Hillarysworld

Members Login

Post Info

TOPIC: Obama pays price for thinking Bush was a dunce (Wash. Examiner 6/3/10)

Jen the Michigander

SuperModerator

Status: Offline

Posts: 1788

Date: Jun 6, 2010

Obama pays price for thinking Bush was a dunce (Wash. Examiner 6/3/10)	Permalink

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/Obama-pays-price-for-thinking-Bush-was-a-dunce-95435324.html#ixzz0q1ucdQVX Blame over what Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano might call a "man-caused disaster" in the Gulf of Mexico will be traded until long after the last pelican has been wiped down and the final check has been cut to an out-of-work shrimper. BP will get most of the blame, and there's reason to wonder whether a company that saw its stock described as having "the smell of death" will survive billions of dollars in fines, lawsuits and cleanup fees. But Obama will be endlessly second-guessed for allowing more offshore drilling before he made sure that his regulators were up to the task and then taking so long to jump in after it was clear they weren't. Some of the blame will be unfair, and some will be well placed. But a good bit from both categories will adhere to the president, who once was seen as spotless. But Obama needn't wonder why the wreck of the Deepwater Horizon will have done so much damage to his political fortunes. By raising expectations for what government can do and for campaigning irresponsibly against the failures of his predecessor, Obama made his own eventual fall all the more precipitous. When Obama was running for president in 2008 he was still bashing George W. Bush for his handling of Hurricane Katrina, scoffing at Bush's promise to "do whatever it takes" to help New Orleans residents rebuild. "Those words have been caught in a tangle of half-measures, half-hearted leadership and red tape," Obama said on a campaign swing through New Orleans. Obama can hardly be surprised to now hear Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal giving him a taste of his own medicine for the administration's slow response to local requests for permission to act against the disaster when the feds weren't offering better ideas of their own. Obama knew perfectly well that there were problems in New Orleans that predated Katrina that could never be fixed by the federal government, no matter how long the Bush administration carpet-bombed the city with free money. But he was not going to give up any of his rhetorical flourishes because of a fear that he might raise expectations too high in NOLA. Obama believed his own hype and figured that he could succeed where Bush failed. Now, two more years down the road, Obama has been unable to solve the problems that he accused Bush of leaving behind through "half-hearted leadership." And now the city faces another disaster, in part because Obama's administration was so bad at regulating the oil industry. Obama, who railed against the oil industry and wrapped himself in the suffering of the poor people of New Orleans, surely was attuned to the risks at play in deepwater offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. __________________ Nobody puts THIS baby in the corner!

freespirit

Moderator

Status: Offline

Posts: 1695

Date: Jun 7, 2010

This article really nails it. It's true, Bush's response to Katrina was slow and weak, but no slower and weaker than Obama's response to the BP spill.

All the ridiculous statements Obama made during the campaign are coming back to haunt him.

__________________

It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed the Union.... Men, their rights and nothing more; women, their rights and nothing less. ~Susan B. Anthony

Page 1 of 1 sorted by

Tweet this page

Post to Digg

Post to Del.icio.us

Create your own FREE Forum
Report Abuse