I was stunned this a.m. to see video of AP reporter Rich Matthews diving into the Gulf to see the underwater effects of the Gulf oil spill. His article noted that the other divers wouldn't go in without their hazmat suits, but that he wanted to go in to see for himself. Approximately 40 miles offshore, the water that Rich dove into was filled with oil, completely hazy, with huge blobs of oil floating around. The surface was covered with the thick brown sludge we've seen on so many of the suffering animals and birds.
This Gulf oil spill is about a lot of things. First, BP, which has and had some good things going for it, has been incompetent and abusive, and hasn't contained the oil. The degree of helplessness and apathy all around is scary, because more and more information comes out that people wanting to help have been turned away or ignored despite repeated pleas. Three weeks ago, Kevin Costner's oil cleanup machines were ready to go. I just heard his sad, regretful testimony to Congress yesterday, describing how he had tried to get somebody - anybody - interested in using the machines to clean up the spill. A month ago, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal went public with his frustration that his state's sand berm proposal to try to keep some of the oil off coastal wetland areas, protecting wildlife and fisheries, was ignored for two solid weeks by Federal authorities. It got ignored for 2-3 more weeks, and apparently there's one berm under construction and the Administration made sure to say in the President's initial, unfocused and weird "speech" a few weeks ago that they had taken over from Gov. Jindal - just about stating that "they knew best." Yesterday, President Obama admitted on national television that, nearly two months after the initial leak, he hadn't yet spoken to BP's CEO directly.
And three days ago, I couldn't help but see the now-infamous Matt Lauer interview with the President where he "articulately" stated he was consulting experts about the spill "in order to find out whose ass to kick."
That did drop my jaw. If we were to play, let's say, National Disaster Mad Libs, what would our sentence completion options be? Here's the quote:
"I don't sit around just talking to experts because
this is a college seminar. We talk to these folks because they,
potentially, have the best answers so A) We can know how to clean up the spill.
B) We can stop the spill.
C) We can prevent more damage from happening.
D) We can help the people and environment in the Gulf.
Well, in this case, the President chose E) I know whose ass to kick.
It's not hard to know how to react in that case. I was expecting him to refer to A), B), C) or D) and when I heard E), my first reaction was another profanity, which I didn't say out loud. First, my jaw fell, and then I thought, "What the f***?" Then I thought, he can't even talk about helping the people and animals? What is wrong with him?
So by all means, feel very, very free to call me a racist like "political commenter" Mark Halperin did on Bill O'Reilly's show. I mean seriously - fat people thought I was against them, so why not call me a racist? At this point, I have a couple of simple theories as to what is wrong with President Obama, and they boil down to:
A) He literally has no idea what to do, and doing something about anything is NOT what he signed on for. He signed on for TV interviews, awards, living in a cool White House and getting ovations and cool prizes.
B) No matter what the Halperins of the world say, I don't think he's going to get it together and do anything constructive - about anything.
That's not because he's black, that's because he is who he is. America elected yet another do-nothing politician whose 100% interest is his own self - the daily attention he is paid, the opportunities to be on TV and media, his "prizes" (Nobel, etc.). Dorothy Rabinowitz wrote in the Wall Street Journal yesterday that the President is an "alien" in the White House. She referred to his choices of administrative personnel, and his refusal, and theirs, to refer to Islamic terrorists as that - apparently they are all unwilling to say the terror attacks on US soil over the past year are related to Islamic terrorism. That's apparently because they care more about what Islamic terrorists think of them, and miscellaneous "foreign" others (i.e. I guess, the Nobel Prize committee) than about the victims of these attacks, which in the case of Ft. Hood, are tragic and severe. Since most Americans don't read international news, even though it's easy via the internet, apparently commenters like Mark Halperin think that worldwide, our "world leader" is totally popular and beloved, and only "ignorant, racist, redneck Americans" think he's not doing a very good job. That's because people like Mark Halperin ignore international media, which is all over the President - and not favorably. It began with the economic meltdown and "Stimulus," during which French President Sarkozy and German Prime Minister Angela Merkel told the President - DON'T DO THAT. WE DID THAT AND WE ARE STILL TRYING TO FIX IT. The current headline of English-language Pravda, which is a publication meant to subvert and demoralize Americans and EU members, is "America Sinks Into Marxism" and also "Obama and Elites Party While America Crumbles."
However, the President's new foreign policy plan, which was barely covered in the US (and features the "no Islamic terrorists" doctrine), did receive favorable mentions in Arab News and even Al Jazeera. He got good coverage there for yesterday's special visit with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, too.
People aren't afraid of President Obama and don't think he's "menacing" because he chose the mindboggling choice "E" when referring to consulting experts about the oil spill. I'm pretty sure if showed that video independently, 90% or more of people watching it would just be flabbergasted as I was. They would wonder what was wrong with the President, that he didn't include choices A-D. And he didn't.
I always liked Kevin Costner. I am pretty sure he's been fighting a huge uphill battle to get his oil machines in use, and already stated that he'd warned oil companies seven years ago that this type of horrible spill could occur. I would much, much rather have him as President. I know a lot of people think he is a "dumb" movie star. But at least he could choose A-D. Even with the big egos of many performers, and I'm pretty sure Kevin has a fairly large ego, he seems to want to clean up the oil. He is focused on stopping the disaster. There will be plenty of time for attorneys to "kick BP's ass later." In fact, they have ordered several of Kevin's oil-cleanup machines. So if they are put out of business prior to that, how will these machines be constructed and used?
Nothing that any commenter like Mark Halperin or others can say is going to change the fact that the President does not care, and it is brutally obvious. It's even more obvious that he has so little clue about what real people think and how they go about their lives that he can't even choose reasonable choice A-D, not because he genuinely "cares" but because he understands like a good politician that doing that will preserve his own reputation and maybe even get him another prize. He actually thinks that threatening BP before the oil is stopped or cleanup begins, is preferable to stopping the oil, or cleaning up. For real. And nothing will move him off that position. That's because he's a selfish, self-interested and completely clueless politician. And there's lots of those, of all races, shapes and sizes.