Opinion Forum

The Day After

June 16th, 2010

I intended to write something yesterday before the President made his Oval Office pitch. After all the efforts put forth by White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, I was expecting more. I knew the President would use the Gulf catastrophe to put forth his energy tax/cap-and-trade agenda. After the obligatory shot at BP, there wasn’t much he could say. No outright mention of accepting full responsibility for anything.

The government action in the Gulf disaster shows about as much planning as the proverbial Chinese fire drill. I may have missed something, but I don’t think he again compared the Gulf tragedy to 9/11 as he has previously done. Let’s face it, the 9/11 tragedy was also an American disaster but from another time. To invoke 9/11 in order to lessen the implications of the Gulf spill response is simply the sign of a politician trying to cover his butt.

The President believes there is nothing humanly possible that can fix the oil leak in the Gulf — a statement that’s hard to believe. We are a nation that has put men on the moon and have underwater vessels that can stay totally submerged for months at a time. What the President didn’t tell us was the reason it took so long to try and contain the resulting oil spill. For 21 days the federal government gave little more than lip service to the states that constitute the Gulf Coast. Despite requests for help and in some cases waivers from the Army Corps Of Engineers, very little help was forthcoming.

This man is an academic of some renown but little real world experience. His short tenure as a Chicago politician and US Senator didn’t come close to preparing him to be this nation’s leader — a fact, by the way, that doesn’t seem to bother him or his supporters. His dependence on fellow academics only introduces more confusion and contributes little to his problem-solving capacity. His recently formed oil spill commission will contain no one with oil industry ties. Meanwhile, the Gulf continues to wallow in millions of gallons of sludge and dead sea creatures.

Articles written by Larry Ennis
Tags: 9/11, BP, cap-and-trade, commission, disaster, Gulf, Obama, oil spill
Categories: News, Politics | Comments (2) | Home

2 Responses to “The Day After”

Brianna | June 17th, 2010 at 12:03 am

Maybe he should put Palin on the oil spill commission. And yes, that’s actually a fairly serious suggestion. She spent some time on the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission back in her home state, which means she probably has more actual experience than anybody Obama’s planning to put on the commission right now.

d | June 17th, 2010 at 6:58 am

Yeah,Palin could collect the dead animals and stuff them,then mount their heads on her walls.
Larry, how is the Pres. totally responsible for this one? Was Bush responsible for the hurricane catastrophy? Maybe,a teenie bit responsible for the aftermaths’ handling,but to take total responsibility,don’t think so. Not humanly possible to stop it, then we should not have been able to cause it,if we can’t possibly fix it. This is extremely short sighted of the oil companies,which,incidentally,are completely to blame, for this disaster and not having a plan beforehand, to handle just such an emmergency. Don’t kid yourself,as to whom the blame falls,it’s on their heads. The drilling should have never been started before a tried and proven ,remedy for just such an accident existed. they could have simulated the spill and solved it beforehand.Why have we not heard that Kevin Costners machines are cleaning up the spill? I assume,because the oil companies don’t make money off it.