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!” – He Was Supposed to Be Competent – The spill is a disaster for the president and his political philosophy.
Stuff happens, America. Don’t blame BP. Oh, and by the way, you’re on your own. This philosophy will work for Tea Party politicians like Rand Paul until a catastrophe hits Kentucky. As for Noonan, the latest Tea Party ranter, it will take something more personal. You know, like a bug in her scone.
Nobody has been more on point in their critique of Pres. Obama’s handling of BP’s blowout than myself. But to read Peggy Noonan’s words you’d think she would prefer putting BP in charge of the entire energy policy of the United States. Get a load of this opening: I don’t see how the president’s position and popularity can survive the oil spill. It’s not Newt Gingrich calling Pres. Obama Stalin, but it’s close.
Ms. Noonan has simply lost her political touch, never mind that she was hoisted on her own fact-free rhetoric by repeating that the EPA head actually attended a New York fundraiser as BP’s oil disaster widened. It’s bad enough that the Obama administration had dueling fundraisers planned, but the one to which Noonan refers was, thankfully, canceled. I only wish Pres. Obama’s was as well.
In fact, Ms. Noonan gets the facts on government, politics, business, and Obama exactly wrong.
BP’s criminal malfeasance actually proves the need for a strong federal government when it comes to protecting the American people from businesses that have no social conscience.
BLOOMBERG: The 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty Act protects fowl. The Refuse Act, part of the 1899 Rivers and Harbors Act, outlaws industrial discharge in navigable waters. OK, they are both misdemeanors punishable by minor fines, but stay with me here.
Even a misdemeanor conviction would remove the $75 million cap on damages that the Oil Pollution Act sets. BP says it will pay all legitimate damages from the spill, regardless of the cap, but fisherman still suffering from the Exxon Valdez spill 20 years ago would urge caution in believing such promises.
Bumping it up a notch by showing negligence, prosecutors can win a conviction under the Clean Water Act, and there’s every reason to believe that can be shown here. Negligence means an absence of due care, say in keeping the blowout preventer working to, um, prevent a catastrophic blowout, for example. [...]
Pres. Obama’s political philosophy is not “a disaster.” What has been proven a colossal catastrophe is the deregulation that began under Ms. Noonan’s boss, former Pres. Ronald Reagan. From Wall Street to the oil industry to the media, especially our airwaves, no one was more responsible in kick-starting the deregulation fervor on the right than Reagan.
Pres. Obama has made innumerable errors since that first conference call by Thad Allen, on which I reported. The first was leaving BP on point. No one will convince me otherwise, especially after email conversations I’ve had with oil experts. BP has also continually proven my point by lying to the public, keeping the press away from the beaches where the oil has had the most impact, as well as shifting numbers to cover their corporate bottom line. I cannot put it any simpler than to say you simply can’t trust BP. They are not capable of transparency and open communication, so Pres. Obama putting our fate and his political hide on the line is absurd.
Com. Thad Allen is of impeccable competence, but he can only do what the Dept. of Interior and the feds allow; one job continually to keep civic and federal responsibility separate. There is just not enough visible task force grouping for each impacted zone in the disaster’s wake. Joe Scarborough did a good job with Allen this morning on “Morning Joe,” asking him about the lake of oil I’ve been talking about on the BBC for the past days. All Allen could offer is that NOAA is now studying it and he’s not sure of the final analysis. NOAA has failed miserably in being on the job, which proves just how unprepared our government is. EPA is MIA.
One dangerous section in Noon’s column amidst the drivel does, however, stand out:
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.
There are indeed some Clinton supporters who “have never fully reconciled themselves to him.” I just happen not to be one of them. But in the climate we’re in, as a political analyst, when I tell the truth as I see it, people see what they choose to see, which invariably leads into idiotic ramblings questioning my loyalties. So let me be clear yet again. I have no loyalty to any politician; with my only focus being the truth as I can gather it, digest it, convey it, as I see it.
As for Ms. Noonan’s notion that Mr. Carville has sent some signal Democrats “can start to peel off” from Obama, it’s ludicrous. People are sufficiently disgusted with the federal government and “Washington,” but also Congress, that they need no help. Pres. Obama allowing BP to run the show down in the Gulf simply proves perceptions that began years ago under the feckless presidency of George W. Bush.
The strongest message from Noonan’s column on the BP blowout should be to Democrats. We’ve got a group of politicians who have been far too timid about regulations, whom Noonan champions. Building up federal agencies to combat corporate marauders is in the people’s interest and why we pay taxes. The handling of the BP catastrophe proves many things, but not that we need less government.
It’s incomprehensible that we now have “small government” conservatives and Tea Party hacks railing about what government should be doing, when they’re the ones who want to strangle it. If you think things are bad now in the Gulf, and they are, imagine it if “small government” conservatives, the ones who have no respect for the actual role in government, would do if Peggy got her way.
But at least Ms. Noonan can finally relax, take off her establishment blue, and settle in with the folks. She’s gone Tea Party.
I do think that the federal government needs to give money and other means to the local and state governments so that they can respond faster and do more for disasters. My goodness, who is going to join next. I am actually alittle shocked because Peggy Noonan is on Morning Joe and always sounds fair. Maybe people are just losing their minds in this country now !! Maybe its in the water !!!
No, she is not losing her mind…just following the politic tea party winds. Peggy Noonan was caught trash Sarah Palin off mic during the primaries. It was the only time she ever spoke an off the record harsh truth about a fellow Republican.Backlash followed, Since then she has learned to carefully toe the party line.
“I am actually alittle shocked because Peggy Noonan is on Morning Joe and always sounds fair.”
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
To quote Barney Frank “On what PLANET have you been living?”
