The Right Opinion
Barack Obama in Crisis: Zzzz
President Bush's harshest critics often described his look during moments of crisis as "deer in the headlights." After two years of Hope and Change, America has grown accustomed to President Obama's crisis face: eyes glazed over.
At his first press conference in 308 days, Obama fielded questions about the Gulf oil spill, immigration, the war in Afghanistan and the mounting outrage over Pennsylvania Democratic Rep. Joe Sestak's job-trading allegations with a sluggishness bordering on geriatric. His aplomb was a bomb.
The commander-in-chief's mumbling, diffident tone contradicted the "I CARE" message of urgency that drifted across the teleprompter screen and rolled languidly off his tongue.
"I am angry and frustrated," he heaved. Rather unconvincingly. He was "singularly focused," he asserted. Rather distractedly. The president did manage to work up enough energy to condemn BP and then turned to a moment of obligatory self-aggrandizement: "I'm confident that people are going to look back and say that this administration was on top of what was an unprecedented crisis."
How "on top" was he? Well, not enough to take the time on Thursday morning before his much-hyped appearance to nail down the details of how and why his Interior Department Chief of the Minerals Management Service Liz Birnbaum was no longer in office. "You're assuming it was a firing," Obama told reporters. "I don't yet know the circumstances." He explained that he was preoccupied with other matters and couldn't get ahold of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.
When pressed to elaborate, he heaved again: "I don't know."
Then, addressing all the ignorant Americans who have failed to appreciate his rescue efforts, Obama mustered up a semblance of indignation: "Those who think we were either slow in our response or lacked urgency don't know the facts. This has been our highest priority since this crisis occurred."
And this is the Obama definition of accountability: blaming everyone else for lacking the Ivy League-honed comprehension skills to see the greatness of his fortitude and foresight.
How high of a priority did his administration really make the post-spill cleanup? After droning on haltingly about the federal failure to form an "oil...tracking...flow...group," Obama admitted with a shrug: "There was a lag of several weeks that shouldn't have happened."
With more self-pity than compassion, Obama wrapped up the rare press conference with a disjointed, off-script ramble:
"But look, we've gone through a difficult year and a half. This is just one more bit of difficulty. And this is going to be hard, not just right now; it's going to be hard for months to come. ...
"You know, when I woke up this morning, and I'm shaving, and Malia knocks on my bathroom door, and she peeks in her head, and she says, 'Did you plug the hole yet, Daddy?' -- (soft laughter) -- because I think everybody understands that, you know, when we are fouling the Earth like this, it has concrete implications not just for this generation but for future generations. ...
"And in case anybody wonders -- in any of your reporting, in case you're wondering who's responsible, I take responsibility. It is my job to make sure that everything is done to shut this down.
"That doesn't mean it's going to be easy. It doesn't mean it's going to happen right away or the way I'd like it to happen. It doesn't mean that we're not going to make mistakes. But there shouldn't be any confusion here. The federal government is fully engaged, and I'm fully engaged, all right?"
Not waiting for an answer (or for any more nettlesome questions), he hurried off for a quick photo-op pit stop in the Gulf on Friday before jetting to Chicago to keep a high-priority promise to be back in his hometown for Memorial Day weekend.
The sterile performance was eerily reminiscent of his national security announcement last December from Hawaii, when he appeared before the American people in tie-less informal island wear to read a bloodless, perfunctory statement about the Christmas Day bomber. Eyes down on his notes the whole time, he described the failed attack with the weariness of a small-town sheriff's deputy, rather than as the leader of the free world. Then it was back to the beach. This is Obama in crisis: disengaged, put upon and impatient to get back to Me Time.
Rough men stand ready to keep and defend our well-being and safety. Someone wake President Obama when it's over.
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13 Comments
veritaseequitas
Friday, May 28, 2010 at 5:55 AM
He was probably stoned. That'll make your eyes glazed over...."you know when we are fouling the earth like this, it has concrete implications not just for this generation, but for future generations"...It stinks just like your entire agenda BO.
