COMPETENCE...

[Cliffenstein]

He Was Supposed to Be Competent
The spill is a disaster for the president and his political philosophy.
Peggy Noonan / The Wall Street Journal / May 29, 2010

I don't see how the president's position and popularity can survive the oil spill. This is his third political disaster in his first 18 months in office. And they were all, as they say, unforced errors, meaning they were shaped by the president's political judgment and instincts.

There was the tearing and unnecessary war over his health-care proposal and its cost. There was his day-to-day indifference to the views and hopes of the majority of voters regarding illegal immigration. And now the past almost 40 days of dodging and dithering in the face of an environmental calamity. I don't see how you politically survive this.

The president, in my view, continues to govern in a way that suggests he is chronically detached from the central and immediate concerns of his countrymen. This is a terrible thing to see in a political figure, and a startling thing in one who won so handily and shrewdly in 2008. But he has not, almost from the day he was inaugurated, been in sync with the center. The heart of the country is thinking each day about A, B and C, and he is thinking about X, Y and Z. They're in one reality, he's in another.

The American people have spent at least two years worrying that high government spending would, in the end, undo the republic. They saw the dollars gushing night and day and worried that while everything looked the same on the surface, our position was eroding. They have worried about a border that is in some places functionally and of course illegally open, that it too is gushing night and day with problems that states, cities and towns there cannot solve.

And now we have a videotape metaphor for all the public's fears: that clip we see every day, on every news show, of the well gushing black oil into the Gulf of Mexico and toward our shore. You actually don't get deadlier as a metaphor for the moment than that, the monster that lives deep beneath the sea.

In his news conference Thursday, President Obama made his position no better. He attempted to act out passionate engagement through the use of heightened language ("catastrophe," etc.) but repeatedly took refuge in factual minutiae. His staff probably thought this demonstrated his command of even the most obscure facts. Instead it made him seem like someone who won't see the big picture. The unspoken mantra in his head must have been, "I will not be defensive, I will not give them a resentful soundbite." But his strategic problem was that he'd already lost the battle. If the well was plugged tomorrow, the damage will already have been done.

The original sin in my view is that as soon as the oil rig accident happened the president tried to maintain distance between the gusher and his presidency. He wanted people to associate the disaster with BP and not him. When your most creative thoughts in the middle of a disaster revolve around protecting your position, you are summoning trouble. When you try to dodge ownership of a problem, when you try to hide from responsibility, life will give you ownership and responsibility the hard way. In any case, the strategy was always a little mad. Americans would never think an international petroleum company based in London would worry as much about American shores and wildlife as, say, Americans would. They were never going to blame only BP...or trust it.

I wonder if the president knows what a disaster this is not only for him but for his political assumptions. His philosophy is that it is appropriate for the federal government to occupy a more burly, significant and powerful place in America—confronting its problems of need, injustice, inequality. But in a way, and inevitably, this is always boiled down to a promise: "Trust us here in Washington, we will prove worthy of your trust." Then the oil spill came and government could not do the job, could not meet need, in fact seemed faraway and incapable: "We pay so much for the government and it can't cap an undersea oil well!"

This is what happened with Katrina and Katrina did at least two big things politically. The first was draw together everything people didn't like about the Bush administration, everything it didn't like about two wars and high spending and illegal immigration and brought those strands into a heavy knot that just sat there soggily and came to symbolize Bushism. The second was illustrate that even though the federal government in our time has continually taken on new missions and responsibilities, the more it took on, the less it seemed capable of performing even its most essential jobs. Conservatives got this point—they know it without being told—but liberals and progressives did not. They thought Katrina was the result only of George W. Bush's incompetence and conservatives' failure to "believe in government." But Mr. Obama was supposed to be competent.

Remarkable too is the way both BP and the government, 40 days in, continue to act shocked, shocked that an accident like this could have happened. If you're drilling for oil in the deep sea, of course something terrible can happen, so you have a plan on what to do when it does.

How could there not have been a plan? How could it all be so ad hoc, so inadequate, so embarrassing? We're plugging it now with tires, mud and golf balls?

What continues to fascinate me is Mr. Obama's standing with Democrats. They don't love him. Half the party voted for Hillary Clinton and her people have never fully reconciled themselves to him. But he is what they have. They are invested in him. In time—after the 2010 elections go badly—they are going to start to peel off. The political operative James Carville, the most vocal and influential of the president's Gulf critics, signaled to Democrats this week that they can start to peel off. He did it through the passion of his denunciations.

