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Subscribe to RSSJust for kicks, do a Google search today for “Obama” and “short on specifics.”
That was the overwhelming reaction from the media to President Obama’s address to the nation Tuesday night. On Day 56 of the Gulf oil spill disaster, he made the first address of his presidency from the Oval Office – and it didn’t exactly go over well.
“It was a great speech if you were on another planet for the past 57 days,” MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann said afterward to an equally unimpressed Hardball host Chris Matthews and to Newsweek’s Howard Fineman, who was so underwhelmed that his column was headlined “Obama’s curiously flat Gulf speech.”
Obama used the 18-minute address to not only reassure Gulf Coast residents that they would be compensated, but to also lay out plans for energy reform as a whole. How did that work out, Mr. President?
“We know that the country is eager for reassurance. We’re not sure the American people got it from a speech that was short on specifics and devoid of self-criticism,” wrote The New York Times in an editorial that urged him to clarify his demands for BP beyond what he alluded to in the speech. And Newsweek columnist Ben Adler called Obama’s plan to boost investments in energy research and development “ridiculous” and “politically convenient,” but not realistic.
OK, so the national reaction was not so great. Maybe there’s hope from the locals? Nope: In New Orleans, The Times-Picayune editorial staff pleaded with Obama to think his decisions through more: “Our state and region are counting on the president to follow through. We also want him to understand that his most decisive response to the oil spill -- a six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling -- threatens to capsize our already struggling economy.”
But those words seemed relatively kind compared to the New York Post’s Kirsten Powers, who wrote, “If you missed the speech, don't worry: Marshmallows have more substance.”
Ouch.
But wait – there’s more! And it’s not all bad!
“They must have been watching a different speech than I was,” commented NBC’s Mark Murray in a blog post on First Read in response to other pundits. “If the goal was to assure the public that Obama is on top of the crisis, that BP will be punished, that Gulf residents will be compensated, and that energy reform is too important to kick down the road, it certainly met expectations.”
OK, actually… Almost all of the rest of the reactions are pretty bad. See a compilation of more commentary here.
-Elizabeth Chuck, msnbc.com
Leave a Comment:
This is why he is President and the media is not. You (the media) talk a good game, but I did not see any of you running for this office and after to listening to a few of you I can understand why - you all are the biggest fence post sitters I have ever heard - whichever way the wind blows and whatever will keep your ratings up. You will give the Tea Party, Birthers, etc more time than the good that is going on in the US and the other parts of the world - why because strife sells.
I want to be around to pick up the pieces when they realize what a bunch of fools the've been. Chris Matthews in particular wants the President to act like a dictator. Someone needs to tell him the President is the commander in chief of the armed forces not the country. Can't imagine why Obama would distain the media.
Right on! These morons prove over and over again that it is THEM who have been in Washington far too long.
Hell, I thought it was one of his better speeches. By not getting too specific he didn't paint himself into a corner with measures Congress might defeat or BP lawyers might be able to use to help BP avoid their responsibility and he also put the responsibility on the Senate to do something about crafting an energy policy, without painting them in a Cap and Trade corner. Those are smart moves and one of the few times (maybe the first?) you'll see me say that regarding the President.
Obama is telling bp what to do already.hes leting this happen to push foward his energy takover. america get ready to pay big.
Obama had two purposes in mind;
1 - Distract and blame someone else for the disaster and deflect criticism of his mis-handling of the response.
2 - Push for his far-left "cap & trade" legislation - "Never let a perfectly good disaster go to waste".
He failed on both counts.
If we want to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, put a surtax on it (and reduce something so the government doesn't just get more money to waste), but don't use this as an excuse to make consumers pay huge extra costs for energy by taxing coal and natural gas - which we have plenty of in America and could be used to offset hundreds of $Billions spent for foreign oil.
How quickly everyone forgets that President Obama walked into this mess. What if McCann had won. Do you think the oil spill wouldn't have happened or the economy won't have crashed. Get real. The President is picking up the pieces. He certainly didn't create the problem. We are all to blame. We're focused only on ourselves most of the time. We don't get involved unless its our own back yard. We allow the media to control what we see and hear and we don't think for ourselves because it easier to let someone else do it. Try this: Start small, better yourself, better someone else's life and maybe if we all did that things will get better. Just remember there will alway be something happening it is how we respond to it that determines the outcome.
I promise to do dis, dat & de oder ding!
A disaster occurs. The government turns down international assistance. The citizens suffer. The government response is slow. Congress meets to make headlines and determine fault. Meetings continue. After almost two months, the president speaks to the nation to tell them things are the same but will be different. He promises change, but what he offers speaks to spending more money on new legislation than has been spent in the last two years. And we're supposed to like it?