This simpering, hipocritical, political HACK, one of the WORST leftovers from the Regan atrocities gushes her concern troll CRAP and you lap it up like a dog at a freash puddle of vomit.
OH! I was so waiting for this one, secularh…
You walked into that one, FMI.
Noonan hasn’t lost “her” mind, this is the opportunistic mind that she’s always had. She’s an annoying beltway creep.
Let me guess here, Noonan would have had no problem with President Bush reckless eight years…but she puts her foot down for Obama…lol
Yes, Obama has made some mistakes “BIG” ones but the way her articles reads one would have to ignore the fact of what Obama inherited from Bush Jr. This what I hate most about Republicans they refuse to knowledge their own mistakes and love to pass them on to the next administration…Peggy Noonan needs to learn incompetence is shared on both sides of the political aisle Democrat & Republican.
And they wonder why more voters everyday are becoming Independents.
Theres alot of blame to go around. I blame BP more than anything, but I also blame the regulater’s and yes even the president for taking so damm long to get down there and to go golfing and have a fundraiser when all this was going on. He is in someways out of touch with this disaster. So yes there plenty of blame but not only at the president.
True, I hate how the media is trying to spin this as all Obama doing. He is only guilty of a poor follow up response/weak leadership on the BP Oil situation. However, for them to blame the entire thing on Obama is absurd. BP is a HUGE part of this problem and stiff regulations is needed. I want to see Obama change the way we handle Oil Spills & regulations for future generations. That is the leadership I am looking for from the White House at this moment going forward.
The public was only seeing one thing for a very long time: oil exploding into the Gulf.
Pres. Obama made the mistake by not *showing* action, with much of what was going on hidden from the view of the people. He also blew it by not understanding that in the middle of a catastrophe people need to SEE THEIR LEADER LEADING. It’s not enough to be doing it behind the scenes.
Being president is about representing the public and being visible when we’re in pain. It’s not something he’s at all good at, but it’s a component of the presidency that is critically important and of which he must be more aware.
David Plouffe & Co. haven’t been serving Obama well this entire year.
David Plouffe & Co. has had their head stuck in the clouds for some time. Also, Taylor would do you make of Issa trying to get the FBI to investigate the job offer to Sestak?…How do they investigate for something that is not criminal…
See the 1990s, Ken Starr, morphing the Jones case with the Lewinsky matter.
It’s what some Republicans do when they smell political blood.
Ole good grief, your right they will turn this into a political nightmare. Yet, Obama dropped the legit charges against Bush & co….and this the thanks he gets…lol
reagan did a job offer to someone he didnt want running in ca. fdr did it many times. nixon. lbj. bushjr and sr. poor issa. he gave ca ahnold and now wants to waste millions ala whitewater on this non story. a pol offered another pol a job to get him out of the way. i suppose a gop congress will hire special prosecutors and to this kind of stuff. investigate sestak, rahm, obama, michelle, malia, hillary, bill clinton etc.. its what they do. im sure many a repug is gettin excited- if htey win nov they can once again go after bill clinton and a twofer obama also. for that reason alone i pray the gop doesnt take the house.
So do the libs.
OK. I give. Except for a few additional minor utterances and a lyrical musing here and there I couldn’t debate a single word of this essay. Peace
You know…i’m not a fan of China (And their persistant human rights violations) but I do like how they deal with corupt CEO’s and Politicians!!!! 1 screw up and it’s execution time. How many screwups does this make for BP?? I think they are getting off too light!!!
This is enraging because the GOP and their apologists are just throwing everything against the wall in order to see what sticks. Their own hypocrisy doesn’t seem to bother them at all. That Noonan can make such a stupid, illogical argument (if you can even call it that) just shows how rudderless the GOP really is in terms of commentators and people who read the GOP bullet points.
It’s the same sort of logic we see with financial reform- Wall Street screws the whole global economy and what does the GOP think we should do? Cut taxes and deregulate Wall Street. Brilliant, really.
And except for opinion shows like The Ed Show or Olbermann or Ratigan, the boneheads in the MSM don’t seem to find it worth while to note that the very people who have been calling Obama a socialist for over a year now think the government should step in and solve all their problems- but that’s always been the problem, hasn’t it? They take for granted when they eat their steak that it’s safe because the US government regulates the industry. When they drink water they can rest assured with out having to think about it that it doesn’t contain dangerous doses of arsenic because the US government regulates it and when Peggy Noonan fills her Valium prescription she can rest safe knowing that it wasn’t made in some Chinese factory where 20% of the ingredients are paint chips.
And while Obama has not handled this well at ALL, to sit here and listen to the GOP apologists is a unique form of torture given they advocated the policies that allowed BP to become the uncontrollable monster that it is today.
Taylor,
As always your commentary is of such value to me,thanks
That’s really sweet of you to say, tonyb39. I appreciate it very much.
I guess Noonon the old gasbag has forgotten all about Cheney’s secret energy policy? I find her insufferable and all the fawning she gets on MJ as well.
She lives in a long gone time if it ever existed at all.
Obama should call BP on this and say that this is exactly the type of PR nonsense that won’t be tolerated:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/05/28/gulf.oil.spill.bp/index.html?hpt=T1
Maybe he will if Carville screams loadly about it.
It’s beginning to look like sameol sameol. Repugs kill the women and children under a flag of truce and the Dems stand there and say HEYYYYY No FAIR!
Cheney and the moron in chief should be in jail awaiting sentencing after being convicted by the world court. BP heads should be in prison awaiting trial for crimes against humanity and the world.
Instead we have repugs chortling about impeaching Obama if they reclaim the House.
And morons here opining about how “fair” a repug pig like Noonan is.
“We has met the enemy…and he is us.”
Pogo, where are ya when we needs ya?