In the coming days and weeks, these efforts should capture up to 90% of the oil leaking out of the well. This is until the company finishes drilling a relief well later in the summer that is expected to stop the leak completely. – Pres. Barack Obama
What was he talking about?
It reminded me of something Dan Froomkin reported earlier:
Heightening that concern is Obama’s new conviction, first expressed Monday afternoon after touring a staging facility in Alabama, that “in the end, I am confident that we’re going to be able to leave the Gulf Coast in better shape than it was before.”
That is a “ridiculous statement, and worrying,” said Susan Shaw, the director of the Marine Environmental Research Institute. “Obviously he has no idea of the consequences, or doesn’t want to.”
There is also no evidence that the relief well is “expected to stop the leak completely.” But Pres. Obama has more problems than that after his first Oval Office Address.
There was no vision at all.
There was no larger arc for energy.
And if you believe this is an environmental 9/11 for this country, which I do, like George W. Bush after our nation’s great tragedy in 2001, there was no larger call to action.
I would also have preferred tough talk in place of a prayer, like what Al Gore said today: “Stop censoring news from the Gulf”: This behavior is completely unacceptable. Access by reporters should be as unfettered as possible. This de facto form of censorship needs to stop.
Pres. Obama was heartfelt and finally had the background of what has happened since the BP blowout after his latest visit there. That’s the good news. But he had no purpose and didn’t come close to rallying the nation to a common cause. There was no lift or inspirational message on how we take the BP ecological tragedy and turn it into a wider calling for this country.
The worst part of it was Pres. Obama telling the American people that a relief well is “expected to stop the leak completely.” This is actually an unknown and a huge risk and doesn’t share the very real dangers the relief well also poses, which are great, especially considering BP hasn’t been able to deliver on anything they’ve promised so far.
“Command and control” are not two words I’d take away from Pres. Obama’s speech tonight and that’s exactly what was needed to be conveyed.
This essay has been updated.
The Obot Response:
It wasn’t his best speech, but the bar for Obama is set pretty high. I don’t think this venue suits him. Clearly we had to mark this tragedy, but I don’t think he ever does well seated reading a prepared speech. It’s not his best venue.
There were some good things in there (40%). There were some things that were too vague for me (40%). And there were some bad things in there (10%).
What I’m hearing a lot is that he said what needed to be said and that it sort of orients peoples’ thinking in the right direction.
What didn’t I like?
* The claim that 90% of will be collected, which I don’t think is possible.
* He put Ken Salazar on his side. I believe Salazar should resign regardless of his understanding of the MMS.
What I thought was neutral or too vague?
* He didn’t emphasize the energy bill sufficiently, or how he will get it passed.
* He didn’t put a dollar amount on the third party claim.
* He didn’t specify how he will force the third party claim.
What I thought was good?
* He clearly laid put peak oil in simple terms. Has a President ever mentioned peak oil?
* He put a dollar value ($1B) on the amount of money we send to other countries for oil
* He played the China card.
* He blamed the war on regulation.
* He clearly said he will make BP pay.
* He announced who will be heading the MMS, and their qualifications.
All in all, I think it is a good framework on which to build. Lots was mishandled, but we’ll need to see concrete actions.
I am independent that voted for Obama. Lucky, for him that McCain/Palin was on the opposing ticket cause he would lost if they had not been. Anyhow his speech today was unnecessary it will not change minds about his failed oil response and he offered a weird rosy picture to the oil spill problem.
I don’t think it would have been easy for anyone to beat Obama in 2008. His campaign and support base were just too strong.
There’s been interesting chatter that perhaps we’re viewing this speech in the wrong light. While I do not change _my_ opinion of it, many democrats seem to be saying that perhaps it was for the average voter who does not follow the 24-hour hyper-partisan news cycle?
c/o CNN.com…
How do you rate President Obama’s Oval Office address on the Gulf oil disaster?
This is not a scientific poll
Poor 45% 7184
Good 39% 6220
Fair 17% 2663
Sounds about right, and not far off from my own assessment.