This whole thing kind of scares me! We now know for sure this is not like in the movies where "that" group of brilliant people get together and save the Earth and our fearless leaders hold down the fort while they make the seemingly impossible task relatively simple. So are we prepared for ANYTHING? That is a big HELL NO! Sounds to me like it's time to let the great minds of the world in on the truth of the situation and get it handled. Sitting at home in front of the TV even my husband and I have offered better solutions then the ones the oil company has come up with. Give everyone the true facts and let them see what they come up with! Better then whats happening now, which is NOTHING! Please!, let there be a John Wayne or Bruce Willis!
You said "true facts". That's funny.
Sitting at home in front of the TV.
Ever hear of "armchair quarterbacking?"
There seems to be a whole lot of them quarterbacks out there who have NEVER even seen the game of football.
Unless you've capped a gushing oil well 5000 ft underwater and contained oil right out of the water successfully before YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT.
You are exactly right. The speech was informative by explaining to everyone what has been happening fro immediately assembling a panel of our most brilliant scientist and engineers to help solve this problem, the steps that need to be taken and when to expect the leak to be resolved, authorizing the use of National Guard, hols BP accountable, stop the deep water drilling until ti can be done safely, and the need to move to new clean energy sources. The critiques to his speech and basically everything are just that critiques. They has no experience, no ideas, no solutions just big mouths that spew garbage. The opinion columnist and talk show commentators are the worst.
Rae Anne,
The last thing we need is a cowboy or an actor, as we're still reeling from the damage done to us by Reagan and Bush II, but as someone who obviously watches enough movies to base your perception of reality thereupon, I can see where you're coming from.
President Obama is trying to deal with the situation is a rational manner, which is something that most Americans simply can't relate to, as they believe a macho man should ride in, shoot the bad guys, and save the day. Sorry to burst your bubble, but then, bubbles are part of the reason we're here...
We are will be reeling from the damage of Obama's only term for centuries!
Rae Anne - Nice post!
Sounds like he was just telling us what we wanted to hear. Sound familiar? This is one area where the govt should have gotten involved. We could have gotten a better handle on this sooner and billed BP for the services plus interest from day one of the spill. This president hasn't got a clue as to what to do about anything. And when he gets a clue he ignores it and doesn't give a rat's arse what anyone else wants. Time for a change, a real change, change we can really believe in. And whoever occupies that White House in the future better have good batteries in their hearing aids because it is time for them to LISTEN UP - WE EMPLOY YOU AND WE CAN FIRE YOU!!!
You don't employ anyone, if that was the case he would have been out from day one. You and everyone like you want to put the blame on the president. He was not the one that caused the explosion, it is BP and there failure to make sure that it was safe. So are you trying to say that every bad thing that happens is always the President's fault. I DON'T THINK SO!!!!!!!!!
If this weren't so depressing, it would be amusing. All of the MSNBC commentators who drove the hysteria that brought Mr. Obama into office (let's not forget Mr. Matthews and his infamous tingling leg) are now shocked and appalled by his abysmal failure to resolve, manage, or even address this situation. They wonder how coordination on the ground could be so lacking, management responsibility entirely abrogated, responders on the ground completely stymied by a bloated environmental bureaucracy that answer directly to the Chief Executive. The only thing shocking in all of this their shock. Mr. Obama never managed anything. He never produced anything. He made his living "organizing" the "community" by delivering lofty pronouncements from a rostrum. He was and is an empty suit, now famously incapable of even delivering those lofty pronouncements without a teleprompter. But now your commentators are shocked. Given the respect with which a misguided electorate regards these pompous pundits, they bear a direct measure of responsibility for the fact that our environment, economy and prestige are now held hostage to the incompetence of the man they lauded into office.
The saddest part of it all is, Obama has been touted as the most effective community organizer this Country has ever experienced. What happened? Why isn't he able to organize the clean-up community? Has ACORN forsaken him because there is no money in being involved in it?
I guess, you have all the answers.... This is a problem that they are trying to solve with the best minds in the country. The president is not perfect and neither are the people working this... This is unchartered territory and it will take time to solve. Chris Matthew and Keith O both should run for president and then when problems occur they can see you can't just wave a magic wand to fix problems. All the media suits have hidden agendas... They promote their views not report the news... Chris Matthew and Keith O are not to far from Beck and Rush Limbaugh
Couldn't have said it better myself! The only thing I would add to the shocking
incompetence of the "community organizer" was the refusal of the government
(in writing) to allow the Dutch and others with technology to assist us at the beginning....and the
astonishing insistence that "environmental impact studies" be done before sand barriers could be built off the shores of LA. This is not a "conservative" or "liberal" issue....it's an issue of leadership incompetence!
