Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Being President Barack Obama
President Obama never ceases to amaze. His steadiness is extraordinary. Yesterday's speech left me quite disappointed. I wanted to hear him talk policy. He did not. But the BP announcement today has made me very happy. Carol Browner, White House Energy Adviser, impressively outlined the agreement with BP. There will be a $20 billion independent escrow account that isn't a "floor or ceiling" and a $100 million fund for the people of the Gulf which will expedite the claims process. This does not change or preclude any other future claims. "All rights of the claimants are preserved," said Browner. This a first in the history of a multi-national company. Bravo, Mr. President!
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13 comments:
Recently, some one questioned the President's ways and achievements. And, believe me, the first two lines of this post was how I started my response. I readily agree with this post!!!
Opaque - He is some leader. His confidence and calm are extraordinary under such extraordinarily pressure.
As I mentioned on an older thread, what's driving me nuts is that the heart of Obama's message last night - re our dependency on oil - was delivered by Jimmy Carter in 1979 - and to a lesser extent by even Nixon & Ford! Of course it was ridiculed by the oil lobby and Ronald (don't-worry-be-happy, there-are-no-limits) Reagan. The entire shape of our foreign policy (especially in the Mideast) would be different now had we heeded the call then.
That's so very true, John!
I remember the Jimmy Carter speech. I remember being excited that in 1979, when he said we needed to look at
becoming energy independent as the moral equivalent of war. Jimmy Carter did not believe we should be beholden to people like the Saudis. Had we listened, we would not be at war in the middle east and we would probably not have a gigantic deficit. I liked Obama's speech because he alluded to the urgency of independence by comparing it to the effort Americans made in WWII and the moon landing. Many pundits criticized this much like pundits criticized Carter's equating independence with the moral equivalence of war. As a nation, we refuse to see that what actually made America great are the changes that took place during and after WWII, which Reagan and each and everyone of his cheerleaders have been rolling back since the 1980's. Reaganites have done more damage to our country than any or our enemies. We need to change our culture. For example, recently a national magazine listed Facebook as the most innovative company in the
US. I like Facebook - its fun, but if most of our innovation is in a company like Facebook (or Apple, Zappos, etc) as we fight wars over oil and send billions to counties that hate us, we are screwed. I mean, remember, it is still against the law to buy cigars from the 'dangerous' nation of Cuba, but it perfectly fine to send billions to the people who funded the destruction of the World Trade Center.
Has anyone seen BP Harward's testimony? Its quite obvious why Obama decided there was no reason to talk to the man.
Spot on, Zorro! Just spot on!
Yeah, CEO Hayward's testimony was ridiculous as was the "small people" comment of Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg. If you saw the testimony of Hayward, you will have seen this equally sad words by Republican Joe Barton. He apologizes to BP for having to pay out damages.
All Barton said was what all the other Republicans were thinking. It is no coincidence that a man with his views is the highest ranking Republican on the Energy Committee.
Spot on for many I'm afraid, Zorro. The Republican Survey Committee of which there are some 137 Republicans have within a recent document said that President Obama used a "Chicago-like shakedown" to get BP to pay for the damages that THEY caused. Can you believe this? It's just alarming! The problem is I'm afraid that this kind of politics is not new. I'm just thinking of Karl Rove.
People like Rush Limbaugh are saying the same things. Millions listen to this guy and they probably agree with him. When did oil companies become something middle class people stand up for? People are taking stands that are in direct opposition the their own welfare.
People who follow the likes of Limbaugh consider themselves to be dissenting the powers at be. Glen Beck sells himself as a rebel. People seem to like feeling that they are rebels, even when they are rebelling against their very own interests.
"When did oil companies become something middle class people stand up for?"
"Glen Beck sells himself as a rebel. People seem to like feeling that they are rebels, even when they are rebelling against their very own interests."
Excellent!
Even Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford spoke out against our oil dependency—but they'd be considered liberals by today's standards.
Just turned on Fox to hear what they're railing about today and got to listen to Ingraham and Rove hyperventilating about Obama. Very little shocks me anymore but to the fact that Laura Ingraham—as O'Reilly's guest host—gets a national platform on prime time is frightening. She's got a paper trail of minority-disparaging (and gay-baiting) comments—going back to her time as editor of the racist Dartmouth Review—that should disqualify her from the national media. They're too insulting to quote here, but it's all on the internet.
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