Barack Obama reminds me of the smooth-talking traveling salesman-the guy who talks his way through your front door and proceeds to talk his way right out the back door. Tonight, his speech fell flat not just to Fox News, but even the mad hatters at MSNBC hated it. (Keith Olbermann, Chris Matthews and Howard Fineman). When even Chris Matthews doesn't get that tingling down his leg, you've failed. The inspiring rhetoric has now fallen on deaf ears. Tonight, Barack Obama might as well have been speaking to a nation-wide audience of oysters.
Obama covered three areas, which may be summarized as follows:
1 Clean up- From Day One we have been doing a great job-30,000 people, millions of feet of boom, ect (They are not. It's a mess)
2 Gulf Coast restoration- Blue ribbon commission to be headed by ex-Mississippi Governor Ray Mabus. Yawn.
3 Make sure it never happens again, from which he segued into the need to switch to clean energy (wind turbines, solar, etc).
In addition, he told us how he and Ken Salazar have been reforming the MMS agency that for a decade had been corrupt and in bed with the oil companies. Translation? Blame George W Bush.
He also told how he is going to dictate to BP that they set up an escrow fund to pay for the damage. Of course, he has no authority to do so, but BP will probably agree for purposes of PR if nothing else.
Bottom line? Obama has very little clue as what he should do, so he made a speech, which is what he used to do best.
Look, I, as much as anyone, would like to see us switch to cars that could run on peanut butter or anything else but oil. But we are talking about the here and now. No windmill is going to blow my car down the road. The sad fact is that the world runs on oil and we need it. We can't continue to keep buying it from Saudi Arabia and all those other lousy countries that don't even like us. We need to produce our own oil while we develop this elusive alternative clean energy. Drilling in the middle of the ocean (thanks to the environmentalists) has produced a leak that nobody can plug for 4-5 months. We should be drilling off the coast and in Alaska. Then, when that new source of clean energy is developed, we can celebrate the end of oil.
America is finally learning that you can't run a country on great speeches.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
8 comments:
Gary, it is exactly the "here and now" way of thinking that got us in this mess. Selfishness beyond reason and belief, no thinking about our children and grandchildren.
There is no hope left.
Just what should he have said?
He could have said he was sorry.
I don't understand. He didn't do it, and that he is pained shows in every word he says.
Maybe he should have said something like "Mission accomplished".
Ingrid,
The speech bombed in America. Even liberals are criticizing it-even MSNBC. Americans didn't want to hear why we must "invest" in clean, green energy and all that. They want that disaster solved. Yes, BP is to blame, but there is much the govt could have done in the first 56 days they did not do that could have greatly lessened the damage to the Gulf Coast.
This is Obama's Katrina.
This is Obama's Katrina.
Does this mean that you acknowledge that the Bush Administration completely bungled what needed to be done for Katrina? How come you never posted about that?
Because I think that the greatest bungling was by the mayor of New Orleans and the Governor of Louisiana.
Gary, I am not surprised that his speech bombed in America because, and I hate to come to that conclusion, people want to be lied to, hear what is comfortable to them, and inspite of this horrific tragedy are still not willing to sacrifice any of their comforts.
If this isn't the time to talk about alternate means of energy when is it?
All I hear is that people want money, as if that would make everything alright.
This cannot be compared to Katrina, this hell is still open and I believe that man is lost and doesn't want to face it.
Whatever Obama could say that would satisfy and comfort people would be a lie.
Ingrid,
That alternate means of energy is going to be $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$. We don't have it now. I am all in favor of cars that run on beer (we can use Bud). The fact is that it is into the future. That is long term. Obama got people mad because in his speech he used the spill to say now is the time to invest in clean energy. The people want the spill capped and cleaned up not another trillion dollar program.
Post a Comment