Were it me I would go back and see what other presidents have done. Namely this is the worst spill in our history (though globally it isn’t *that* bad, it is just we have a fairly good record) and note that he – or rather the US govt – has done less in 45 days than others did in the first 10 days of a minor one. More was done with the Valdez Oil spill in the first five days than in the 45 for Obama.

We have many engineering resources, containment resources, public mobilizations, funds to distribute, and, well, very little of that has been done.

Right now I do not see this being fixed any time soon. BP *still* isn’t into a mode of Stop It Now but wants to keep some form of financial rewards from the thing. Nor is the Whitehouse in any mood to counter that idea. You can pick your reason why, you can link to all the talk you want from Obama, but it amounts to bupkis. Indeed it amounts to FAR less than Bush ever did and is still excoriated for over Katrina (you still have to say he was slow for a two week deployment, imagine 45 days out and he gave that report how you would have felt).

A great deal of why Obama is slowly owning this is that no amount of running interference can hide it. BP has no intention of loosing that money as long as they think they can get away with it. Only those that “feel” instead of think can do much more than figure incompetence or corruption. The only saving grace is that so many expect either one (or both) now that few get outraged.

This is why the Left’s response to it all is that the “drill baby drill” people are responsible – shift blame as there is no excuse for what Obama has done. Never mind that the “drill people” never expected all these regulations to be ignored (or rather purchased into ignoring) or if there did happen to be a catastrophe that the govt would be so purchasable to allow it to continue (or at least allow weak forms of stopping it to be tried for 40+ days so BP wouldn’t have to close the well). Even Bush and his “oil cronies” were not this blatant about it.

He wants it to be a huge mega disaster. That will kill domestic production, and he will very soon own major oil companies. Oil is like health care. If he owns it, he controls every American. He owns people. Does that sound like something? One person owning another?>

Anyone who attributes even benign motives to this guy is not looking.

Had he wanted to help he’d have allowed Jindal et al to do what they wanted on day 2 or 3.

Far from wanting to help, he sought harm and he’s achieved it. Now he holds more cards and more power than he did a month ago.

Attribute malicious motives to Obama, and things begin to make sense.

I invite any counter-examples. I can think of none. Is there even one thing O has done since his installation that has been an unreserved good for America? Anything that has been even a mixed bag of good/bad? Could someone name those things for me if they exist?

Simon’s amusing. We get called hysterical again without any evidence that we actually have read the situation wrongly or engaged in unreasoning actions or speech. We just say stuff he knows is wrong and we don’t stop saying it, even when our betters tell us its wrong.

Always think in terms of the proverbial Man from Mars, Simon, who doesn’t know the social history and stratification, but has to be convinced on the basis of stripped evidence. Construct arguments that might convince him, and you may convince us as well. Place to start: those things Obama has “done.” How many of them actually involve doing anything other than making disguised campaign speeches, blaming others, and setting up photo-ops?

Careful now…

Precisely. Those that I called the word-and-image-people…writers, entertainers, advertising people, many kinds of professors…have become so self-centered and arrogant that they do not really believe there are any important skills other than word/image manipulation: everything else can be safely left to lesser minds or picked up by a word/image person with trivial ease.

He doesn’t count golf outings, dance evenings with Mexico’s president, or sing-a-longs with Paul McCartney as resting. I bet they are almost as strenuous as Barbara Boxer fundraisers. Can he blame Bush for not telling him how much a president has to do?

Aww, you’re so right.

Let’s give Barack a permanent vaction. The man has had no rest. None. Zippo. No vacation. No time playing golf. No romantic dates in New York City with his wife. Don’t believe for a moment the reports that Barack has played more golf in one year than George W. Bush did in four years. How do I know? Because Barack has promised repeatedly that “HE WILL NOT REST:”

“We will not rest until we reach a day when not one single veteran falls into homelessness” — April 2009

“I will not rest until the dream of health care reform is finally achieved in the United States of America” — May 11, 2009.

“I will not rest until anybody who’s looking for a job can find one” — Sep 2009

“I will not rest until businesses are investing again and businesses are hiring again and people have work again” — Nov 23, 2009

“We will not rest until we find all who were involved and hold them accountable,” — Dec 28, 2009

“We will not rest until we account for our fellow Americans in harms way.” — January 12, 2010

“I’m not going to rest or be satisfied until the leak is stopped at the source, the oil in the Gulf is contained and cleaned up, and the people of the Gulf are able to go back to their lives and their livelihoods.” — May 14, 2010

Relentless? No rest? Round the clock activity?

…even though there seemed to be much more grounds for anger there than there is here.

No.

Consider the reaction if Bush had spent 44 days getting around to Katrina, between taking several vacations, attending fundraisers, and a few bogus feel-good conferences. Even Jon Stewart and Chris Mathews are dumping on the Messiah for his incompetence.