makes you think he’d want to do so now.
Burning off the oil is what all of the emergency plans called for. Lighting it with a nuke wouldn’t be very efficient as the shockwave would probably extinguish any fires started.
Do you have anything intelligent you want to add to the discussion, or is ranting about Bush the best you can do?
Nemesis has finally arrived on the field of battle, and she is ravenous. She will feed on the flesh of the fallen. Did the good professor Hanson not predict this would happen? The blank slate is slowly being erased and rewritten. History always gets the last say, and it will not be kind to our narcissist in chief.
“The blank slate is slowly being erased and rewritten.”
Unfortunately, it is frantically being erased, and, the rewriting of the rewriting will take Centuries as the world slowly recovers.
Dealing with the BP oil rig crisis is above his pay grade.
The spell is broken. The work begins.
Empty Suit before the election, Empty Suit after. And I’m with Morton Doodslag above: I’d like to see the entire rotting edifice of the MSM and the liberal establishment crash and crumble into dust.
Obama: Alien or Incompetent. Krauthammer vs. Rabinowitz. addresses this issue. People are beginning to wonder if he’s totally out of his depth or if these “failures” are deliberate. While oil gushes into the Gulf, Obama’s primary response seems to be passing “cap and trade” as the answer. Meanwhile the MFM are telling him he has to emote for the cameras. Does this strike anyone else as odd or misdirected?
Thanks for the link to your Article on “The Virginian.” Absolutely brilliant, and, spot on, but, I disagree with your final comment that he “may not be a Manchurian Candidate.” The only flaw in that, is in supposing that he is sponsored by foreign governments, instead, he is a Manchurian Candidate supported by a cabal of mega-rich Industrialists, led by George Soros, that fund all of Obama’s mentors.
Addendum:
…and, all the organizations that banded together to trundle a Trojan Horse into the Oval Office.
Neo,
As you point out, there is no surprise here. Like NOW, the NAACP and labor unions, the mainstream media has becomne nothing more than an arm of the Democrat party. While I believe that you are correct about their unrequited love, I don’t think that their criticism is the beginning of any trend. Considering the extent of Obama’s failure in so many arenas and the criticism from the MSM is still relatively mild (how many times have we seen someone mention “If the Bush Administration had . . . .”). I believe that the MSM have so much invested in the Obama charade that they will revert to true reverential form at the slightest positive provocation.
Obama is a malignant narcissist, a psychological state that he probably retreated into as a young boy. This means that he moved out of contact with the real world and into a virtual world where he alone ‘writes’ what is happening, he controls what is happening, he controls all interactions with him.
If something in the ‘outside world’ occurs that Obama feels he cannot control, he will shut himself off from that event. In his virtual world, that event simply doesn’t exist. That’s exactly what he has done with the oil spill.
We can see this type of behaviour in his past, where he worked only as a community organizer, a role several degrees separated from the results of the actions of the activists. As editor of the Harvard Law Review, it was the same; he did no actual editing; he kept himself at a distance. As Senator he merely voted ‘present’.
His reaction to criticism and questions as president was at first, stunned surprise. Obama can’t handle the real world having authority and originating action – questions or events – against him. His reaction was to retreat from open press meetings, refuse open questions and appear only in prescripted selected audience meetings and interviews.
AND – to chastize and try to reduce the power of any who criticized him, in his unseemly attacks against FOX, Bech, Hannity, Limbaugh.
His reaction to the Tea Parties was to belittle and insult them. Same with the Town Halls. Americans who didn’t accept His Policies, Obama told us, did so out of ignorance, or out of greed or political/racial bias.
His need to control and dominate others led him to attempt to reduce the power of US allies by, of all things, insulting them – as he did with the UK, France, Germany. Instead of them reacting by submitting to his Higher Power, US allies began to ignore Obama – as they did in Copenhagen and Afghanistan.
