What could President Obama do?

In watching the Deepwater Horizon disaster unfold I am amazed to find out that I actually agree with far left liberal and full-time verbal assassin James Carville on the administration’s response to the growing ecological disaster.  The President could have chosen to be presidential which may have boosted his sagging ratings, but of course he didn’t do that.  While I realize that I now have the benefit of 20/20 hindsight from which to evaluate his performance, being presidential doesn’t take a PHD in political science, it just takes a bit of operational experience, a healthy dose of common sense and a willingness to put Country over political advantage. 

I would also point out that there are many crises exploding all over the World and in the United States – crises that the President seems to be either blissfully unaware of or unwilling to take head-on.  The perceived weakness that tin-pot dictators, financial markets, and even our friends now see were of course widely predicted during the run-up to the election of our rookie President.  “I told you so” doesn’t help at this point, but those of you who ignored the warning on November 4^th 2008 may keep that in the back of your mind on November 2^nd 2010.  Democrats never fail to disappoint, never. 

However it isn’t hard to find a good example of emergency response – Haiti.  I actually thought that the response to Haiti was overblown, but the response of the Obama administration to Haiti does show that he and his cronies know what it means to be on top of something from “day one.”  While the loss of life in Haiti was higher (92,000 vs. 11) the economic impact of even a moderate spill on the Gulf Coast is many magnitudes greater than the most severe earthquake in Haiti.  Further, the overwhelming majority of folks who live along the Gulf Coast are Americans.  So those people (as well as the people of Nashville, TN) deserved at least as much time from their president as the people of Haiti got.  Further, Michelle Obama was all over the airwaves with commercials for Haitian relief . . . . . and for the Gulf Coast?  Obama solicited the support of both former President Bill Clinton and George W. Bush for Haiti – who did he send to the Gulf Coast . . . . . . . Looney-tunes Secretary of Energy David Chu. 

Why doesn’t Obama appeal to the environmental Nazis to be eco-tourists in the Gulf Coast?  Instead of baking themselves on the beach, they could swing through and clean up an oily bird or pick up some tar balls.  A couple of appeals for “eco-tourists” to the Gulf would do one helluva lot more than all the insults thrown at BP in the standard Washington blame game. Micelle could do a touching commercial encouraging folks to support Gulf Coast businesses and tourism. 

What if President Obama and the administration had embraced British Petroleum from the start instead of placing their boot on their necks?  What possible good is done by hauling the various executives in front of ignorant Congressmen to mug for the camera?  Businesses are not by their very nature evil.  No doubt they don’t have the same goals and motivation as the Sierra Club, but they are repositories of technical know-how and wealth that can be leveraged for good under nearly all circumstances.  Obama’s response was “Just plug the damn hole.” But who exactly has the expertise to do that?  This default setting of the Obama administration that banks, Wall Street, the Boston Police Department, Arizona and now oil companies are all evil is beyond stupid.  I hope that all the would-be campaign contributors from industry are watching this – if he needs a bad guy, you are going right under the bus.  Hear that Goldman-Sachs?  Further, if the administration screws up – they will lie about it and the press will help them with the story. 

While you can’t blame the oil spill on Obama, he doesn’t seem to understand what “number one priority” means – of course he never had to do that before. 

Conservative Resistance – Day 570

Days until we can vote out the rookies - 158