“Here’s hoping the President’s actions speak louder than his words. ”

.
Unfortunately that seems to be the limit of BHO’s talents, WORDS!

We all knew, or should have known, going in that he had no experience solving problems. If he had he would have had something in his resume to demonstrate that. It is obvious now, IMO, that he has no aptitude for problem solving and forceful action and leadership. He didn’t and he doesn’t and he has not surrounded himself with people who do.

My expectations of him were not high but even I am shocked at how inept he appears to be.

I never complain about headlines but that one is just a cheap pun.:-) My moderate 85 year old parents loved the speech.

I think the punditry is guaranteed to make the speech a failure because they appear to have unrealistic expectations. As I joked in the previous thread, it’s not like we can just call the “Super Friends” and all will be well and though the President and others keep calling it “the worst environmental disaster America has ever faced”, it’s most likely the worst environmental disaster in human history.

Sure, maybe some things could have been done better; Hindsight is 20/20 and I’ll agree that the speech started somewhat stilted and it had some tentative language, but they tried one thing, it didn’t work, then they tried another, it didn’t work and it seems this pipe-thing is doing some good, but nobody really knows for sure.

As for the “informed”, as Tingles said in his rant giving Obama the same advice he gave Carter and as others have said around the web: There are actual legal and Constitutional issues at play, so the best bet would be to look for voluntary cooperation before he takes the risk of going into court. I mean the court of public opinion may be one thing, but how would the Supreme Court rule and how long would it take to get there?

Sure, he didn’t come off as blustery as Bush and he wasn’t as reassuring as Reagan. It did play something like a secretary reading the minutes, but what is the answer? BP tried a couple of caps, now they have something that may be working; They dropped so much dispersant in the water, now it’s doubly polluted and everybody is high on the idea of willy-nilly barrier islands, but one of the reasons the region suffered so greatly at the hands of Katrina is because we have changed the geography so much. Wouldn’t it be prudent to at least consider the secondary effects before we try something so drastic?

This is the hand that we’ve been dealt. No matter what we do or what kind of rhetoric comes out of the White House, the well isn’t going to close tomorrow and it’s going to take some time to clean the Gulf. I’m pretty sure that most people understand this and I’d be surprised if there was any kind of record-breaking audience because most people knew what he was going to say.

“We’re working on it. It’s a top priority and we’re putting our best people on the job”. Considering the magnitude of this unprecedented event and the fact that no one, not the President, the oil companies, the talking heads or any of their prize-winning friends have the answer, I’m sure most of us knew what he was going to say, long before he opened his mouth.

eh… got a little repetitive at the end from a tweak laid upon a tweak. If I could, I would fix it (Disqus), but the gist remains the same…. On a scale of 1 to 10, it was something like a 6, but that’s because there’s no concrete solutions that can be accomplished with decisive action. We’re facing a giant science experiment which is being addressed through trial and error.

I’d give him a 6 as well. Not his best speech.

Too much pandering to the God squad.

Heck of a job, Obambi!

Nice job, Frances, on your analysis of his speech and the feedback.

This is a great example of why you don’t take a first or second year account coordinator and make them CEO of a corporation.

they “hadn’t done anything yet.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyDqQW2adPk

@sarainitaly: I agree. I felt Frances gave a reasonable analysis with concrete examples to support her points.

And, I’ll say that the consensus seems to be headed toward it being a disappointing performance all around. Much of the left is complaining because they didn’t feel he imposed enough regulation and they wanted more renewables; The right apparently wanted decisive rhetoric and no mention of carbon, whatsover; While I doubt many of the non-political in the middle chose to watch… the whole situation is sad, kind of boring and is somebody else’s job.

I agree that the analysis is nice, however, I snicker that Frances still took a swipe at Palin. Too funny. The general consensus is bad job for the Big O, except for CNN which somehow decided to carry the water for him while everyone else dumped it on his head. Well, them and George Stephi who clearly got his talking points from Rham in advance and went with them despite the lack of leadership shown by himself.

Good God…saying the jug-eared idiot is not up to the job has got to be the understatement of the century

TfT says:
June 16, 2010 at 6:59 am
I agree that the analysis is nice, however, I snicker that Frances still took a swipe at Palin. Too funny.

I know…i ignored it. It’s like breathing to some people.

I have to say that I wasn’t all that terribly impressed with the speech last night, and I actually watched it. Most of the comments overnight and this morning seem to be from the typical radical rightist posters. It is difficult to tell whether they watched the speech or not. Certainly, their comments would have been the same, whatever the content of the speech and whether they watched it or not. What I find useful and encouraging is that the speech seems to be panned by those rather far to the left and by those radical rightists earlier mentioned. That may be a very good sign. Perhaps those of us in the middle of the political spectrum have found something to sink our teeth into. The coming days well tell.