His need to control others also led him to attempt to align himself with the rogue states of the Islamic nations, with him telling them essentially that he was ‘on their side’, thus suggesting that if they aligned with the US, they did so via His Majesty. They reacted by ignoring him and becoming more militant and anti-US (Iran’s nuclear weapon, Turkey’s alliance with Iran, etc).
The oil spill? Obama of course rejects its reality because, as he sees it, HE didn’t cause it, and HE has no idea what to do about it. His first impulse therefore is to deny its reality. He took weeks to react. His next is to thrust it as far from him as he can by blaming others. He then retreats to his Virtual World of rhetoric, daily words, words, words…
The fact that his duty is not to assign blame but to CLEAN IT UP simply doesn’t occur to him because he, psychologically, can’t interact with the real world. So, he ignores all the proposed strategies for clean-up, doesn’t assign funds and methods and workers to do so…and hides until it’s over.
Notice how he’s angry and whining that people shouldn’t expect him to ‘suck it up with a straw’. Notice how he’s reduced the event to its effects on him. He is unable to feel any empathy with anyone and anything in the real world. His agenda is to keep his Virtual World intact and pure.
People have been trying to explain his aloofness as ‘he’s an intellectual’. No he isn’t; he isn’t analyzing or theorizing about a thing. He’s psychologically so damaged that he cannot exist or operate in the real world. His world is comprised solely..of His Words.
Yes…a perfect example of “The ‘I’ Syndrome” (I, me, my, mine: nothing exists unless I make it so), the only known common characteristic of Serial and Mass Murderers, and, Professional Snipers (the target does not exist except as something to lay the Crosshairs on).
In Obama’s case, it also includes an unrequited “Oedipus Complex” focused on a Mother that suffered the same syndrome, along with a massive guilt complex, pushing away a son that reminded her of things she didn’t want to know.
Obama does not require nor is he worthy of such complex psychological analysis. To understand Obama please refer to Chance the Gardner with a touch of Marx. Or should we say Obama the Gardner.
Hey Obama, when you instructed your Moonbat followers to take a gun to a knife fight, to get in their faces, you failed to mention ammo. You retards have no ammo. Nor are there any instructions on how to pull the trigger. Blanks don’t do much damage anyway, not to mention we welcome an actual fight, not just hot air blowing from the teleprompter. Go ahead in the Gulf, heal the Earth, recede the waters, walk on the water to the spill and plug the damn hole.
That’s funny! Kudos to you. I think you’re absolutely correct, and this may be Obama’s fatal mistake and our saving grace.
ObamaCare was not a real crisis; it was about passing transformative legislation as part of his legacy. However, in a real crisis such as the Gulf oil disaster, Obama is paralyzed as his acts like public relations & politics will solve his ills. They will not. Obama must show his leadership now or fail just like President Carter. Like Carter, Obama has high unemployment & outrageous deficit spending caused by his own pet projects such as Porkulus & ObamaCare. I believe it is too late for Obama to lead; otherwise, he would have done so on day 1 of the Gulf oil disaster–not day 55 & counting….
Obama has sealed his own fate. Yet he will still blame President Bush, Republicans, the Tea Party, etc al for the Gulf oil disaster.
“How bad an executive and leader Obama has shown himself to be has genuinely surprised the left and the MSM, although neither failing should have been a surprise at all.”
Precisely. It was obvious to any reasoning person from the day of the Rev. Wright revelation, with only the slightest research, that this was a man of no accomplishment, no experience, no competence, and no leadership capabilities. His past was feverishly concealed. The Audacity of Hoax. The Democratic National Committee and the socialist media were complicit in a brazen scam. Their euphoria at the success of their bloodless coup was bound to end in disaster the first time he was seriously challenged. They are hoisted by their own petard. They have revealed themselves as either corrupt or stupid, or both.
