Libertarian Leanings

Obama's Binge Rhetoric

For George Will the Deepwater Horizon oil spill is a metaphor for Obama and his party.

The unceasing torrent of his ill-chosen words is analogous to the unstoppable oil spill, which itself resembles his and his party’s incontinent spending. Just as congressional Democrats’ budget strategy is to have no budget, Obama’s communication strategy is to have no silence. Having no budget means, as Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) says, having no priorities and hence no restraints. Having no communication strategy means him being constantly in the nation’s face, hectoring incessantly, unconstrained by priorities.

Obama is into his second year of a rhetorical bender.  He won't stop talking and his party won't stop spending.

Friedman - Towering Intellect

Or something.  Whatever.  Today's idiocy, courtesy of Thomas Friedman and the New York Times, is entitled Obama and the Oil Spill.  Here's a shocker.  Friedman says Barack Obama has "done a good job coordinating the cleanup so far."  But that's not the dumb part.  I mean is there anybody that couldn't guess that's what he'd say about it?

No, the inventive Mr. Friedman eschews the obvious parallel between Obama's handling of the Gulf oil spill and George W. Bush's handing of Katrina.  Instead goes after Bush for lack of imagination in the immediate aftermath of 9/11.

President Bush’s greatest failure was not Iraq, Afghanistan or Katrina. It was his failure of imagination after 9/11 to mobilize the country to get behind a really big initiative for nation-building in America. I suggested a $1-a-gallon “Patriot Tax” on gasoline...

Picture it.  President Bush standing with his arm across the shoulder of an exhausted firefighter in the ruins of the World Trade Center, bullhorn in hand.  "and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon."  Cause we're gonna tax hell out of 'em! 

He's well paid to write this stuff, Friedman.

Obama, the Oil Spill, and The Media

On April 20th British Petroleum's Deepwater Horizon oil drilling platform exploded and sank 53 miles off the Louisiana coast in the Gulf of Mexico. 

Eleven workers on the rig were killed in the explosion and subsequent fire. The gigantic oil slick created by the disaster has reached the coast line and threatens to become the nation's worst environmental disaster ever. More than a week passed before President Obama moved to address the disaster despite the clear evidence that BP and the Coast Guard were unable to stop the flow of oil and contain the spill.

In the meantime an estimated 5,000 barrels of crude are leaking into the Gulf of Mexico every day, creating an oil slick roughly the size of Puerto Rico.  By April 30th, the LA Times reported, Obama was "stepping up his personal involvement."

The White House says President Barack Obama won't be heading to the Gulf Coast in the next few days. But press secretary Robert Gibbs left open the possibility of a later presidential visit to assess the spreading oil spill.

On Sunday, May 2nd Obama made his first visit to the Lousiana coast.

It was the first time since the April 20 explosion of a BP oil drilling platform that Obama devoted a full day to the gusher. Aides worked to prevent comparisons to President George W. Bush's response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which damaged Bush's presidency.

Administration officials defended the slowness of their response and they got lots of help from their friends in the media.  This morning CNN reports, Obama vows 'relentless' response to oil spill.  Interior Secretary Ken Salazar blamed the explosion on a failure in rig technology designed to prevent such explosions.

"There is no doubt at all here that what has happened is the blowout prevention mechanism at the bottom of the well ... is defective," Salazar said. "While there have been blowouts in the past, we have never seen anything that has been quite of this magnitude."

But I wonder how he can be so sure of the cause when there are so many possibilites.  According to Brian Maloney, left wing talk radio has decided that George Bush is to blame.

As the rabid left expertly recognizes, the best defense is a good offense. And with Obama's inaction on the rapidly-escalating Gulf oil crisis becoming increasingly clear, his "progressive" minions have turned to an old standby: gratuitous Bush-bashing.

Yes, BUSH caused a major oil spill in 2010! And Obama's just a decent guy trying to work with mean Republicans!

Whatever the cause, CBS assures us that Obama will do whatever it takes.  He said so himself.

"Your government will do whatever it takes for as long as it takes to stop this crisis," he said.

"BP is responsible for this leak. BP will be paying the bill," Obama said after a Coast Guard briefing in Venice, a Gulf Coast community serving as a staging area for the response. He stood before cameras in a heavy rain, water dripping from his face. 

Many in the media seem to think that the damage to Louisiana's coast from the oil spill is the lesser problem than the potential damage to the Obama administration because of its abysmal response to it.  Not everybody, though.

Will the oil spill in the gulf -- which some suspect could be worse than Exxon Valdez -- be the equivalent for Barack Obama?

Today the story got elevated to national emergency level, but the explosion on the rig happened eight days ago!

While numerous investigations will no doubt be launched into the companies behind the rig (BP, Transocean), will anyone ask what the DHS and The White House have been doing for 8 days, while an ecological disaster was unfolding in such a sensitive region?

Don't hold your breath waiting for an answer to that question.