The man who electrified the nation with his speech at the Democratic National Convention of 2004 put it to sleep Tuesday night. President Obama's address to the nation from the Oval Office was, to be frank, vapid. If you watched with the sound off you might have thought he was giving a lecture on the history of the Interstate Highway System. He didn't have to be angry but he had at least to show passion and conviction. It is, after all, the worst environmental crisis in the history of the nation.
With the sound on, his words hung in the air with all the force of a fundraiser for your local public access TV station. Everything seemed to be in the passive tense. He had authorized deepwater drilling because he "was assured" it was safe. But who assured him? How does he feel about being so brazenly misled? He said he wanted to "understand" why that was mistaken. Understand? He's the President of the United States and it was a major decision. Isn't he determined to find out how his advisors could have been so terribly wrong?
Tomorrow he's "informing" the president of BP of BP's financial obligations. "Informing" is what you do when you phone the newspaper to tell them it wasn't delivered today. Why not "directing" or "ordering?"
The President distinguished what has happened in the Gulf of Mexico from a tornado or hurricane because they are over quickly while the leak is an ongoing crisis, lasting many weeks and perhaps months more. He likened it to an "epidemic." But the real difference has nothing to do with time. Tornadoes and hurricanes are natural disasters. Epidemics occur because germs mutate and spread. The spill occurred because of the recklessness and ruthlessness of a giant oil company in pursuit of profit.
And what has the nation learned from all this? The same lesson we've known for decades, according to the President. We must end our dependence on oil. But if we've known this for decades, why haven't we done anything about it? The President endorsed the cap-and-trade bill that emerged from the House (without calling it cap-and-trade) but didn't call for the only thing that may actually work: a tax on carbon.
I'm a fan of Barack Obama. I campaigned for him and I believe in him. I think he has a first-class temperament. I have been deeply moved and startled by his ability to speak about the nation's most intractable problems. But he failed tonight to rise to the occasion. Is it because he's not getting good advice, or because he's psychologically incapable of expressing the moral outrage the nation feels?
Or is it something deeper? Whether it's Wall Street or health insurers or oil companies, we are approaching a turning point. The top executives of powerful corporations are pursuing profits in ways that menace the nation. We have not seen the likes not since the late nineteenth century when the "robber barons" of finance, oil, and the giant trusts ran roughshod over America. Now, as then, they are using their wealth and influence to buy off legislators and intimidate the regions that depend on them for jobs. Now, as then, they are threatening the safety and security of our people.
This is not to impugn the integrity of all business leaders or to suggest that private enterprise is inherently evil or dangerous. It is merely to state a fact that more and more Americans are beginning to know in their bones.
Our President must tell is like it is -- not with rancor but with the passion and conviction of a leader who recognizes what is happening and rallies the nation behind him.
This post originally appeared at RobertReich.org.
the ability to speak clearly, and to articulate his arguments, however specious. Plainly,
he pontificates with statements that are largely hyperbole and lack judgement. If he is
surrounding himself with counselors of the same ilk, then vetting of his statements are disseminated without review but with obvious political overtones. Obama is not a wise man, he is a
political animal.
Although he claims otherwise, Reich must have a low opinion of Obama if he thinks Obama doesn't care about how he was mislead. Given what Obama did say about the MMS, its not too difficult, especially for Reich, to conclude that MMS was the primary source of the assurance Obama received.
As for merely informing BP, rather than ordering, as if they are necessarily different, apparently it worked, how about that? By the way, ever get a pink slip? Isn't that kind of, you know, the boss informing you that you're fired?
If Reich is not impugning the "integrity of all business leader" or suggesting "that private enterprise is inherently evil or dangerous," then perhaps Obama did not need to raise a rhetorical sword in the Oval Office as Reich wants, but instead speak to us rationally, sincerely, and with quiet passion. I for one am gratified Obama did just that.
http://money.cnn.com/2010/06/17/smallbusiness/small_business_bp_hearing/index.htm?source=cnn_bin
Compare Obama's recommendation to the top scientists, engineers and inventors of this country (i.e. to send their best ideas, tied with a bow, on to BP), to what a Roosevelt, Kennedy, or even Johnson would have done starting on day one - anyone remember the "Manhattan Project"???
The democratic voice has no power, now or even during an election cycle. Power economic forces
can turn any election. We even have multi millionaires in races for the governor roles. That is like
saying the rich have a right to get richer, in fact much richer. Any other view would be
anti-capitalistic.
This BP disaster could gush oil until the end of time and it still wouldn't equal the massive destruction spread on every continent by American corporations. And of all the many disasters left behind by these American corporations, how many do you think received a special compensation fund for their victims?
Perhaps President Obama didn't express the moral outrage that some desire because he understands how hypocritical, disingenuous and intellectually dishonest it would be to do so. Voicing outrage at BP is surely not telling it like it is. Rather it is simple comfort for the selfish and self-indulgent. I laugh at the suggestion that Obama should "tell it like it is." Most Americans can't handle that truth.
If you knew you had the power to use the media to make a difference, wouldn't you rather be inspired by what's possible rather than dragged down by what's wrong?
Yes, Pres. Obama is a great campaigner - he has dreams too. I'm sure he's disappointed that he hasn't been able to affect change as fast as we want and need. But we all must admit, he's getting things done that no other President has done in a long time. We must remember we can not dictate how he reacts, he is who he is and he is not a strong arm guy. Or is he?
We need to manage our expectations so that we can still be supportive and move forward. If we all get frustrated and vote for the next guy, just remember we reap what we sow.
I still believe we have a lot of work to do - we need to get the money out of campaigning somehow, we need to move toward energy independence, immigration reform, financial reform, etc.... We may not get there tomorrow and it might not be as impressive as it should be - but at least it's in the right direction.
I still believe that the people can affect change - we can't sit back, we need to rally and send the people with these visions into office. Unfortunately most of these people don't have money to get elected. So we need to find the candidates to back and
I saw Rudy G on Moring Joe and he was bloviating that Obama failed in so many ways he couldn't count. Had he been Pres, he'd have gotten the oil experts involved. But who the hell are they? I seem to have heard them testify to Congress that "They have no idea what to do to contain anything". "The only containment is prevention." I suppose that. had we heard that at the end of April, things would be different now. Bull! The "drill-baby-drill" mentality guaranteed it. Rudy would have the free market take care ot it. Afterall, it has done so much for us in recent times.
Everyone now wants a government with teeth. But those teeth have rotted out on the steady diet of lobby candy over the past 30 years.
Obama, is perhaps, as dissapointed in us, who should be at his back. No president of the USA has been perfect. The ones so often pointed at as having a dissapointing presidency, or a one term president, have gone on to prove their viability as people who work their lives to improve horrible situations....remember Carter?...look up the history of John Quincy Adams and more.
The Republican Party can undermine all the things Obama had on his slate to do, but they need to be careful about hoping he is a one-term president.