Axelrod, Ayers and Soros blundered seriously in their choice of front man, and have managed to split and ruin the Democrat Party and expose the mass of print and broadcast “journalists” as servile running dogs. Marxism, in all its variants and disguises in academia and politics, is a godless faith which scorns the principles of effective management and honest governance, and inevitably destroys freedom and wrecks national economies.
There is no way the Democrats can continue to exist as coalition of rabid Socialist ideologues and constitutional traditionalist capitalists, with the former in the White House. This Administration is internally a chaotic, increasingly ineffectual, catastrophic mess
Exactly right. Obama is the front man for the radicals – Axelrod, Soros, Ayers – who want to insert statism into the US. But their choice is turning out as a disaster.
They obviously chose him for his slickness when reading a speech. Kindly note that Obama CANNOT interact in a constructive manner in an open debate, i.e., without a text. He’s ignorant and inarticulate; he shines only when he’s talking about Himself, and when he talks in generalities about the emotional future (hope and change).
And, it can’t be overlooked that they chose him for ‘race’. Obama has always relied on race as his ‘third’ strategy in manipulating and controlling people. His first tactic is his pathological lying; truth has no meaning to him; he uses words to manipulate and control YOU, not describe reality. Then, Obama’s other tactic is his constant immersion in emotional manipulation, where he’ll cajole by fear or hope. If you resist him, he’ll then accuse you of bias – political bias, ignorant bias or racial bias.
The Democratic Party is starting to implode. You have the radical statists who run Obama..rushing to insert their agenda before the electorate revolts..and the regular ‘social justice’ type of Democrat who are trying to distance themselves from Obama as fast as they can – and meanwhile, the Democratic Party leadership doesn’t know how to deal with this internal implosion.
Externally, Obama has polarized the population – by race, by ethnicity, by political filiation, by education, by wealth. And, he has, in foreign affairs, alienated American allies, weakened the role of the US in the world, and strengthened the agenda and power of its enemies.
All that – in one and a half years. Oh..and fiscally almost ruined the nation. Quite the accomplishments. Impeach him.
Gadzooks…methinks you’ve got it.
Now, where do we start…?
Impeach Obama?
If we succeed, then we get President Biden.
Impeach Biden?
If we succeed, then we get President Pelosi.
Are either of those better than the status quo or the status quo ante?
Impeachment is no solution.
ConservativeWanderer,
By the time Articles of Impeachment were brought, if that were to occur, that would be Speaker of the House Boehner who would be third in line. Colonel Klink/Deputy Fife would be second in line and would assume the presidency if the Senate convicted President Feckless. The Senate wouldn’t do it. It is filled with men and women of little intellectual capacity. Look at the legislation they pass; when was the last time any of it was remotely related to a problem facing your family? And how much do you pay in taxes?
You’re acting as though the retaking of the House is a foregone conclusion.
I am not. Overconfidence leads to mistakes; mistakes lead to failure.
I prefer not to count my poultry until they are out of the eggshell.
This would only happen if Biden were impeached before he could appoint a new VP.
All we can hope for is that the “Lame Stream Media” will also notice how inept Obama has been on everything except partying. That is a lot to ask for in this day an age.
Like whipped curs, the oddly-named mainstream media will come crawling back on bellies if the Axelrod-Emanuel machine decides O should again court rather than stiff them. No Dubya acrobatics could ever have won such a turnabout. That’s the difference.
LIKE OBAMA, THE MSM WILL NEVER EVER assume any responsibility for their selling the populace into this presidency. In their desperation to pretend the Emperor does indeed have new clothes, they will continue, in Operatic Grand Chorus style to “blame Bush”. Obama leads that chorus and they mindlessly sing along.
Meanwhile we are up to our a***s in oil spill, with booms and rigs apparently waiting to help in the clean-up, while the bureaucrats hold meetings.
And now our open and honest president has shut down the airspace over the oil spill, so that the press and the rest of us have LESS information about what is happening there. Hope the old media is happy with the monster they have created and the with the drubbings he’s been giving them on an increasingly regular basis.