CARRM - Unchartered territory - what in the world! Chernobyl was unchartered territory and that was 30 years ago. What we have here is a failure of leadership...unchartered....gee wiz -
Perhaps if Howard Fineman and the rest of the MSNBC talking heads had done actual truthful analysis and shown Obama for the empty suit he is/was during the run up to the election and not "creamed" in their jeans every time he opened his mouth,and helped ram him down the throats of the unthinking public we'd have someone in charge now who is more than just a Jimmy Carter version 2.0-
They were all in the tank for this pathetic excuse of a national leader and are now fleeing like rats from a sinking ship.
Peps-1 -
Brilliantly said and spot on-!!
Obama is many times 'short on specifics' because he doesn't know what he's doing! Did he mention why he hasn't waived the Jones' Act and brought in the skimmers and equipment that 13 nations have offered in the first few weeks of the spill? He said he is and would do everything necessary to get this under control - he lied! I thought his teleprompter-read was a total political whitewash meant to reverse his falling poll numbers; I believe he failed miserably! He used the speech to 'take advantage of a crisis' when he pushed his cap and trade agenda, which I thought was inappropriate. He lied when he said China was instituting lots of new clean energy - they're drilling for oil and mining for coal. He seemed more interested in placing blame and getting BP's money than explaining exactly what would be done to remedy the situation. He forgets that the American people are awake - thanks to him. He shocked us into awareness with his Socialist agenda and we now don't trust him. I pray the leak is fixed soon and the oil is contained. I certainly don't depend on this inept, inexperienced person!
So NOW you want specifics from Obama??? Wasn't that what some of us were asking for during the campaign? No one (media) seemed interested in the details of how he was going to save the world back then.
Ha ha ha! 2 years in and he's made Jimma Cotta look like a friggin genius.
You think Obama will be getting another Nobel Prize for "his tireless effort to save the environment"? He's gotten the first one for just talking and he's talking even more now!
Anne - clever post
peps-1- & pmark-1871008
I to agree Brilliantly said and spot on, i've thought this all along. The press put obama in office and now the going gets rough and the press gets going-in the other direction. Where is this brilliant world leader they promised when obama was running for the office? Hind sight is 20 20!!! I hope all Americans remember this next election!!
These same idiots will back the next left wing nutjob that comes along. Do you think the media will ever support a sane, logical conservetive candidate?
I keep hearing liberals say that Obama is doing all he can, he can't do anything else. What a load of Crap!
He could have let foreign countries come in and help, could have ordered all buoys and anything else that could possibly keep oil off the beachs to be deployed and could have ordered all available skimmers to the oil spill site the first week. Instead he let BP run the clean up, when after a couple of weeks it was clear BP was not to concerned the oil that had already escaped. This is just basic ideas that most people would have done.
After Katrina you would have thought things would be better.
>"Instead he let BP run the clean up, when after a couple of weeks it was clear BP was not to concerned the oil that had already escaped."<
So....you have no problem with "big government" intefering with a private business in this case? You're ok with a Government "takeover" of the operation? You say, " he let BP run the clean up". Is the government supposed to tell a company what to do about how they go about cleaning up their mess? What else can they tell them to do?
Well said Bob. Had our government acted while the oil was miles from shore, this may have been less of an environmental catastrophe. Now it will be many years before all of these areas are useable. It has appeared that BP has been the only ones trying to stop this leak.
Adagio, shouldn't our government have stepped in to protect our shores from being polluted? It may be BP's mess, but it is our shores.
adagio: I don't believe that by Obama getting involved from the beginning with everything he had (including accepting international offers of help), that would be construed as "interfering with a private business'. I believe it would be performing the duties of the POTUS to protect the American people from danger! It should have been a 'call to action' from the beginning; a concerted effort by everyone that could help, rather than standing by and waiting for BP to do it. Rather than sending lawyers to the Gulf to investigate to see if he would sue, he should have been 'helping' and worrying about the blame-game after the problem is fixed. This goes beyond politics; it's about saving lives/jobs/industries/wildlife/fish/ocean/beaches, etc. "Is the government supposed to tell a company what to do about how they go about cleaning up their mess? "Their mess" affects this country. He didn't have to tell them what to do, he needed to get in there and help! He had no problem taking over other industries when we didn't want him to and now there are officials and citizens pleading for help to save their States and he just stood by and went on with his political and personal life. Now he realizes what a catastrophe it is and he's posturing, big time! Too little; too late!
