Protecting the Obama Brand (Salon's Joan Walsh to "Whiny and Juvenile" Obama: "Grow up"

Salon ^ | Sunday, June 13, 2010 | Joan Walsh

[kristinn]

Two stories about President Obama this weekend pushed my growing unease with his recent moves into full-blown anxiety. They come on the heels of Tim Dickinson's devastating Rolling Stone piece laying out concrete problems with Obama's response to the BP oil spill – from delays in cleaning up the Minerals Management Service, distrusting scientists who correctly reported the spill was much bigger than BP said, waiting more than a week to declare the crisis "an Oil Spill of National Significance," which corralled new services. Maybe the most damning, to me, section of Dickinson's piece comes when he quotes the president proudly announcing he'd reversed his stand against offshore oil drilling "It turns out, by the way, that oil rigs today generally don't cause spills," the president said. "They are technologically very advanced." Dickenson notes: "Eighteen days later, on the eve of the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, the Deepwater Horizon rig went off like a bomb."

Of the weekend's worrisome Obama stories, the first was Politico's Roger Simon's interview with Obama, published in full today, in which his self-defense about how he's handled the BP oil disaster sounded whiny and juvenile, and raised big questions about whether he's capable of fighting the battles he needs to enter and win to move the country forward. The other was Matt Bai's "President in Chief?" in the New York Times Magazine, which showed that Obama and his team seem more focused on protecting the "brand" that they believe galvanized millions of new voters, young voters and independents in 2008, to potentially realign American politics, than with helping Democrats hold the House and Senate.

SNIP

I don't know where to start with that cavalcade of complaint. First, it sounds like the president has been spooked by the Tea Partiers and their shrill, silly claims he's a socialist. I'm alarmed that he seems to have internalized their crazy charges that he's been over-zealously expanding government. And is he really claiming that he would have loved to crack down on the oil companies with tougher regulations before the explosion, but he didn't, because he was afraid of what his opponents would say? I honestly don't believe that's true, and I don't know what's worse, that he's dissembling here, or that the excuse he's dissembling with is so lame.

SNIP

Between the BP oil disaster and the near-collapse of the world economy thanks to the finance industry – both have in common a corporate arrogance that big risks to make big money were worth taking, no matter the impact on the rest of us – Obama has the perfect context for laying out why government matters, and why Democrats run the government best. Instead he's carping about "folks up there" in Washington and complaining that if he'd tried to regulate the oil industry before the spill, people would have said bad things about him. Grow up, Mr. President.

SNIP

[Drango]

Salon still publishing?

[LibFreeOrDie]

on the eve of the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, the Deepwater Horizon rig went off like a bomb."

Hmmm...

[jessduntno]

on the eve of the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, the Deepwater Horizon rig went off like a bomb.”

Hmmm...

Yeah...my thoughts exactly...inside joke?

[eyedigress]

Obama is an idiot.

[TigerClaws]

Agree.

What became of the SWAT teams on oil rigs story? They find anything?

[Jeff Chandler]

. . . just sayin'.

[jocon307]

Oh puhleeze, this poor woman. She sounds like that rare bird, a principled liberal. She should throw in the towel right now and admit she got rolled by a Chi-town shyster.

[Gene Eric]

The Left is frustrated for its inability to maintain a unified protective shield around Obama.

[libertarian27]

Hmm, two articles back to back here with the word 'Brand'in the article titles:

Islam Has a Branding Problem: Millatfacebook CEO

Is this a new newspeak buzz word?

Back in the day - wasn't it called Image or Legacy? Now it's all just marketing and branding? Interesting.....it's like discussing soda pop...

[Publius]

...and raised big questions about whether he's capable of fighting the battles he needs to enter and win to move the country forward leftward.

There. Fixed it.

[FlingWingFlyer]

Hey America! No more “community organizers”. Okay? America is not a bake sale or car wash!

[4rcane]

anyone find the spill timing suspicious? on the eve of earth day. Could it be environmental terrorist involved in the killing of 13 ppl and the damage of the oil rig? We may never know because the media and obama prosecutors will never let the facts draw that conclusion

[combat_boots]

4/20
Earth Day
Hitler’s birthday
Date of the Columbine
VA tech massacre
Gulf rig explosion, with armed SWAT teams sent in to all Gulf rigs, and then, this rig’s “falling over”

4/19
OKC
Waco

[y6162]

The Kenyan’s “brand” is loser.

[hinckley buzzard]

it sounds like the president has been spooked by the Tea Partiers and their shrill, silly claims he's a socialist. I'm alarmed that he seems to have internalized their crazy charges that he's been over-zealously expanding government

This is a beautiful illutsration of the mental defect which enables people to continue as liberals, in the face of all evidence and defying all reason. Talk about denial. Just what does idiot bimbo Walsh think the Usurper means when he says "redistribution of wealth is good for everybody?"

[eyedigress]

I’ve had enough of “California” policies being put in place as well. Quiz a young person from California about the internal workings of this Nation. Clueless. (hell, just ask them to mention 25 states and they are lost)

[libertarian27]

Time to update this edition ;)

[I see my hands]

On April 19, 1775 - when was fired the shot heard round the world, the War for Independence had now begun.