He shut down the Airspace over the Gulf of Mexico?
There’s one cure for that, flood the Airspace with Planes full of Camera’s, and, let him try ordering the Air National Guard to shoot them down.
What has escaped, if it ever was in the clutches of, the POTUS is that leadership, like it or not is the mantle of POTUS as much as mini dictator. To disregard that not only impugns his character and authority, not to mention his motivations, it demonstrates contempt for the office itself and the people who have seen it in their best interests to entrust him with, rightly or wrongly. Whether or not he ever had intentions of fulfilling those expectations, as it appears to be the case, is beside the point. Almost daily the crises he sought to use to dismantle free markets, capitalism, individual freedoms and liberties seem to be having the reverse effect on his agenda and by association the president himself. The press should feel dirty after the way they have been used and the way in which they eagerly cashed in their credibility currency they believed they earned from the American people in order to be the whores of the president rather than the advocates for liberty.
AMEN to that, Morton. As Obama now owns the oil spill, the press owns Obama…and by extension, the oil spill as well.
Whether this manifest demonstration of callowness and incompetence is enough to cut through the “kultursmog” created by the MSM, the academy and popular culture in time to prevent further permanent damage remains an open question.
Morton Doodslag #1, I like the tone of your post, hadn’t thought pf the press as pond scum but rather in a tie for being the very filth of the human race, islamic murderers having the advantage of being free to kill people. Of course our journalists routinely show their preference for jihadists in various ways while reserving their venom for American Christians, conservatives, and other normal people.
Still, you are too optimistic. The filth of the media will shrug off criticism and continue to support the Dems and the America Hater in the WH. Yes, they will be damaged, and yes, their perversion will only inspire more normal people to do the right thing. But they will carry on and persist in supporting Hussien Obama. After all, they literally created this bag of crap, and could have shut him down on just the Rev. Wright, black racist, and terrorist Bill Ayers associations.
Of course none of this, or Hussiens associations, bothers the mindless, little fanatics who voted for It and continue to support It.
Masochism rules in some quarters.
The article is silly. Where is all the left MSM rage? All you list is Broder and even he doesn’t put fault on Obama. This spill is about gaining power, the worse it gets the more power he will gain. Watch! This will enable him to push much harsher regulations, mandates, and taxes, than had it never happened. He just hasn’t gotten the American people angry enough, it will all be directed at BP and a lack of government power to prevent such things. All is going as planned.
I well remeber Carter and the hostage crisis. One thing Americans hate is the feeling of being powerless, of being unable to change things. The one thing that has been a source of pride to Americans (even liberal ones!) is that when something bad happens, we can usually figure out how to fix it. With Carter, not only did he not know how to fix it, he never even really tried. He dithered on what to do when the hostages were initially taken, and then, after finally making a decision to actually do something, did not give the military what it needed to succesfully carry out the mission.
Carter came across as gutless, not something you want in a President. The liberals may whine about having a “cowboy” president a la Bush and Reagan, but they actually got things done. Like them or not, at least they accomplished something. Carter always came across as someone who drifted along, wearing a sweater and turning down the heat rather than doing something to get more oilm, or saying how sad he was when he mourned the dead soldiers in the desert rather than going in with force to get our people back.
Those who supported Obama like his cool, sophisticated demeanor. What they didn’t realize is that when you have a plugged up toilet, you need a plumber, not a professor.
The fact that The Messiah is in actuality the empty suit described by The Messiah himself must be a real shocker to the MSM.
I remember my first love so many years ago – she was (in my eyes) perfect – she could do no wrong no matter what anyone said to me – until I actually saw her with my own eyes talking to another boy! Just like the rumors said – that I could not believe.
I was crushed! CRUSHED I tell you! I was 8 or 9 at the time IIRC.
I wonder if that is how the MSM feels now? (I hope it’s 10x worse).
A sophomoric media carrying water for a sophomoric president, no surprise here.