I think you did yeoman’s work, Frances. Many thanks.

I know…i ignored it. It’s like breathing to some people.

—

O, that pesky First Amendment.

my God – since Obama’s failed speech – seems like Magister is so frustrated he’s about to cry. He’s having a hard time playing the “blame game”,

I wanna help -

to make life easier for him – heres a link to a simple tool that will make his endless excuse making for obama easier -

Its Obama Apologist Bingo!!!

http://news.lavenderliberal.com/2009/06/20/obama-apologist-bingo/

The Secretary of Energy has a Nobel Prize. I was pretty reassured to learn that (roll eyes).

Indeed. If I ever won a Nobel Prize, I should hide it out of embarrassment. I mean it’s not exactly like winning Second Runner-Up in Miss Alaska is it?

Obama getting criticized on his comparison of the spill to 9/11 in order to change the focus of comparison to Katrina. However, his “seige” and “battleplan” terminology and speechifying doesn’t hold water. Axelrod is on FNF this morning trying to justify the comparison of the gulf leak to war. Too funny….try as they might, it isn’t going to carry the day.

“Never let a crisis go to waste” has come back to bite Rham in the butt once again.

The Real Royal King says:
June 16, 2010 at 7:34 am
I know…i ignored it. It’s like breathing to some people.
—

O, that pesky First Amendment.
__

Did I say ANYTHING about her f*cking *right* to say what she wants?

It’s a tough situation regardless. And at the end of the day, when Obama is gone, regardless of re-election, and some neocon or another liberal is in office, this disaster will be effecting Americans, and the environment, on the Gulf coast. This might very well be his legacy. And I hope, for the Gulf of Mexico’s sake, it gets cleaned up.

The Real Royal King says:
“Indeed. If I ever won a Nobel Prize, I should hide it out of embarrassment. I mean it’s not exactly like winning Second Runner-Up in Miss Alaska is it?”

This is a very serious situation. Making jabs about some political figure is really not helpful.

In another positive sign, the British seem to think the speech was very tough.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/oilandgas/7831640/Barack-Obama-vows-to-make-BP-pay-for-oil-spill-recklessness.html

LB: The Nobel Prize comment was ridiculous, and that was my point. I fail to see that a person ought to be excluded from a serious discussion about what is indeed a serious situation “merely” because he or she is a Nobel Prize Winner. I am quite tired of the Homage to Ignorance Tour in which we seem to be engaged. We need all our best minds working on this, and we don’t need an endless chorus of mindless bellyaching.

TRRK: Or not.

British media fall out of love with Obama

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/janetdaley/100043670/british-media-falls-out-of-love-with-obama/

Hey obozo..JFK wants his speech back. I was just sitting there during his, whatever that was, waiting for him to compell us to pay $10 a gallon for gas and comparing it to going to the moon. And sure enough..he did it. Gag..Why don’t we have small nuclear reactors buried in cities and towns across America? The design is on the table, Gates and others are building a prototype as we speak. We will never have these reactors because, as we all know, in our ‘open society’ they are a ‘man-caused disaster’ waiting to happen! Barry just wants to blame Americans for over using the finite resources of the earth..oil is being created under our feet, every day..fact. On his next vacation, or trip down to the gulf to eat snow-cones, Air Force One should be fueled with hugs,sunflowers, and unicorn tears..amen

Even tingles has called out the administration on the inane repetition of the Nobel Prize label. It has become nothing more than an admission pass to the liberal-socialist echo chamber..and you know it king.

In the real world, when the sh*t hits the fan, Nobel Peace prizes and degrees from over rated ivy league universities are useless.

This is probably a stupid question, I have no idea how big the pipe is, or what it is made of, but can’t they crimp the pipe? You know like you do with a hose? Bend it, crimp it, and then try to cap it again? At least to slow the flow?

I thought maybe they could do that with the robots…?

I was trying to find images of what the pipe looks like, and saw this video. Why aren’t they doing what this guy says?

Makes sense to me. And it looks like the pipe was kind of crimped before they cut it. Too bad they didn’t crimp it further in stead of cutting it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFOp1kft7vc&feature=player_embedded

Sara..the pipe was crimped and they cut below it and ‘capped’ the main pipe. There are several other small leaks and the thought was that if they blocked off the main pipe, the pressure would increase the size of the others. That’s why the ‘cap’ is not a cap..more like a siphon. When the relief wells get drilled, the theory is, the pressure will be ‘relieved’ from the whole damaged system. That’s my take on it, but I haven’t been awarded a Nobel Prize, so..

in stead = instead

TfT: I cited a news article, and you cited a blog. A blog! Can you imagine an academic paper quoting a poster from a typical American blog to substantiate a point? I think not!