Watching Faux, it seems Republicans had a near Universal abhorrence of the speech, where Democrats were far more open minded. They didn’t have any progressives in the focus group.
“in the end, I am confident that we’re going to be able to leave the Gulf Coast in better shape than it was before.”
This is just as delussional as anything any of the wingnuts have gibbered. BETTER SHAPE then it was before??!!!!!
He gives good speech. OK. But when it’s time for anything REAL he’s to buisy cuddling up to big buiness and rogering the very folks who elected him.
By the way, just to bring a little reality in this discussion
45+17=62 When you take into account Fair means he only KINDA sucks SIXTY TWO % thinks he outright sucks to only KINDA sucks. And YOU think things are just hunky doory?!!!
Perhaps my memory is faulty, but I believe President Carter mentioned peak oil — if not in those words. He clearly recognized that oil is a finite resource and that we could not continue to import large percentages forever. I worked for Shell Development Company’s Exploitation and Production Laboratory in the early ’60s, around the time that M. King Hubbert first published his prediction that U.S. oil production was near its peak. Needless to say, this was not a popular prediction within the company, and King joined the U.S. Geological Survey soon after. His prediction was right on the mark, missing the actual peak by no more than a year or two. I consider myself a veteran of the First War on Energy launched by Carter, ended by the unconditional surrender of Reagan.
I had the same reaction as Dan Froomkin when Mr. O said he was confident that the gulf would be restored to better than before.
That doesn’t make sense. That is a disconnect from reality, from common sense. There is no evidence for such a statement. He’s throwing out hortatory statements based on wishful thinking and easy bamboozlement.
Excuse my sarcasm here, but yes sitting and reading a teleprompter is not his best performance. He needs to read his teleprompter while standing before tens of thousands in front of a brandenburg gate. Speaking hard, respectful truth to hurting American people is not his bag, apparently. Wave a bamboozlement bag in front of them and hope they swallow it. Maybe not so much.
I agree…how in the heck can the gulf be restored to great shape after the worst national environmental disaster in American history. Who wrote this awful speech for the president needs to be fired today. Obama like I have been saying for a while lives in his own perfect world where everything works out in the end…lol
I really feel sorry for this guy…he obvious does not understand that the gulf will be permanently damaged for generations. Well, on the plus side I guess the poor guy could not come out and say the hard truth. Like, how the gulf is now be leaking for months and after the leak stops the damaged to the ocean is…permit. So, he basically tried to put a good face on a horrible situation.
I didn’t get that neither about the gulf being restored better than before. You look at the pictures and I am sure seeing it up close all the oil in the marshes and on the beach and in all the oil in the water, he said it would take months and years, no Mr.President it will take generations. There still having problems with the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska after 21 years. I just wish the government would be honest with everyone about this.
Can you imagine if he was brutally honest what would happen they (MSM) would still attack him worse than now…lol
Look when I voted for this guy I never had any high hopes for Obama Presidency. I voted for him out of disgust for the opposing ticket. Now, it appears from recent poll numbers flying around many are starting the feel same way as I did in 2008. They are turning to help from Republicans as punishment to use against Obama for all his broken promises. The White House is so out of touch that they don’t see a political storm raging around the country for their heads.
I think he meant the gulf coast and the gulf coast restoration act, a $18 billion dollar project that will build a shipping channel and divert the mississipi into 5 smaller rivers dumping silt into the marshlands, like it used
to work before the mississipi was engineer so that today its just a water shut dumping all that silt into deep water.
http://www.bpoilspilllawblog.com/2010/06/louisiana-wetlands-by-redirect.html
I think he heard the people in the gulf and the rest of the country. I do believe he understands in someway why people are angry and upset. I thought this speech at the Oval Office was going to explain more about the oil spill and bring more answers but instead it seems to have people asking more questions, which I don’t think the president wanted. I was watching MSM and Chris Matthews and even Keith Olbermann, was sortof thinking the samething about the emphasize some of the things he was saying. I agree with him on clean energy but he could have gave some examples, and if he thought the health care bill was hard to pass, I am sure those oil and coal producing states was throwing a fit over that !! I am sure democrats such as the presidents buddy Arkansas Senator Blanche Lincoln, Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson, West Virginia Senator Jay Rockerfeller, and other Senators and Congressmen and Congresswomen are not going to touch it. I would love to have clean energy and we are in need of it badly !! The president needed to kick this speech out of the park, but sadly he didn’t !!