“…[I]t’s not just the infrequency of hour-long press conferences (six since taking office, including just four during prime-time).”
Is that all? It sure seems as if he is on tv every time I look!
And it’s about time the MSM realized there is definitely something “off” about the man. The failure to acknowledge the terrorist attack at Ft. Hood; the failure to visit Arlington on Memorial Day in favor of partying with his Chicago friends; and the failure to grasp the significance of the Gulf Coast spill for 42 days. His distancing is as if he’s been dropped in a strange land and doesn’t speak the language.
Like a battered wife, the MSM will bow, scrape and apologize for bleeding all over the kitchen.
“Ther can be no penance for the damage they have caused.”
But alas, they won’t be touched. By now you have surely noted the perpetual immunity that both the left and the leftist press continue to enjoy from the reasonable standards to which the rest of us are continually subjected.
They will get away with this (propping up this horrid individual we call ‘our POTUS’ relatively unscathed. Thank goodness for what ‘equal time’ there is out there.
Doodslag
What he said.
As bad as this nincompoop of a 44th President has been and will continue to be, the American people are resilient and they will recover from his hapless missteps and boondoggles. It may take a while, but Americans are resourceful and Obama will be, in effect, politically neutered in November and the brakes will be put on any further damage he can cause. He will be relegated to complaining about “our mean spirited friends on the other side of the aisle who are blocking attempts to do great things.”
Our next President will be the candidate with the best hair.
Perhaps Obama takes a realistic, or fatalistic view;
There is no way to stop the spill until the relief wells are drilled, and
there is no way to stop the incompetent behavior of the bureaucrats in charge
of the clean-up. What was that line from ‘Les Liasons Dangereuses’ ah, yes:
‘It is beyond my control’. and so it is, ‘From a certain point of view’.
Perhaps when the Obamabots look into the mirror of his face now, they see
the features coming into focus, revealing him, and them, to be Figureheads,
Fall-guys, and fools.
The rapidly approaching Hell of it is that the response to the current crisis
will be mirrored in large during the crises to come, and crises in the mirror
are closer than they appear.
I would dearly love to embrace this analysis but, as a conservative, I remain cautious. At the risk of straining a metaphor, I would describe the MSM unhappiness with Obama concerning the oil spill as the first major fight between a married couple after a lengthy honeymoon. The initial glow is off the relationship and both must cope with the frustrating and humdrum tasks of day-to-day life. Bills must be paid, the garbage disposal must be fixed, chores must be performed and each party, having achieved the object of their passion, must now look at each other in the cold cruel light of day. The oil spill fiasco is the first time Obama has come home late, smelling of liquor and without a good excuse for the little woman. I suspect that the mariage will survive if for no other reason than the media has invested everything in Obama and there are other issues, immigration for example, on which they see eye-to-eye. Besides, we all recognize that the MSM and Obama like to treat the rest of us in the U.S. as if we were six-year olds. Obama and the press will likely stay together “for the sake of the children”
yes we have a case of a dysfunctional relationship. Emotional investment in Obama is hard to break-particularly when those still emotionally invested do not follow the actual news, albeit they may think they do.
With battered women in dysfunctional relationships, researchers find that exit from the dysfunction requires a dawning awareness of an alternative. The alternative that we must present to the emotionally-involved-true believers is NOT that the current administration is bad (they cannot hear that any more than the battered woman can face the fact that he does NOT love her because she thinks of him as her ONLY lifeline) but, rather, that there is an alternative lifeline. Our alternative is a clear and simple platform of respect for USA, support of small and medium business, efficiency over waste, and clarity over obfuscation. Remember this: When Thomas Paine wrote and distributed “Common Sense” proportionately more Americans read it than today watch the SuperBowl. We WANT plain, simple, beautiful common sense. Step one of Common Sense is: if you’re broke, make a budget.
