Useless Thuggery

Michael Barone has a great article today about Obama's "useless thuggery." Well worth reading. Barone points out that while Obama talks a tough game with regard to the Gulf spill, there has been virtually no real leadership or action taken by his administration even up to this moment.

What has Obama done so far with regard to the spill? First, he placed a moratorium on offshore oil drilling. This moratorium will cause the loss of many high-paying American jobs, adding an additional strain to an already bad economy. It penalizes the oil companies that have compiled much better safety records than BP. It will lead to further unhealthy dependence on foreign oil. And surprisingly, it is most strongly opposed by the very people that have suffered the most from the oil spill - Louisiana residents. I recently watched a focus group discussion moderated by pollster Frank Luntz consisting of Louisiana voters. This group consisted of Democrats and Republicans, blacks and whites, supporters and opponents of Obama -- but every single person in the group without exception opposed the moratorium. Governor Jindal pleaded with Obama not to institute the moratorium as well. They know that Louisiana depends on oil production revenue, and that this moratorium will only increase the economic suffering of their state. Too bad for them that Obama couldn't care less.

Second, we now know that Obama refused --and continues to refuse -- help from foreign vessels to clean up the oil in the Gulf. It's my understanding that up to a dozen countries have offered help, but most notably the Dutch, Belgians, and Norwegians contacted the Obama Administration within three or four days of the initial oil spill and offered to send several of their highly advanced oil skimmers that were capable of cleaning up hundreds of thousands of tons of water each day. Obama used the Jones Act as justification for his refusal. The Jones Act is an outdated law requiring all ships in U.S. waters to be built and crewed by Americans -- but it has been routinely waived by previous presidents in times of crisis, and was promptly waived by Bush after Katrina in 2005. By the way, the unions vigorously support the Jones Act, and the unions gave $400 million to Obama's 2008 campaign. Think there could be a connection? To please the labor unions, Obama refused help that could have drastically reduced the damaging effects of the spill.

Third, Obama gave a weak speech from the Oval Office nearly TWO MONTHS after the spill started. After giving a few generalities about the cleanup and pretending like the government had been on top of the situation from Day One, Obama proceeded to use the spill as an excuse to push for "green energy" and the passage of his cap-and-trade bill. It is very sad to see Obama playing politics with this tragedy, especially since the oil spill has no connection to cap-and-trade at all. Cap-and-trade is a terrible legislative idea that will dramatically increase energy costs for Americans with no appreciable environmental benefit. However, it will create an additional stream of revenue for the federal government while increasing their control over energy companies -- exactly what Obama wants. Of course "green energy" sounds great, and if alternative energy sources could efficiently power my car, not to mention our factories and our overall economy, then Americans would happily use them. Unfortunately, there is no current renewable energy source that even comes close to being able to do what fossil fuels do every day. Obama admitted as much in his speech, but still wants us to tax the heck out of oil and gas producers and throw away billions of tax dollars to fund inferior sources of energy like ethanol that are incapable of being profitable without huge government subsidies. Obama lyingly claimed that we are running out of places to drill. The truth is that we have enough known oil deposits on our soil and in our waters to power our economy for hundreds of years into the future -- and that is just the deposits we know about. The Gulf spill is an immediate crisis, but our country's reliance on fossil fuels is not.

Fourth, Obama has focused relentlessly on covering himself politically by blaming BP. We elected a president to lead and find solutions, not to shift blame and engage in political attacks. Instead of focusing first on working with BP to stop the leak, Obama's Justice Department has already opened a criminal investigation into BP -- while the oil is still gushing out. This is without a doubt hindering the attempts to stop the spill, because BP has to focus on hiring lawyers and defending themselves instead of putting all their resources and focus into stopping the spill. Perhaps a criminal investigation is in order, but shouldn't it wait until the leak is stopped and the situation is somewhat under control? And Obama has forced BP to create a $20 billion escrow fund. This is an unconstitutional power grab by our federal government in transferring private property from party to another without due process of law. Congress has been playing along very effectively, hauling oil executives before their committees for political grandstanding purposes but failing to investigate the government parties responsible for allowing BP to drill without proper permits, safety procedures, and emergency plans.

There's more that could be said, but this sums up some of the more important points. I don't think Obama could have done a worse job handling the Gulf spill, and his dramatic failure underscores his utter lack of experience, leadership skills, and character.

The Buck Stops...Well...Somewhere Else

I couldn't believe my ears. I was listening to the radio this morning on my way in to work, and I heard an excerpt from Obama's commencement address at a high school in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Obama told the kids not to blame others for their own mistakes and urged them to take responsibility instead of making excuses.

Seriously? I wish I could have seen the video to see if Obama kept a straight face. You know, the same Obama who has been viciously attacking BP instead of making his highest priority to work in cooperation with them to stop the spill (the president of BP has not spoken with Obama since the spill occurred in April). The same Obama who just said in an interview that he was talking with the brightest minds about the oil spill, not to figure out how to stop the spill and clean up the mess, but to determine "whose ass to kick." (At least he sounds presidential when he's engaging in political blame-shifting!) One could be forgiven for thinking that Obama's highest priority regarding the Gulf spill was covering himself politically.

It's instructive to compare Obama's handling of the Gulf oil spill with Bush's handling of Katrina. Bush acknowledged his administration's responsibility for dealing with the hurricane fallout (even though his administration had far less to do with the hurricane than the Obama administration had to do with the oil spill). He never once attacked or blamed anyone outside of his administration, even though he could have easily done so (the mayor of New Orleans and the governor of Louisiana both proved to be pathetically incompetent). He constantly thanked and praised the volunteers working around the clock to clean up the mess, which Obama has not once done to my knowledge. Don't get me wrong. The federal government's response to Katrina was slow and inefficient, but at least Bush demonstrated his leadership qualities by his response.

I was surprised when Obama harshly attacked Bush in his inaugural address. I thought he was supposed to be a different kind of president who was going to bring our country together, and frankly it's pretty unprecedented for a new president to attack the outgoing president at the inauguration ceremony. A year later, in his first State of the Union address, Obama once again blamed Bush for our country's economic woes. In October, Charles Krauthammer said this regarding Obama:

Is there anything he hasn't blamed George W. Bush for? The economy, global warming, the credit crisis, Middle East stalemate, the deficit, anti-Americanism abroad -- everything but swine flu. It's as if Obama's presidency hasn't really started. He's still taking inventory of the Bush years. Just this Monday, he referred to "long years of drift" in Afghanistan in order to, I suppose, explain away his own, well, yearlong drift on Afghanistan.

I hope the kids at that Kalamazoo high school will prove to be men and women of character and leadership who take responsibility instead of shifting blame. If they do, they will have learned it from someone other than Barack Obama.