When you focus too much on politics, often reality beats you into the ground. Our current President is about to realize that he didn’t do enough, said too much and failed to empower so many others that the Gulf disaster is worse than it should have been. On top of that, President Obama has led liberal dissenters to become more violent than the right-wingers he warned us about, and his anti-government rhetoric is focusing more on his hypocrisy than anyone else’s.
In fire-brandishing gatherings reminiscent of the L.A. riots from the O.J. trial, liberals broke windows and vandalized property while carrying lit torches. I thought Obama was concerned about political rhetoric energizing far-right groups to the point of violence. In fact, all the arrests are from liberal protests. Why is that? Ah, because Obama’s misunderstanding of the Arizona law, his own health care reform, or the financial reform is better understood by the majority of Americans than his own political base.
Obama and his cabinet members point at the Arizona anti-immigration law as unconstitutional and clear racial profiling. Actually, the law, and the following clarification both say it is illegal for law enforcement to search, approach, or arrest anyone simply on the basis of race, ethnicity or anything other than criminal activity.
We could also look at Obama’s performance in the Gulf of Mexico. Since 1994, a plan has existed to fight an offshore well oil leak. It requires the use of “fire-booms” to ignite the slick.
A single fire boom being towed by two boats can burn up to 1,800 barrels of oil an hour, Bohleber said. That translates to 75,000 gallons an hour, raising the possibility that the spill could have been contained at the accident scene 100 miles from shore.
“They said this was the tool of last resort. No, this is absolutely the asset of first use. Get in there and start burning oil before the spill gets out of hand,” Bohleber said. “If they had six or seven of these systems in place when this happened and got out there and started burning, it would have significantly lessened the amount of oil that got loose.”
The question remains, if the department of Homeland Security, the EPA, or Obama were aware of this valuable tool, why do we only have one of them? An Associated Press piece even questioned the Administration’s assertion that they have been involved with the spill since day one. Day nine… maybe, day one they still did not understand how serious the accident was.
Politico’s Jeanne Cummings digs into the issue of Obama failing to accomplish key progressive policy changes and how the left is reacting. Jeanne quotes David Gergen on Obama’s leadership style (or lack thereof):
“Most presidents like to lead from upfront. When you lead from behind, as [Obama] frequently does on domestic issues, many people are unhappy because they don’t know where things are going. There is constant jockeying that takes place,” said David Gergen, an adviser to four White Houses.
Our President seems more concerned about being perceived poorly than performing poorly, and he may accomplish both. Viva November.