I disagree. Above all else the vast majority of the press desires a one-party fascist state, and that is exactly what Obama is attempting to deliver. So while a David Broder or a Maureen Dowd will occasionally grumble, in the end they will simply take a deep breath and plunge off the cliff with Obama. The beautiful intelligent Messiah they elected in 2008 may have turned out to be a stupid clod with a bunch of warts on His face, but they still believe He will lead them into the Promised Land of a totalitarian police state.
For that reason, look for the media to run a bunch of “Comeback Kid” and “How Obama got his groove back” stories just before the 2010 and 2012 elections. Things will not have noticeably improved by then (likely they will be much worse than they are now), but for the press to finally realize its cherished dream of a leftist tyranny in America they must continue to play the role of cheerleader for their Beloved.
…in the end they will simply take a deep breath and plunge off the cliff with Obama.
This can’t come soon enough.
Eureka! Here is one case that MAY show that Oilbama doesn’t always lie about everything.
http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2010/06/-obama-tells-egyptian-foreign-minister-i-am-a-muslim-stealth-coup-on-the-white-house.html
But will the gov-controlled media report it? Of course not.
Pamela Geller always seems to be on top of everything about Israeli/Islamic relations, and, this allows a whole new battlefield for the fight to impeach this enemy of the people: “Treating with the Enemy,” is not only an impeachable offense, but, a Capital Crime.
And, we are at war with all of Islam, a war they declared.
I hate to rain on the parade, but Streetfighter has it right. The Gulf oil spill is about power and his lack of movement to clean it up or use private industry tools to clean it up is ON purpose. Everything this maniac does is on purpose and that purpose if to aggrandize power to him, his dictatorship and the left in general. I don’t believe in coincidences but the oil spill and Cap and Trade voting is too close in timing. Much like Stimulus, his election, unemployment and seizing private industry were too close in timing.
The media is completely behind him. They will NEVER disagree or investigate him or what he does. NEVER!! The media were complicit in his ascension.
This is not to say he is by any means smart: He is not doing the thinking in this administration. Soros is totally behind him pulling the strings. The O is merely the marionette sold to the public. How can we not believe that from his election to everything he has done, has not been deliberate and with malice of forethought.
Why doesn’t Obama respect and hang out with the media that made him? Simple. Just because someone uses whores doesn’t mean he respects them or wants to spend time with them.
Carter gave us the Ayatollas. Obama is giving us the Ayatollas with nuclear bombs.
Clinton gave away military technology to China in return for money to his library. It will take us at least two generations to recover from the last 3 Democratic presidents, just as it took WW II to get us under from the Socialist policies of FDR. Norman Thomas was asked why he stopped running for the Presidency he said that FDR had coopted his Socialistic ideas into the Democratic party platform. If people don’t wake up to all this, they’ll wake up to a nightmare.
I posted a comment early today, way before any of these were on here. Whahappened to it??
That’s what you said this morning. I’m still waiting.
Obama *absolutely* owns the oil spill. It occurred in federal waters. It is, and has been, his duty to manage the threat.
On day one, he should have personally called the BP CEO and asked him two things: 1) What is your most honest assessment of how long it will take to cap the leak; and 2) Assuming that you do not have everything necessary at your disposal to contain the present & ongoing oil spillage, what do you need to assure that the oil will be kept away from vital natural wetlands & Louisiana and beyond?
It is all well and good to “kick” BP’s “ass”" (and to threaten it with future bankruptcy) but it does NOTHING towards meeting the challenge of the situation.
Obama has proved himself to be the administrative empty-suit that so many of us expected.
He needs to resign.
53. PAT PIERCE:”I posted a comment early today, way before any of these were on here. Whahappened to it??”
FWIW, my post appears as #43. At the time that I posted it this morning, only Doodslag’s post appeared on the screen. NTS, there is apparently a screening of the posts before they appear, and there was some lag time (it is Sunday, you know).
Hokay. Thanks. But it took two days!