The disaster in the Gulf may well spell the political end of the president and his administration and that is no cause for joy. It's not good to have a president in this position—weakened, polarizing and lacking broad public support—less than halfway through his term. That it is his fault is no comfort. It is not good for the stability of the world, or its safety, that the leader of "the indispensable nation" be so weakened. I never until the past 10 years understood the almost moral imperative that an American president maintain a high standing in the eyes of his countrymen.

Mr. Obama himself, when running for president, made much of Bush administration distraction and detachment during Katrina. Now the Republican Party will, understandably, go to town on Mr. Obama's having gone only once to the gulf and the fund-raiser in San Francisco that seemed to take precedence and the EPA chief who decided to cancel a New York fund-raiser only after the press reported that she planned to attend.

But Republicans should beware and even mute their mischief. We're in the middle of an actual disaster. When they win back the presidency, they'll probably get the big California earthquake. And they'll probably blow it. Because, ironically enough, of a hard core of truth within their own philosophy: when you ask a government far away in Washington to handle everything, it will handle nothing well.

[Crazy Levi]

Lame. You just reposted something someone else wrote as an excuse to create another Obama-bashing thread.

Come up with your own shit. Hell, even a comment. This is spam.

[Cliffenstein]

Lame. You just reposted something someone else wrote as an excuse to create another Obama-bashing thread.

Come up with your own shit. Hell, even a comment. This is spam.

Yes, I did repost something someone else wrote...that's really great detective work there, Levi...what was it that tipped you off?

Was it the credit to the author and the link to the original article offered just under the title?

[SeminiferousButtNoid]

That was an excellent article, which is no surprise coming from Peggy Noonan. I think incompetent is a strong word, but it seems that President Obama has made all the wrong moves. He still has another 2 and half years to turn it around. He will make a Clintonian triangulation move to the center in the next six months, guaranteed.

This quote completely encompasses the truth regarding our government.

the federal government in our time has continually taken on new missions and responsibilities, the more it took on, the less it seemed capable of performing even its most essential jobs.

[Crazy Levi]

Lame. You just reposted something someone else wrote as an excuse to create another Obama-bashing thread.

Come up with your own shit. Hell, even a comment. This is spam.

Yes, I did repost something someone else wrote...that's really great detective work there, Levi...what was it that tipped you off?

Was it the credit to the author and the link to the original article offered just under the title?

It's spam. Thanks for contributing.

[Ugmo]

God I hate Peggy Noonan. Fuck her.

No surprise Buttnoid thinks she's amazing.

[SeminiferousButtNoid]

God I hate Peggy Noonan. Fuck her.

No surprise Buttnoid thinks she's amazing.

I know. Truth, philosophical discussions of right and wrong, sophistication, and formal education are not your forte, so I can see why you hate her. Dum-duh-dum-dum dummmmmmmmmmm!

[Cliffenstein]

It's spam. Thanks for contributing.

Perhaps you might want to go read up on what spam is.

(It's not spam just because you don't like it.)

[Crazy Levi]

It's spam. Thanks for contributing.

Perhaps you might want to go read up on what spam is.

(It's not spam just because you don't like it.)

So I just start posting every editorial I read that's an Obama blowjob, without even bothering to add my own commentary?

Great idea, we'll have this place's anti-Obama flavor turned around in no time.

[SkyDog112046]

I'm not an Obama guy by any means, but how the fuck can anyone blame any part of the BP oil spill on Obama? Was he on the rig when the accident happened? Did he design the rig? Is he supposed to put a wetsuit on and dive down there and fix the problem himself?

Obama's only responsibilities here are taking care of the people who are affected by the spill, making sure that BP gets punished severely for the disaster, and then putting in place some type of regulation to prevent this from happening again.

[EvilMadman]

That was an excellent article, which is no surprise coming from Peggy Noonan. I think incompetent is a strong word, but it seems that President Obama has made all the wrong moves. He still has another 2 and half years to turn it around. He will make a Clintonian triangulation move to the center in the next sixth months, guaranteed.

Too bad no one in his cabinet is smart (or brave?) enough to tell him that is exactly what he needs to do to secure his re-election chances.

