This is what President Obama's critics have been reduced to-George Will yesterday on This Week saying the president is "being unfairly blamed" for his response to the Deepwater Horizon fiasco, but on the other hand "it sort of serves him right." From Media Matters:
I used to have some degree of respect for George Will. He was one of the few remaining voices on the right who, on occasion, made some reasonable, rational arguments. Now he's turned into Glenn Beck in a bowtie.
Then there was Maureen Dowd's nonsensical blather in an op-ed piece in the New York Times. She thinks that the president should either yell and scream and pound the podium, or do his best Bill Clinton imitation and get all misty-eyed while he tells the residents along the Gulf Coast how he feels their pain. How either action would do anything to stop the gusher I'm not sure, and Ms. Dowd doesn't say.
Not surprisingly the right-wing blogosphere is all ga-ga over a piece by Toby Hamden in the UK Telegraph which slams the president on several fronts. His "Spock-like technocratic language" as opposed to getting angry at the slowness of BP's response, his appearing to be "uncomfortable and petulant" at the press conference, and even throwing in an accusation of "stonewalling" over the non-troversy involving Joe Sestak.
One example is this from Red State:
What I'd like to hear from some of these mental midgets is some specifics on just exactly what the hell they expect President Obama to do? Sure, he could rant and rave at the BP execs (this just in critics, in case you haven't caught on by now, that's not his personality). But even if he did that, you just know the reaction from the right would be about the angry black man who can't control his temper.
He could fire the Interior Secretary, the head of the EPA, and every other incompetent bureaucrat with their hands in this oily pie. He could weep with and hug every out of work fisherman along the Gulf Coast affected by this catastrophe. He could grab a case of Dawn and a pair of gloves and clean pelicans. And if he did each and every one of those things, do you know what would happen?
The oil would still be flowing.
I used to have some degree of respect for George Will. He was one of the few remaining voices on the right who, on occasion, made some reasonable, rational arguments. Now he's turned into Glenn Beck in a bowtie.
Then there was Maureen Dowd's nonsensical blather in an op-ed piece in the New York Times. She thinks that the president should either yell and scream and pound the podium, or do his best Bill Clinton imitation and get all misty-eyed while he tells the residents along the Gulf Coast how he feels their pain. How either action would do anything to stop the gusher I'm not sure, and Ms. Dowd doesn't say.
Not surprisingly the right-wing blogosphere is all ga-ga over a piece by Toby Hamden in the UK Telegraph which slams the president on several fronts. His "Spock-like technocratic language" as opposed to getting angry at the slowness of BP's response, his appearing to be "uncomfortable and petulant" at the press conference, and even throwing in an accusation of "stonewalling" over the non-troversy involving Joe Sestak.
One example is this from Red State:
"It was a joy to read this article from the UK Telegraph this morning. It illustrates just how low Barack Obama has sunk with the latest in a long string of bumblings and fumblings. His popularity continues to tank after a brief flirtation with recovery following his successful implementation of healthcare rationing.
[...]
Yet again, the Obamites have employed evasion, lies and misdirection to attempt to avoid blame for their missteps and misbehavior. The American media seems to be OK with simply accepting this lack of transparency, but journalists such as Harnden, who are not threatened by the strong-arm tactics of Rahm Emanuel and the rest of the Chicago politithugs, are free to speak the truth."
What I'd like to hear from some of these mental midgets is some specifics on just exactly what the hell they expect President Obama to do? Sure, he could rant and rave at the BP execs (this just in critics, in case you haven't caught on by now, that's not his personality). But even if he did that, you just know the reaction from the right would be about the angry black man who can't control his temper.
He could fire the Interior Secretary, the head of the EPA, and every other incompetent bureaucrat with their hands in this oily pie. He could weep with and hug every out of work fisherman along the Gulf Coast affected by this catastrophe. He could grab a case of Dawn and a pair of gloves and clean pelicans. And if he did each and every one of those things, do you know what would happen?
The oil would still be flowing.
I agree with half of what Will said, Obama IS "being unfairly blamed" for his response. I think the rest of Will's reply was a litle harsh. But, unlike Cobb below, I have not given up on him (Will) yet. (See paragraph 3)
I DO think that Obama could have, in retrospect, been a little more "involved". I think he trusted the British. That was a mistake.
Also on Sunday, Will was asked what is up with the entire republican party voting against repeal of "DADT" when the majority of their party and most of the military think it's time. He said, simply, "They aren't being very intelligent".
This is an industry disaster looking for someone who will touch it and get stuck to it, unable to get away.
It is a result of de-regulation, which industry now wants to be bailed out and saved from.
What will be interesting is the Royal Visit of early July - her majesty's tour of Canada (will it include BP's North Slope operations ?) just prior to her U.N. address.
We can hardly wait to see how CNN and MSNBC will splice footage of gushing oil (still a month from completion of the first relief well), the British crown, and dying wildlife on the Colonies' gulf coast.
From now until the relief well is finished, the POTUS should provide a daily count since BP's blow-out remains un-capped and since the de-regulated corporation has failed to execute its disaster plan after lying to the entire world about the volume of the spill for at least 3 weeks.
Robert Gibbs will have to pound the high priests of de-regulation that disarmed government, day after day after day.
Anyway, it is beyond stupid to have vital U.S. government assets deployed on the gulf during hurricane season when we are waging 2 Mid-East wars. This clean-up is something BP has the power to do as the 4th largest coporate entity on the planet, said they could do in their disaster plan filed with their drilling permit, and we all know if it needs doing private industry can do it better than ' the gubbamint ' can - that is why Congress quit funding government's ability to do these things, and government should just stay out of industry's way.
George Will has become irrelevant. His Newsweek columns stopped making any sense years ago. It's like he's given a word quota and when he fulfills it he stops writing. Most of the time when I finish reading one of his pieces my response is "huh?".
There's no pleasing those people, no matter what.
If the President had been down in the Gulf right after the blow-out, the Repugs/Teabaggers would have been yelling that "he needs to get out of the way and let the experts handle the problem. After all, what does he know about oil wells and spills."
The Repugs have gone orgasmatic over the "Obama" oil spill and the Sestak non-matter.
Just notice how everything Obama does is wrong. These kidnapping torturers are still mad because the world hated their goosestepping puppet boy Bush Jr.
They don't care what the truth of the issues may be, they just get all happy when they find one they can use against Obama. The legitimacy of the issue doesn't matter because they're Republicans feeling left out.
Those teabaggers don't have a clue. They're just going to jump on the idiots bandwagon.
What the hell...I sure don't see that bimbo Sarah Stupid Palin down there doing jackshit to help out. She's too busy chasing moolah and whoring for the teabaggers.
I don't see Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh getting off their asses to do anything. I don't see John McCain doing a damn thing.
They all need to put up or shut the fuck up.
yeah, I agree that its all very stupid. I was kind of stunned when I saw James Carville making a big fuss about things.
The biggest point of value that I've seen is the article that cites the middle eastern oil countries willingness to help. They should accept that offer immediately.
No matter what he does, the vitriol will still be flowing too.
Yet we still haven't heard any real solutions on ANYTHING from the US version of AQ, the RW teabaggers. Oh wait, they did shout a lot of "drill here, drill now" and "drill baby, drill" didn't they? That was going to solve all our problems, wasn't it?
Let's give them all a case of Dawn detergent and a pair of gloves and send them out to the Gulf to clean up stuff for the next 100 years. If they're standing in the water, they can't whine into a microphone or camera.