Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Cardigan Fits: Obama's Oval Office Oil Spill Speech


I did not watch the Obama Oval Office speech last night, but did listen to it on the car radio. Iwas shocked at how lousy it was. His tone was completely off, with Obama in full "the Cambridge Police acted stupidly" mode. It was utterly unreassuring, and also disturbing.

We have, in 2010, a President of the United States who says things like "we have 2% of the world's population but use 20% of the world's oil." That's right, bud. Would you prefer that everyone in the world use the exact same amount? Because if you do, that means dragging Americans down to the level of the Third World. You sure you want to take that argument to the voters?

We have, in 2010, a President of the United States who says without flinching that we are drilling in deep water because that's all that's available. Yeah, because Democrats have made so much of our proven reserves off-limits via legislative and regulatory fiat. Don't you think people can't find this out?

We have, in 2010, a President of the United States who thinks nothing of ordering a corporation to put billions of dollars into an escrow account administered by political appointees to pay out whatever downstream claims the Left can imagine. Is this even legal?

And, we have, in 2010, a President of the United States who has taken up the "alternate energy" sources like solar and wind, but either doesn't know or doesn't care that all but one of the alternatives can't match the power and efficiency found in a barrel of oil or a lump of coal. So, if this is so important, why can't nukes be on the table? The French, the Japanese, even the US Navy have operated nukes without incident for decades, but our President simply can't conceive of this as a reasonable alternative

Frightening.

Althouse live blogged the speech and concluded "well, that was a terrible speech! When it wasn't grim and dreary, it was grandiose...Oh, the malaise!" Look for the special Psota comment in the thread.



Gateway Pundit live blogged the speech too, noting the most shameless lie of all: "we're drilling in deep water because we've run out of other places to drill" That we have "run out" of places to drill due to environmental legislation and regulatory fiat - and not because of Peak Oil - is an argument that the GOP should be able to make in its sleep, but only Sarah Palin is brave enough to say so.

Ticker Guy reminds us that BP has options to avoid the fines and liability heading its way, and the more the rhetoric is ratcheted up against them, the more likely it is BP will exercise those options. "There is real danger here for the Obama Administration. If it appears that the fines and litigation losses will come within reasonable reach of their US assets, they may be better off to draw down the curtain and place the US subsidiary in Chapter 11 - then let the creditors - including litigants - fight it out for the scraps in a restructuring." This is why the Left hates any form of economic freedom.



The Macho Response has a Message To Millennials. Not specifically "about" the speech, but it certainly is a riposte to the attitude underlying the speech.

The speech inspired Verum Serum to coin a new rhetorical term: "I heard a lot of verbal moon walking"

Even MSNBC hated the speech, especially the parts where Obama touted the academic credentials of his ineffective team.

And let's not leave out the lonely stand of Paul Begala who praises Obama's perfect sense of timing. Come for the abject fawning. Stay for the labored basketball analogies.


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