LB: Very sad, LB. I should have thought you, of all people here, would assign some value to learning and knowledge. My primary alma mater was just involved in a ridiculous athletic conference realignment process and decided to stay the course because, in the words of the university president, it was “comfortable”. I fired off a letter to him last night suggesting we change the university motto, from the Latin, since so few Americans read Latin, to something new, along the lines of “Mediocrity Is Comfortable to the Mediocre”. I should have thought something more akin to the mediocre might be in order for the university and for our political and civil discourse as well. Very sad, indeed.

me1ranger says:
June 16, 2010 at 8:40 am

Ah yes, the smaller leaks. I forgot about those. That makes sense.
Did you watch that video above? It seems like his plan/s would work.

There are a whole bunch of ideas out there. But perhaps the worry is if they can that one, all the others will erupt.
http://article.wn.com/view/2010/06/04/Latest_in_oil_spill_disaster_BP_shears_pipe_tries_to_cap_it/

Liberty,
LOL at you tea party libertarians. All they talk about it is how the government IS the problem and that government interference in big business IS the problem. But now, they cry “where is the government, why has it not taken over the situation.” The emperors have no clothes.

Obama is every bit as incompetent and clueless as Bush. The only difference between Obama and Bush, in terms of crisis management , is that Obama uses better grammar.

King,
I never once said that learning and education were overrated. My comment was referring to the level of importance people put on these Ivy League schools was overrated. More great people, I believe, come from non Ivy League schools. It doesn’t not make them better or worse, but at the end of the day it’s irrelevant if you can’t lead.

Valkyrie,
As a Libertarian, that is not all I talk about. The founding fathers wrote the US Constitution to limit the government from growing oppressive and tyrannical. The intent for the federal government was for it to be limited. there is a place for the federal government, if you’re not sure then please click on this link:

http://www.constitutionfacts.com/?section=constitution&page=readTheConstitution.cfm

I’m not an anarchist, just a person that believes in limited government, personal freedom and individual liberty. There is definatly a place for the federal government in this whole BP disaster. For one, no state has control of that water. It is under the US Government. Second, it appears that government was part of the problem. Just reference the fact that government regulators were doing drugs, drinking and having sex with those that they were supposed to regulate. Another waste of the Taxpayer’s money.
Finally, the government, through the Jones Act, was a road block to allowing foreign companies from helping out.

Less than a minute into President Obama’s Oval Office address, my heart sank. For the umpteenth time since the Gulf of Mexico oil spill began, an anxious nation was informed that Energy Secretary Steven Chu has a Nobel Prize. Obama’s speech pretty much went down hill from there.

For weeks, administration officials have been trumpeting Chu’s distinction at every opportunity. Earlier in the day, White House environmental guru Carol Browner cited the Nobel in a television interview. Presidential adviser David Axelrod talks about the Nobel all the time, as does Press Secretary Robert Gibbs. If there’s an official list of administration talking points about the response to the oil spill, “Chu’s Nobel” has to be at the top.
snip
Obama’s real message was about the need to end America’s ruinous addition to oil. But he didn’t lay the proper foundation for that important part of the speech. First, he needed to enlist Americans in a holy crusade to halt the worst environmental disaster in our history. Instead, he told us about Dr. Chu’s Nobel prize.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2010/06/obama_disappoints_from_the_beg.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

Now you know Obama is in trouble.
haha

Cry Cry babys Cry

Liberty,
The world is a hundred times more complex today, with like ten times the number of people, so you can not seriously tell me that the forefathers were talking policy about today’s world two hundred years ago. Washington, the father of our country, wanted a strong federal government. And originally, much to Jefferson’s chagrin, America had it own bank. Washington specifically rejected Jefferson’s view, in that regard, by adopting Alexander Hamilton’s view. The issue of national ownership of banks or other institutions was certainly not decided by the Constitution.

Our nation needs to create its own oil company, run as a national institution, like the military or the space program. Why do we give away the profits from our oil reserves to private companies? Talk about welfare. We virtually give our natural resources away to a select few privately owned oil companies, believing that they are more efficient and qualified to drill, etc. We make some money, via taxes, which the oil companies lobby to lower, but essentially, this is welfare, the giving away our nation’s wealth for far below market value to privately owned companies.

Double Shock: ABC Shows Gulf Residents Panning Obama’s Oil Spill Speech; ABC’s Katrina Focus Group Praised Bush in 2005

Read more: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/rich-noyes/2010/06/16/double-shock-abc-shows-gulf-residents-panning-obama-s-oil-spill-speech-a#ixzz0r2ubOtKI

Nor can the collective ignorance of Murcuh’s rancid masses be “capped.” Not to worry.

Val, will you never tire of lining up all your little straw men in a row and then knocking them down?