“The president needed to kick this speech out of the park, but sadly he didn’t !!”-fairmindedindependant
A speech alone will not save this man at this point…He needs action on solving the problem down in the gulf. If not the Dems will suffer in his place come midterm elections…and perhaps also 2012. BP should be getting a larger share the blame by the media but Obama bashing seem to have come in fashion these days for TV pundits.
I didn’t watch the speech because I personally don’t like the president. The only speech I’ve ever watched was the health care speech.
From what I’ve read, I’m more pessimistic about the future of America than ever before. We’re just not capable of doing big things anymore. Our relative decline continues…
While I agree with your pessimisim I disagree with “We’re just not capable of doing big things anymore.”
What we ARE is incapable of recognizing truly capable officials and electing instead those who give “good speech” rather then those who tell us what truly needs to be done and have an actual vision.
I know what you mean.
This speech was for John & Jane Q. Public, not for politicos hunting specifics. I’m not sure why anyone expected something different given the ~15 minute time-frame. You must have known the greater portion of this speech would be spent ‘feeling the pain’ of Gulf residents and explaining the basics of this crisis to Americans who haven’t been paying much attention.
IMO, this was just an opening shot, and I think the greater salvo will come when this catastrophe is stabilized (after the well is plugged and clean-up efforts are fully engaged).
For the life of me I cannot remember any specifics from any oval speech given in my lifetime unless it had something to do with us invading somebody else. This is an embarrassing admission for me. I guess speeches like this are important, and I guess the theatrics of the deal matter to the clucking chattering classes who need something to bloviate on for a news cycle or two, but I agree that this speech was largely for those Americans that aren’t fixated on the story right now. I’m not trying to defend the speech per se; I thought it was kind of flat- or the President for that matter, but a 15 minute chat is not where you lay out specifics.
obama talked about how america overcame challenges like wwii. then he didnt give details on what our plan of action will be. nothing. vagueness ruled as usual. obama cites past challenges then doesnt provide guidelines for the fight ahead. fdr ,churchull etc were great eladers who told u this is what will happen next week. these are our goals. here is how i plan to do this. when i read it would be a 15 in speech i knew we were in trouble.
obama is the head of a cmte not president. that is the impression. obama is your claims adjuster. and what does the gop offer? not a damned thing. not an alternative. angle runs around talkin about revolution. others urge a probe into obama’s birth cert. paul questions the civil rts act. something has to give.
“obama is the head of a cmte not president.”- texan4hillary
I have had that impression of Obama for two months now…I prefer to think of him as just a figured head aka KING with out power. True, the GOP doesn’t offer anything tangible in solving Americas problems… but they do have one thing over Obama…he is not the the leader of their party. So, the Republicans can profit off his mishaps handsomely the same way Dems did years ago using Bush. As swing voters become more disgusted with Obama…Republicans move up a notch in the eyes of the public come midterms elections in November.
republicans always vote. dems dont. it took 16 of the gop screwing us that finally dems got energized enough to vote the out in droves. 16. should the gop regain the house in 2010 it will be because dems didnt turn out, not that the voters felt the gop has the light to save america.
the gop has not articulated really anything at all. ive hear them rant about how obama is a socialist, how he isnt an american, how dems want to raise taxes to “redsitribute” the wealth like lenin. fiorina said there isnt global warming- its mere “weather”, palin said we must bear the burdens of oil spill bc we must keep on drillin. period- no other ideas. Im not disgusted with democrats, Im disgusted with how this president has time and again forfieted opportunies to do real good things. aka pub opt, aka carbon tax. there are many good dems with real ideas to save america. many. yeah i hate stupak, and lieberman, nelson. but most i can respect.