When a private company does something this big that is going to affect so many people and so much of the environment, then the government should step in and do something right away, not sit and wait til we have a huge mess that will take forever to clean up...its not about telling BP what to do, its about getting anyone and everyone out there to HELP clean it up either with BP or without them....If all this oil was just in BP's backyard then yeah let them deal with it, but its in OUR back yard, OUR frontyard,OUR country and OUR environment, so yes we should have been out there from day one doing anything and everything to contain this mess.... tell me how that is wrong?
yeah,becuase bush and the republicans did such a great job for the people of new orleans. everyone is blaming obama and the liberals but the house they moved into was damn near condemded by bush and his boys!!!!! he is trying to clean up the mess as new messes are being created. it is not his fault, yes maybe he could have done more to help with the clean up but don't forget the oil is still spewing. he is just human like us all and none of us are perfect....give the man a chance.
Give him a chance? he has had almost two month of chance and what has he done? Not much!
he spent most of his speech last night talking about what we need to do about clean energy in the future, and not so much about what he is doing to clean up the ongoing mess we have now.
The State run media is always cool on what is given them to put out. That is their cash cow, they would not do anything to tilt the boat.....
What state run media?? You sound like Limbaugh with this "state run media". What are you talking about?
Americans su-k....there used to be a time when Americans rallied aroud a crisis....now......we sit back and critisize and do nothing constructive...nothing positive......money hungry and selfish armchair quarterbacks. God, I hate Americans ! Useless pieces of sh-t.
Are you talking about the one who should be out on the field, leading the team but, instead, is sitting back and watching, from a safe distance, the game unfold?
You're right Ivory. We should rally around our president when there is a crisis. Who is the next country with WMDs? Because we need to invade them. At least then we won't suck right? Blindly following isn't good for any country.
Perhaps we learn from our mistakes which is more than I can say for our president right now.
Your Uncle Sammy, Your comments were not all that subtle and overtly racist! Our President is about as articulate and well spoken a President as we have had since Reagan. But let me guess you on the other hand probably are as "articulate" as your drinking buddy George W. Bush and are simply projecting your own deep seated sense of insecurity and lacking!
Take a look at this hidden article. Our tax dollar at work.
http://myview-222.newsvine.com/_news/2010/06/14/4509772-house-speaker-nancy-pelosis-district-office-costs-a-whopping-18736-a-month-?threadId=982676&commentId=14863007#c14863007
I don't expect specifics in a 15-min Presidential speech. But I am disappointed in the specifics key agency officials are providing. For example, I thought Browner on Hardball did a fine job listing some of Dr Chu's contributions - which was important to hear. But she needed to have a better answer than "all ideas are being looked at" to Chris Matthew's question about tankers. This tanker question has been out there a while and Matthew's has repeatedly discussed it. Secretary Browner needs to provide status on where this and some other well publicized remediation approaches are at. This was also the problem with the berms solution. Likewise Adm Allen did a good job the other day explaining the array of skimmer types and the challenge arround deploying them effectively. How's this going? How about the marshes - how much has been damaged versus not damaged. Do we have to wait for Gov. Mabus' plan to find out what's being done and what needs to be done? If so, this should be made clear.
That's it. I am siding with the Liberals. This is all George Bush's fault. If George Bush would have done a better job this country would not have elected Obama-lama-ding-dong.
Are we ready to start impeachment proceedings yet? If not we should be before he breaks all of us and our children for decades to come. Let me see, he turned down all sorts of help for various reasons including: It wasn't from the unions, It was from Great Britain with whom he has a grudge because of the way they treated his Father, and l;ast but not least, he has all these so called "experts" assembled but so far , nothing.
Kelley,
I am truly a conservative (probably more of a constitutionalist) and am really getting tired of the word impeachment everytime something does not go the way we want it to regarding the actions of a president. Would you have wanted to impeach Bush for the governments reaction time during Katrina?
People need to stop being party hacks. Principles should not change when your party is not in power. If there isn't a crime as defined by the constitution, there isn't an impeachable offense.
Danno,
Impeach the towel head anyway. He's not an American, that's the impeachable offense.
The rest is all just a joke on all of us. He's the Manchurian Candidate...you read much, maybe you've seen the movies, seems like a Saudi prince or two did.
Anyone ever let you have a big job without a background check? We did that for Obama. We can't see the real birth certificate, college papers because the man was a foreign exchange student born in Africa.
Time to impeach the lying fool.
Obama is an expert on rhetoric, yet totally incompetent when it comes to any action. The community organizer doesn't even know how to get the agencies in his direct report to do their job in a cooperative, ordered manner. He should have gotten off his royal duff two months ago when this first happened and listened to those who have been through this before and who have at least some clue as to how to deal with this. Now, whatever is done is going to be way too little way too late.