I am very conservative with a libertarian bent to my conservatism. No matter how often you and your friends say that conservatives/libertarians don’t want government at all and are anarchists it’s not true.

If I applied your line of reasoning to you I would insist that you are a true Stalinist who wants government to control every aspect of life both personal and private from cradle to tomb.

Both assertions are foolishly ridiculous.

Grammie,
You blame the government for its involvement in the regulation of oil drilling when that suits your agenda, then blame the government for not completely taking over when that suits your agenda. If you all were honest, you would be praising Obama for his initial restraint, and looking for a middle ground that accomodates both your hands off the private sector philosophy, and the need for the government to step in when things get out of hand. Blaming Obama for this catastrophe, when the culprit is a private corporation that sought to side step and undermine safety regulations, and who claimed vehemently that they had the situation under control, is such a laugh.

“Competent corporation” is an oxymoron. The myth says that the private sector always does it better, and that the government is inept and wasteful. But here we see the private sector, the vaunted great BP, and the whole oil industry, as scoundrels for their lack of due care. I say let the federal government drill its own oil and use that to replenish our national reserves. I have no doubt that the people who brought us the Space Shuttle, and the greatest military in the history of the world, are capable of excelling at drilling oil too.

valkyrie101 says:
June 16, 2010 at 5:15 pm

.
Again, Val, you are misstating my position.

I do not and have never advocated that there should be no regulation of the oil industry and that BHO et al should have seized power after the explosion and the problem would have been solved if BHO et al were at all competent.

I am, however, opposed to the cry for even more agencies, more layers of bureaucracy and more regulations for ideological reasons and more so b/c there is strong evidence that if CURRENT regulations had been properly applied there would very possibly have been no explosion and/or the situation (I think this is a certainty) would not have grown nearly so large.

My complaint is that BHO et al have not properly used their rightful position and authority to coordinate and streamline the overlapping layers of red tape and provide materiel and the power it has to expedite procurement and placement.

BP and other oil companies are the only ones with the expertise to stop the flow. BHO et al is the only entity big enough to keep the damage as small as possible and arrange the cleanup. What have we gotten? Exactly what I oppose politically. The Feds exercising maximum power while the Gulf states, other countries and private enterprise is given the run around.

“Blaming Obama for this catastrophe, when the culprit is a private corporation that sought to side step and undermine safety regulations”

You seem to be totally unaware that the lease was awarded, the drilling and safety permits were all done under BHO and MMS rubber stamped BP every step of the way with permits and WAIVERS of many safety regulations. The Feds had the legitimate power over the entire operation and criminally failed to exercise their due diligence.

This is a complicated world, my friend. Until we have effective regulation in place there will continue to be billion dollar swindlers out there. To say we do not need need more departments, workers, and as you call it, layers of red tape, is to say “stop growing”. The bigger our country gets, the more federal workers are needed to maintain the government. That’s just common sense. And that is not an evil, as the corporate shills would argue. The corporations, that make more now, working the status quo, as a percentage of overall income, than at any other time in our history, certainly do not like regulation, and it is their argument that government regulation and taxes, and the federal bureaucracy itself, are evil. Sadly, they have been using the unwashed masses to do their bidding. :-)

valkyrie101 says:
June 16, 2010 at 6:42 pm

Val, the government is and has been growing much faster than private enterprise for many years.

During our current economic turmoil government salaries and payrolls are the only segments of our economy showing growth and we still have the spectacle of MMS miserably failing.

As for a complicated world, no joke. Precisely why any effort to simplify and streamline is necessary to keep unnecessary complications at bay. I an not convinced that having a few more MMS like agencies wil miraculously cause them to do the job that they are charged and have failed so miserably at.

The profits of the super wealthy, and the large corporations, as more and more smaller corporations are gobbled up by the bigger ones, is the highest in history, by far, and the gap between rich and poor is growing like never before. The American worker is being squeezed out of the picture as the corporations have figured out that they make more by manufacturing in foreign countries where labor is cheap, working conditions bad, and environmental concerns hardly existent. These rich corporations need to be taxed.

Our economy is productive but the profits are being gathered by a small percentage of the people.

I have seldom seen a more sophomoric 20 minutes of meaningless blather. -0bama is totally clueless.

Yes, pyrope, Obama caused the spill and now he is just covering it all up. LOL. There is something quite strange about the “pro un-regulated capitalism” people that get off blaming the duly elected President for this catastrophe, while giving the oil industry, which is now being revealed as playing fast and lose with the too few safety regulations that were in place, a free pass. I do not remember reading a single post from you condemning BP or the oil industry. Why is that? Seems like you have an agenda that undermines the reasoning of your argument. Not to worry pyrope, you have many friends here in that regard.