so u see how conflicted i am. im not happy with obama’s leadership skills. yet im too afraid to have rand paul and sharron angle in the senate. watching the gop mindlessly block anything at all the govt has to do is sad and fails all of us. i deride obama and some of the feckless dems in congress daily. then i read what the gop has to say and it really terrifies me. so i suppose the dnc has people like me pegged- yeah iw ill bitch but then i will see the tea party screaming about the illegals, socialism etc.. and support the dems. maybe im wrong. but tis where im headed…
That’s how I feel. Didn’t vote for him in the Primary, but grudgingly did so in the general election. I voted for him not because I liked him or believed in him; I was just afraid of the alternative.
He’s lived down to every non-expectation I had of him. But what is the alternative? The crazies on the right? The ones who are blaming environmentalist for the oil spill? The ones who want to downplay MLK’s historical significant out of the history books?
Unless a real progressive stands up and runs against Obama in 2012, I don’t see what the alternative is than to vote for him again.
My suggestion is to get progressives in politics from the local level on up.
More and better Democrats, as Markos says.
I think one flaw in the progressive movement is our belief that the change can come from the top down. Meanwhile, conservatives have been engaged from the local level on up for decades.
Progressivism isn’t here yet. Not remotely. A lot of work will be required to usher it in.
yep. i cant see how he avoids a primary challenge. 3rd parties seem to put the right into power, not voting to me is never an option but primaries are a way to push change. i pray he can save his presidency. truly.
“He’s lived down to every non-expectation I had of him.”
You, me and everyone else who voted for Hillary in the primaries…OOPS! I fergot ya ain’t supposed ta mention that there was a REAL choice er ya?
I have to agree, neither party is where America is right now. I have to admit, the crazies do make me laugh, but sadly they believe what they say. Both sides have lost touch with the real world. I don’t want the dems to think they just have my vote because of the tea party, but if there are independents that start running who are moderate, then the dems and the reps better watch out !!!
Dems spend their time criticizing their leaders Republicans support their own. As long as you have a coalition that includes in its base issue oriented, grievance based supporters that constantly run down their own leadership what can you expect average voters to do? Why should someone consider supporting Democrats when self-described Democrats are constantly carping about their own being ‘sell-outs’ or weak, or vain or turncoats? Just because your little “issue” isn’t at the top of the agenda, or your policy prescription is not enacted without compromise doesn’t mean you throw the baby out with the bath water.
We have had 40 years of Republican political hegemony in this country. It should be self-evident to any sentient human being that this has been a disaster for the country, but it is not something that is going to be turned around in 17 months, or 17 years even. The only thing Democrats have to fear is other Democrats. Like 1993, and 1979, and 2000 this shit plays like a broken record.
I didn’t bother to watch. I’m with secular above. Who cares what he says in a speech? It only matters what he does when the rubber hits the road. I would have rather seen a press conference where people could ask him questions but I know Axelrod et al. aren’t too keen on those.
Pres. Obama and his entire political team missed the purpose of an Oval Office Address.
But let’s just say it was for “John & Jane Q. Public,” which is the White House line that they want spread, you know, going over the heads of the pundits and political class. If you’re going to lay out whoppers like 90% of the oil coming from the well will be captured in the coming weeks, considering BP’s track record as well as what oil experts are saying, you should be prepared to say how and in what manner the current floundering will change. The point about the relief well from Obama was void of the inherent dangers in that process as well.
It wasn’t close to what was needed, 15 min or not. Admitting that no one knows how we’re going to get where we need to go is the opposite of what the Address should have conveyed.
I heard someone say this morning, “when the call came in at 3 a.m., the president hit the snooze button” or words to that effect.
Hillary was right. He’s not ready for the 3 a.m. call. She must be going crazy, seeing how this yahoo is running (or not) things.
I never listen to the prez but would like to hear what he’s telling the BP thugs in private today. More than likely it’ll be along the line of him convincing them to show him more campaign money so he can continue to be their best-ever friend in the White House, and the public–and the country–be damned.