Posted on 06/16/2010 5:05:23 AM PDT by IbJensen
There are very few people, on either side of the aisle, who think President Obama did himself any good in his first Oval Office speech last night.
Before we get into what we like to call the "optics" of the speech, let's stipulate that no one wants this oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico to continue one second longer than necessary; and that includes the President.
Let's also stipulate, as T. Boone Pickens said on Larry King Live last night, if anyone knew how to stop this thing, they'd be in there doing it.
Then, let's stipulate that no one in U.S. Government -- the Congress or the Administration -- provided any oversight to the oil companies as they set about drilling deeper and deeper wells, with less and less technology or engineering data to support it.
Every time you hear someone demanding more regulation for the oil companies (or, for that matter, the major financial firms, or any other industry segment), ask them how well the government has been doing enforcing the regulations they have in hand.
Not very well.
If the employees if the Minerals Management Service; and the Securities and Exchange Commission were as adept at examining drilling plans and 10-K reports as they appear to be locating porn on the Internet we might have had neither the Bernie Madoff nor the BP oil disasters.
The fact is, no one has a clue about what is going on with the Deep Horizon well. In the beginning BP thought the leak was about 5,000 barrels per day (a barrel equals 42 gallons). The latest estimates are closer to 60,000 barrels per day.
According to the NY Times, "That is roughly 2.5 million gallons of oil a day, and it means an amount equal to the Exxon Valdez spill could be gushing from the well about every four days."
The Congress hauled the heads of the major oil companies up to Capitol Hill yesterday and to the surprise of no one, nothing was learned.
Back to the speech.
One of the AP's most senior writers, Tom Raum, wrote that Obama's pledge to leave the Gulf in better shape than before the spill "eerily echoes President George W. Bush's pledge after Hurricane Katrina to rebuild New Orleans 'higher and better.'"
Again, that dreaded comparison to Katrina.
Raum described Obama hustling back from an overnight trip to the region to make the speech from the Oval Office as: "A piece of presidential stagecraft designed to emphasize the seriousness of the situation."
More optics: The President is not comfortable speaking from a sitting position behind his desk. In an effort to look more engaged, he used his hands to the point they became a distraction. It would have been better to have rented a roomful of people, put them in the East Room, and have the President speak from a standing position behind a podium - a situation in which he is very comfortable and can be very effective.
Chatting with a group of senior Washington hands -- Rs and Ds -- last night just after the speech, someone pointed out that if Ronald Reagan were giving this speech and Mike Deaver were running the event, the speech would have been delivered from Plaquemine Parish with Billy Nungesser and a group of fishermen and shrimpers standing around him.
There was no soaring "call to action" in the speech. I said to that group, that's what happens when you have 36 hours to get it written, rather than weeks to work on a State of the Union Address.
I didn't say, but will now, it is also what happens when you don't have Peggy Noonan as your head speechwriter. Remember Reagan's "Touch the Hand of God" speech after the Challenger disaster?
The yawns generated by the President's speech are not only coming from the right. Here's how Kevin Drum, blogging for the uber-liberal "Mother Jones" website put it: "What a terrible speech … This gives pabulum a bad name … The whole point of a prime time Oval Office speech is that it announces something big. On that score, Obama failed right from the start."
And, like that.
The White House wanted to use this speech to have the American people view the President's handling of the Gulf oil spill in a new light.
If there was any light at all, it was very, very dim.
Even the Dems CNN group reviewers yawned thru the speech. Now. The BP folks will take only so much Crap from Pres Obozo. They have the ability and probably the desire to stuff the entire episode where the USA sun does not shine. Granted, they have other fish to fry in the Gulf, and this mess is their doing and they are a reputable Oil Co. but any CEO worth his salt will not tolerate abuse.
We do have a problem. Until the relief wells are drilled, work properly and the flow is eased, the Gulf will continue to be polluted. Best we can do is keep it off the beaches. Wait till the first Named Hurricane comes ashore there. We have just begun to feel the wrath of our Creator. Even the Lightening strike failed to get attention.
Obozo has 2 more years to learn the job. If by that time he finally gets up to speed, he will be re-elected for another 4 year term and the country will be completely Socialist and dirt poor!
I disagree. The Resident wants to destroy America and he has 2 years remaining in which to do it. He wants the spill to continue for the entire two years.
Pray for obama. Psalm 109:8-9
He looked like a smarmy little communist agitator with no idea what to do.
That's the biggest lie being told to American people. There are countries/corporations/scientists that are knowledgeable in this type of disaster and Obama won't let them anywhere near the Gulf.
Q: What’s the diff between the Obamaloon and a bag O sh*t?
A: The bag.
All he has to do is open his mouth and begin his stultified, staccato preaching. When he’s done those who watch are incapable of recalling what the evil one said.
I think that the flaring natural gas and continued in-situ burning of leaked oil is Premier Hussein’s “eternal flame”, and similar to the flame that illuminates the grave of John F. Kennedy, the gas and oil flares in the gulf illuminate Obammy’s rapidly failing Presidency.
After last night, God help him if/when this leak gets worse...
I didn’t watch the president, but assume he used this crisis to redistribute more income.
I was channel surfing when I came across his speech. At that point, he was babbling about green jobs and our need to sacrifice. No surprises there...
This tells me he didn't do a dry run of the speech. Had he, someone would have cued him in on it. I'd guess his arrogance gets the credit. He's such A Great Speech Giver; after all, dry runs are for amateurs. Barry didn't realize he IS one.
Its like he has on Marxist Ideologue tinted glasses, and whatever comes down the pike is fodder to be used to funnel cash to cronies and move the statist agenda.
If the economy and unemployment don't recover significantly, he won't be reelected. His profligate spending will be enough to sink him. And Obamacare will start kicking in in the run up to 2013 when it goes into full force. Health insurance premiums will be rising. And Obama will try to raise taxes after the midterms, which won't be possible if the GOP takes over one House of Congress. Obama doesn't have two years. The die is cast.
And the thing is, he probably gave himself an ‘A’ and was congratulated by his staff for a riveting speech. Guy is waaaaay out of his league.
I watched about 20 seconds until I switched back to ancient aliens on the history channel..
Didn’t the founding fathers build anything into the Constitution that would allow someone to step in and take charge of a situation if a sitting president is doing something that is a real threat to the country? I mean other than impeachment. I mean like in an emergency.
It’s already kicking in. 6/1 the 21% decrease in Medicare reimbursement to doctors went into effect.
I’m taking PT for nerve damage to my feet and legs, and they are filing Medicare every 2 weeks just hoping they will do a “doc fix” soon. BTW I’m on Medicare & Tricare for Life, the retired over 65 Military’s health ins. Both are admined out of the same agency.
IF they don’t get that remedied fast, doctors will start dumping Medicare patients as fast as this oil spill is gushing.
Prayers for Obama will not stop the leak.
Nevertheless, you are certainly entitled to your convictions.
Not too worry. Congress will kill the 21% reduction. The bill will be filled with pork as well. Even now, 12% of doctors don’t accept Medicare patients and 40% don’t accept Medicaid patients. Obamacare adds 16 million to the Medicaid rolls.
I was listening to talk radio on the way to work this a.m. and this was the obvious topic. The radio show host said something that rings very true. He pointed out that many people are calling this “Obama’s Katrina” but he likened it more to “Obama’s Iran Hostage Crisis.”
Very good point, IMO.
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