I’m getting very tired of people jumping on Obamanation about the oil spill. Not that I give a whit ’bout Obamanation per se. I despise the SOB. But it’s ludicrous to think any President — that is, any government — should be able to “solve” this minor problem. (Yes, it’s minor. Wait ’till all is said-and-done, then compare it to really major problems, natural and otherwise, that have, and will, afflict us.) I’m delighted that the government can’t solve it. Let me explain why. It’s a very challenging technological/engineering problem. The government is not in the deep-sea drilling business. (At least not yet — and, pray to God, not ever, but, given the rate at which Obamanation is directly or indirectly nationalizing/socializing everything, it might be just a matter of time. Which would transform this “minor” problem into a long-term major problem. But I digress.) What if the government actually could solve it? That would mean that the government would have, at beck-and-call, tremendous technological/engineering capacities in a field in which it has had no direct involvement or experience. That would mean a very, very powerful and capable (capable to do almost anything) government. These would not be just “latent” powers, held in abeyance until some soi-disant catastrophe occurs. No, a government with such powers (and, if those, then also many, many others) — such a government would use them, and abuse them, and establish an OverLordShip over everything. I DO NOT WANT A GOVERNMENT POWERFUL AND CAPABLE ENOUGH TO SOLVE THIS PROBLEM! I want a government that recognizes that BP has the greatest possible incentive to solve it, and probably the greatest possible expertise, or potential access to such expertise. I want a government whose instant and steady role should be to help BP organize and employ its own expertise, and enlist the expertise of other PRIVATE companies, scientists, engineers. And I want a People who understand that stuff happens, that mistakes will be made, that almost everything worthwhile entails some risk, and that drilling for oil is Massively Worthwhile. That understands that a spill such as this, on average every 20 years or so, is Massively Worth suffering, in exchange for the benefits we get from more oil. Actually, I suspect the People might, on the whole, be in tune with that. So let me substitute “Media” for “People” in the prior sentence.
Ok, I wish for too much. But remind me, in 20 yrs, to post another comment, noting that the spill was eventually cleaned up, that the damage was much less than hysterically predicted, that the bulk of the solution came from BP and the private sector, that the government retarded rather than facilitated the solution, that drilling started back again fairly soon, that more oil was found and drilled, to everyone’s benefit, that safety and technology continued to improve, that there have been no more major spills, and that the hysteria over this one did serve a useful purpose, in that it helped spur the exploitation of shale oil and nuclear energy. And that it backfired against Obamanation, contributing to his defeat in 2012.
When I post that 20 yrs hence I will thus conclude that this spill turned out to be a REALLY GOOD THING!
You don’t think that the President could not have “put out a call” for any and all engineers that could stop this flow? (I know, where is Red Adair when you need him?) But Obama went on about his partying in Chicago and his golf games and basketball games and parties at the White House as if the Gulf Coast wasn’t drowning in this disaster. He is so disaffected, disassociated, with real life out here it is frightening. Having lived on the Gulf Coast during and after Katrina, I know that President Bush contacted the Governor of LA and the mayor of N.O. and offered to send whatever help they needed; and they refused. No such offer came from Obama. Not even a recognition of the plight of the fishermen, oysterers, shrimpers, the families of the eleven dead men…. It was business as usual for Obama while $500 billion dollars of revenue is lost to us forever.
I assure you, Ben, this is not a minor problem to the people who live on the Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida coasts. It’s an economic disaster that will destroy livelihoods. (It happened to me on the Texas coast in the 80s.) Obama could have acted administratively on the first day of the problem and removed obstacles to battling the oil spill, sucking up the oil, and protecting the beaches and estuaries. He did nothing. I believe on purpose: to permit the disaster to grow, the better to encourage installation of his view of socialism.
Sunday am talking heads are now blaming themselves for how bad Obama looks in this oil spill crisis. They are hinting that the “split screen” of the oil gushing while Obama talks is making him look bad. Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but it sounded like Obama still has a lot of MSM blaming everyone but the president.