Barack Obama is taking a beating over the Gulf oil spill. He is facing the same accusations that Bush did when everything Katrina was blamed on him. I don’t think Barack Obama could have done anything to fix the problem any more than Bush could have done anything to fix Katrina. Bush mobilized FEMA and, all the politics aside, the federal response was challenging but not nearly as bad as depicted. The major problem is that few understand the role of FEMA and the federal government in these kinds of things.
Obama claims he was engaged from day one. I doubt this and there is little involvement right now. Katrina involved a state but the oil spill is already in federal territory. The feds could have ramped up immediately and quite a bit by now but booms still sit unused. Certainly BP is responsible for the spill and has the expertise to fix this, expertise the feds do not have. But Obama took responsibility. He told us that BP does not make a move without the government approving it. He said this was the case from the start.
The problem is that the appearance is Obama is not leading in this issue. The perception of Bush (painted by the Democrats) was that he was not engaged but the Lessons Learned from Katrina shows this not to be the case. It is all about perception and Obama does not appear to be leading, whether he is or not. The perception is that he is not in charge.
Obama has been beaten up over his engagement because it looks like he is not involved and that he is aloof. Perhaps this is because he lacks the executive experience to handle these kinds of emergencies. He has never led anything and he has never been in charge during an emergency and now his inexperience is showing.
So what is the cool Obama to do?
He loses it on TV and says he needs to know “whose ass to kick.”
I don’t sit around just talking to experts because this is a college seminar; we talk to these folks because they potentially have the best answers — so I know whose ass to kick Yahoo News
Looks like Obama is getting his script from Spike Lee.
Exactly what is Obama going to do and exactly how will he kick any ass? How can he kick any ass when he has his boot on their throats? Will he kick his own ass for the failures of government?
Obama is expressing himself in a not so presidential manner because he knows that as each day passes he will lose more seats in Congress. Though he might benefit from losing Congress (look what a Republican Congress did for Bill Clinton), he certainly does not want to be the record holder for lost seats.
That is a distinct possibility because he is looking more like Jimmy Carter during the Iran Hostage Crisis and less like the Hope and Change dreamer people voted for.
Mr. Obama, I know you need to know whose ass to kick but many of us already have that answer. We are going to kick your party’s ass in the next election.
And by doing that we will also be kicking your sorry ass.
As an aside, imagine what it would have been like in the MSM had someone said that Obama needed to have his ass kicked. I bet they would have been howling like scalded dogs and someone might have been visited by the Secret Service.
Obama reminds me of the scene from My Cousin Vinny:
Vinny: Hey, Vincent LaGuardia Gambini–
Lisa: His name’s J.T.
Vinny: J.T., I believe you and Lisa played a game of pool for two hundred dollars, which she won; I’m here to collect.
J.T.: How ’bout if I just kick your ass?
Vinny: Oh, a counteroffer. That’s what we lawyers, I’m a lawyer, call that a counteroffer. Let me see, this is a tough decision you’re giving me here. Get my ass kicked or collect two hundred dollars. Hmm, let me think. I could use a good ass kicking, I’ll be very honest with you. Nah, I think I’ll just go with the two hundred. [more]
Yep, in November Obama is going to find out what an ass kicking really is.
Related:
Sarah Barracuda [Big Dog Salute to Brutally Honest]
Never surrender, never submit.
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