My prediction, a whole lot more trouble in the country (i.e. unacceptably high unemployment rate and/or high inflation, Al-Qaeda strike) and internationally (i.e. DPRK/RoK conflict, Iranian nukes) that could occur, and that he would end up getting the blame for, which would probably cost him in '12.

[tin00can]

I agree with the thrust of that article - Obama certainly has been "detached" so far, and especially from the oil spill - but the differences between the oil spill and Katrina are 1) Katrina was a natural disaster, and this spill is man-made, and 2) there isn't much the government can do about the spill; if there was some way that would have guaranteed to fix it, I'm sure it would have been done by now. We're dealing with something that is quite unusual here.

That said, Obama certainly could have done some basic PR well before now by visiting right after it happened and talking about it. Most people have this idea that the government could have at any time waved a magic wand and fixed the leak, which is why he's taking a hit for this.

Then to top it off, he'll go on vacation for Memorial Day and miss the traditional presidential speech at Arlington. I swear, his staff is full of retards.

[absolutely fabulous]

Most people have this idea that the government could have at any time waved a magic wand and fixed the leak, which is why he's taking a hit for this.

Then to top it off, he'll go on vacation for Memorial Day and miss the traditional presidential speech at Arlington. I swear, his staff is full of retards.

i can understand his dithering, but to try and come out that they had an iron fist in this, just makes him look weak, especially when he said the government was dictating to BP.

he had been pressured to say something for all these weeks and this is what he came up with, (paraphrase) " we've consulted the best in the world, including a noble peace prize winner to help resolve this.. but it's going to take many trials and errors to get it right"

i think he was peter principled while in the senate.

[thejuggernaut]

I'm not an Obama guy by any means, but how the fuck can anyone blame any part of the BP oil spill on Obama? Was he on the rig when the accident happened? Did he design the rig? Is he supposed to put a wetsuit on and dive down there and fix the problem himself?

Obama's only responsibilities here are taking care of the people who are affected by the spill, making sure that BP gets punished severely for the disaster, and then putting in place some type of regulation to prevent this from happening again.

It was an inside job. They planned it to push an agenda.

Well, inside job is pretty strong, but he and his team received intelligence of an attack but they just let it happen because it would justify his benefactors and colleagues moving forward with their agendas.

[thejuggernaut]

I agree with the thrust of that article - Obama certainly has been "detached" so far, and especially from the oil spill - but the differences between the oil spill and Katrina are 1) Katrina was a natural disaster, and this spill is man-made, and 2) there isn't much the government can do about the spill; if there was some way that would have guaranteed to fix it, I'm sure it would have been done by now. We're dealing with something that is quite unusual here.

That said, Obama certainly could have done some basic PR well before now by visiting right after it happened and talking about it. Most people have this idea that the government could have at any time waved a magic wand and fixed the leak, which is why he's taking a hit for this.

Then to top it off, he'll go on vacation for Memorial Day and miss the traditional presidential speech at Arlington. I swear, his staff is full of retards.

They can get off their fucking asses. On May 11, Louisiana asked for permission to build berms and, as of May 27, they STILL hadn't gotten a response.

Is it Obama's fault specifically ? No, not really, because we're talking about government committees and they are useless.

However, for the love of christ, you'd think the guy would have been paying attention and gotten involved instead of sitting on his wife's dildo.

Then there was the gold that is the press conference - his first press conference in how long ? How long after the incident was it ? And he schedules it for a time when, by and large, the only people who'll be watching it are the submorons of the world ie Oprah, Springer and daytime tv fans.

I suppose it was fitting though, because it was a greasy move.

Bush apparently wanted those pesky and useless niggers dead, that's why he took his time with Katrina. However, Obama is supposed to be Captain Environment. Meanwhile, he's busy trying out pitch shifting devices while a significant amount of his country's seafood is taking a pounding.

Strip away the speeches with the nice delivery and the reverb, and the guy is as hopeless as Bush. Not that we should have expected more; if he, like most politicians, had any brains they'd be doing anything other than a life in politics.

It's just about time people started to realize he's a moron like the monkey before him.

[Heenan Snuka]

you'd think the guy would have been paying attention and gotten involved instead of sitting on his wife's dildo.

[Cliffenstein]

It was an inside job. They planned it to push an agenda.

Well, inside job is pretty strong, but he and his team received intelligence of an attack but they just let it happen because it would justify his benefactors and colleagues moving forward with their agendas.

Oh my gosh, I love this post! It's just so good in so many ways.