
I watched the president's speech last night and was appalled at what a mediocre attempt it was to put salve on the wounds of those of us who are worried to death about the disaster in the Gulf! The American people who care about what's happened down there because of the cavalier attitude of BP and other BIG OIL companies toward safety and protection for their workers and the fragile environment they're occupying were looking for him to offer up a plan of action...a WORKABLE plan...not rhetoric and nonsensical solutions, such as prayer! We also didn't want another pep talk about what a great nation we are and how we'll weather this disaster like we've done so many times before. I'm not so sure that we will. This is an unprecedented disaster and there's no real solution in sight. Yes, I'm sure the president wants to get that gusher stopped, but last night he indicated, at least to me, that he is still relying on the info BP is relaying to him. We all know most of that is just more lies. What's going on with him? It looks like others felt the same way.....
Here's Jason Linkins at Huffpost:
OBAMA'S OIL SPILL SPEECH: WHAT WAS THE POINT?President Barack Obama took to the Oval Office to address a nation worried to death over the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, a location used so much more often by Saturday Night Live than by actual presidents that my brain actually released a small dollop of dopamine in anticipation of comedic parody. And then, over the next seventeen minutes, nothing much happened to challenge my brain's autonomic preconceptions.
I am really not entirely sure what the point to this Oval Office address was! Were you looking for something that resembled a fully-realized action plan, describing a detailed approach to containment and clean up? Or perhaps a definitive statement, severing the command and control that BP has largely enjoyed, in favor of a structured, centralized federal response? Maybe you were looking for a roadmap-slash-timetable for putting America on a path to a clean energy future? Well, this speech was none of those things.