Andrew Malcom takes out the big stick, hits Obama with it:
4th time: See Obama see the oil spill. Hear Obama talk the oil spill. So, what’ll he say tonight?
Here’s the deal: For whatever reason — wishful, political or ignorance because oil spills are a relative rarity in Obama’s old South side Chicago state Senate district — the nation’s Top Talker was late to be seen reacting seriously to the gooey catastrophe.
Nine days elapsed before he could fit a look-see in between mini-vacations and DNC fundraisers and this summer’s White House music presentations and a White House picnic for Congress and graduation warnings about making excuses in life and re-campaigning for his healthcare legislation, which so many of us thought he had already signed.
By the time Obama made his first Louisiana trip and didn’t see one drop of oil, Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal was nine days into his now eight-week full-time devotion to directing and listening and talking and consoling.
As one result, Magellan Strategies’ new poll of 1,030 likely general election….
…voters in the once-staunchly Democratic state of Louisiana finds the GOP governor’s approval rating at 66% while 60% now disapprove of the president’s spill job.
The nation’s CEO did get out the Costa Rica proclamation on Monday. And he’s already laid on yet another fund-raising trip to help Harry “Won’t You Please Help a Poor Majority Leader?’ Reid in Nevada next month, according to the all-knowing columnist Jon Ralston there.
But Obama has been unable yet to find time to talk with BP’s CEO, nearly 60 days into the crisis, raising serious questions not about his campaigning ability but about his leadership ability once he’s won the office. Such articles appeared here about why he keeps BP as a whipping boy and over here about no longer walking on water and over here on how his lack of leadership corrodes trust in government and over here as the federal government is exposed as an empty Wizard of Oz and over here, even from Jon Stewart
And expect distractions, too,
For the Oval Office chat he’s got to have stats for sure, some reference to a “previous administration” and quotes from real-live coast fishermen. But Obama also needs some seemingly new newsy initiative to draw attention over there. Much talk about the future; yes, it’s bad now but someday it’ll be even better than before and meanwhile we are gonna be dad-gummed certain that BP will pay all the costs.
Obama certainly won’t try explaining Rahm Emanuel’s five years of rent-free living in a BP adviser’s apartment. Or how the administration approved the well that blew out. They’ll likely save leaks about Obama’s verbal confrontation with BP folks until Wednesday.
Hey, what about clean energy as a feel-good distraction to American minds off today’s mess toward the future? “The time has come, once and for all, for this nation to fully embrace a new future,” Obama wrote supporters in an e-mail late Monday.
We’ll hear the Obama speech later, but for the time being, take the time to read C&E News’ special report on the oil spill. A friend sent the link and it is fascinating reading. Here are a few of the C&E News articles:
- Disaster In The Gulf
- BP’s Ever-Growing Oil Spill
- Environmental disaster in the Gulf of Mexico Reveals U.S.’s inability to plan for, control, and clean up oil spills in deep waters
- President, Some Members Of Congress Hope BP Spill Will Invigorate Energy Legislation Push
- Oil Spill Leads To Fame And Fury For Makers Of Dispersant Chemicals
- Scientists Use Social Networking To Study Spill
- Chronology of a Catastrophe
- Editor’s Page: Tapping A Beast
C&E News stands for Chemical and Engineering News, but don’t be intimidated by the name of the journal. The articles are clear and specific, and, most importantly, full of factual information.
A point worth remembering,
The spill may soon rank as the world’s biggest offshore blowout, surpassing the 1979 Ixtoc I rig spill in the southern Gulf of Mexico. That blowout, which released 138 million gal over nine months, also occurred when the blowout preventer failed during a well-sealing operation. Eventually, Mexican-government-run oil firm Pemex, the rig’s owner, drilled relief wells and sealed the borehole, a fate increasingly likely for Deepwater Horizon.
The friend who sent the links comments,
Not yet read, it might be interesting for me to compare their coverage of the story in comparison with how the French Chemical Society dealt with the AZF explosion in Toulouse some years before
The point is, this has happened before, and it has been remedied. Now it’s the time to take decisive action, not the time for political posturing.
