(thanks Pookie)
Posted on 06/10/2010 8:18:27 AM PDT by markomalley
Frankly, if I hear the phrase "Obama's Katrina" one more time to refer to the President's response to the oil spill, I think I will scream.
It reminds of the annoying need that many feel to stick the word -gate on the end of any presidential scandal. I lament this really lazy habit of the media. We can understand each situation well enough to make our own judgments without constant and faulty comparisons to old scandals or problems.
This is not Obama's Katrina, its Obama's oil spill.
Now it should go without saying that I do not believe that government has this magical unlimited power to resolve crises if the president will just wills it so. Actually, I am glad I live in a country where this is still so. So I don't blame the President or his men for not knowing how to cap a well at 5000ft under water.
A large problem is that many people who voted for Obama believe the president has this magical ability. A larger problem is that I believe that the President thinks he should have this magical ability.
Obama does not want to be a leader. I once read a quote that I paraphrase "A leader helps others to get more out of themselves than they otherwise would."
I like that quote and I think it reveals a lot about why Obama is failing with the spill. Obama doesn't want to lead, he wants to will.
As we are all now familiar when the spill was a few weeks old, Obama grew angry because his will had been frustrated and blurted while departing "Just plug the damn hole!"
Leaders don't blurt and depart, leaders help.
I believe that Americans have grown dissatisfied with the presidential response to the oil spill for this reason. They were not quick to hold Obama responsible because they actually understand the limits of the president better than he does. But what they expected from the president is that he was doing what he could to help.
Help. That is what leaders do, they help.
Over time, dissatisfaction has grown because people recognize that Obama is not trying to help. They talk of taking over BP, which everyone knows will not help. And now Obama says he wants to find some ass to kick. Ass kicking is not helping, especially while the spill is still happening.
But the most damning piece of evidence that has emerged and the one thing that I believe can hurt Obama long-term was revealed this past week. Not once during this entire crisis did Obama pick up the phone to the BP CEO and say "How can I help?"
That, more than the spilling oil, represents Obama's failure of leadership. His failure to want to help. This is what will be remembered as his failure. He willed, he cursed, he blurted, and wanted to kick ass. But he would not help.
Good post.
Where's that old question...."Are you better off....
I've never thought about it this way, but this seems to be true, at least from my perspective. Obama still seems to think he is some kind of Messiah.
He won...remember...He thinks it’s some kind of license to do anything he wants...and the cattle follow the stench...
Well said.
Look, the president just needs to know whose ass to, in fact, kick.
We will now see the prez use the word “help” 100 times in the next few days. Not that there will be any help but there will be the recognition that helping is his role. Sarah has been asking him to do this for more than a month. Not a concept he is familiar with.
This particular troop has grown by leaps and bounds, it's really too big, and the kids need help keeping things under control. We asked him, "What can the troop do to help it's leadership succeed?"
His earnest and sincere answer was, "we need a megaphone." I tried to coax him into considering a better approach to leadership, but he was quite adamant that he could do the job better if only he could be louder.
Yeah, his parents are HUGE Obama supporters.
No experience, no patriotism to AMERICA, no leadership abilities, no there there....
Obama is totally at fault in making the spill much worse as his interior department would not allow foreign ships from the Netherlands to assist in the clean up. These ships are designed for this and are proven technology. His interior department would not let Louisiana build sand berms to keep the oil out of the wetlands. They did not let them burn the oil on the surface of the water.
Either Obama is totally incompetent or by design has made the environmental disaster worse. If he can “bust BP financially” the government could take over their assets in the United States as was done with GM.
INCOMPETENT or disaster by design, it is one or perhaps both!
Duhh...
“O” fails because he brings a ‘knife to a gunfight’, (almost literally)…but you know what I mean! Domestic issues, foreign policy, the military, education, the economy…etc, he fails!
With political leaders, America has to repeatedly learn and RE LEARN the same lesson, that-
• YES, in fact we do have enemies
• Yes, they hate us enough to do us real harm
• NO, looking tough/sounding tough/having so-called ‘tough’ friends AIN’T the same as being tough YOURSELF
• YES, character counts and
• NO there is ABSOLUTELY NO SUBSTITUTE FOR IT!!!
America picked itself a pig-in-a-poke on this President and I was shocked to see that he succeeded so easily. Where is the signature, world-renowned and long-standing Yankee doubt and distrust for everything and everyone not strictly authentic, demonstrably reliable or verified??? How did this gargantuan sham of a sham succeed with people whose reputation for jealously guarding the near-religious sanctity of their personal autonomy and independence?
Hope and Change????? I feel like I traded a million dollars for a dirty penny!
That says all you need to know. Excellent summary!
Truw and yet he consistantly does NOTHING!
(thanks Pookie)
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