A Realpolitik
Friday, May 28, 2010 at 7:28 AM
I actually thought his news conference went pretty well everything considered. I understand him not knowing about someone tending their resignation earlier that day considering his busy schedule. I also believe he is greatly concerned with the crisis in the gulf, but then as President he has many other crisis’s too deal with such as North Korea’s aggressive behavior, several wars, party demands to campaign, meetings with dignitaries, etc., etc., and many more critically important matters we are not made aware of.This Gulf crisis should not become a political partisan “jump Obama” thing. It is times like this that we should all band together, be supportive and do whatever we can to help the situation. I like to think of this nation as a family, a highly dysfunctional family, that in times of trouble we work together to find a solution.So many us are quick to find fault and criticize rather than point out the positive things, I guess it gets you noticed. We all seek the truth that hides somewhere in-between, always has been and always will be.
g.wegmann
Friday, May 28, 2010 at 9:06 AM
I guess Realpolitic forgot that the Obama administration gave the "green light" to BP to drill at the site of the oil spill without bothering to inspect, verify that saftey factors were in place as is the usual proceedure before giving Oil Comapnies the permit to drill off-shore. Perhaps it was because BP was a large contributor to Obama's campaign to capture the White House!
Bob W
Friday, May 28, 2010 at 9:28 AM
Democrat Lawmakers say NO to American’s Security and securing our Borders against illegal aliens, murderers, and Mexican gangs. We are all American’s, regardless of our party affiliation. The majority of the American people believe we need to secure our borders, just as the majority believed forcing health care and fines on citizens was wrong. Unfortunately, many Democratic lawmakers, just like the forced health care law, are going against the wishes of a great majority of American citizens. It seems democrat lawmakers believe they know what best for the American people, regardless of how citizens feel about many of their new policies. The security situation along the order has deteriorated so badly that 3,000 guard troops are needed just to help protect Arizona alone. American Citizens are being murdered, drug are being smuggled in to push on our children, illegal immigrants are being cattled across the border, American jobs are being taken at a time when our unemployment rate is 10%, costs to incarcerate the many illegal aliens who break our laws are skyrocketing, costs to maintain welfare roles for illegal’s are astronomical, and it goes on. Democrat lawmakers blocked the needed votes to send more troops to secure our borders, save American Tax dollars, enforce our immigration laws, and save American jobs. Democrat lawmakers also repelled more than $2 billion in additional border security spending, as well as they are refusing to built the needed border protection fence that was already approved. What are these lawmaker’s agenda? Your guess is as good as mine. Perhaps they want to see American’s suffering! Fellow Citizens, Enough is Enough! It is time to remove all those who vote for out of control spending, voted to force and fine citizens for not getting mandated health care, voted against the majority of American’s wishes on illegal immigration and border protection. Remember those who voted against securing America border in November.
p3orion
Friday, May 28, 2010 at 1:21 PM
"Rough men stand ready to keep and defend our well-being and safety. Someone wake President Obama when it's over."Classic, Michelle!
Proud American
Friday, May 28, 2010 at 2:43 PM
To: A Realpolitic;Your comments sound just like Obama when he is in a foreign country, bowing to those dicators and apologizing to them for our country and her 'transgressions.' I cannot remember if anyone representing America, in a foreign country ever bowed from the waist. Obama is a disgrace and so are you if you put your stamp of approval on his hideous behavior.. OR was all that crap said with "tongue-in-cheek??" We'll never know....MICHELLLE;As usual, your column is right on point!.. I just could not stand to watch his press conference. I applaud you for for your ability to not change channels.. I do remember when he was running for office, I just could not watch him. He appeared to me as a liar then. I also could not watch Clinton these many years ago. I had him pegged for a liar too. We seem to be at the mercy of all the evil, traitors that are in Obama's Adm. and all the other's who groomed him all those years to get right to where he is now. He sounds okay when he has the good old teleprompter. But when he has to 'ad-lib' and think on his own he really fumbles the ball. Remember the girl who asked him about taxes and he gave her 171/2 minutes of jibberish??He is probably a bit of a disapointment to his handlers. I'll bet they cringe whenever he is near a microphone without the teleprompter.. I am more than just a little curious as to how many years it took for his handlers to wipe out everything about him?? It's as if he was just dropped from the sky full grown and no one knows anything about him prior to Illinois and Rev. Wright's church. So, here's my take on what has been going on for years. And some people have'pooh-poohed' me about this. A very long time ago while talking with friends about the illegal alien's, I said," Well, their main objective is to over run the southwest, especially and take back Arizona, Texas, N.Mexico, and California. The state of Texas has had six different flags flying from their flagpoles, and fially the last one is the Stars and Stripes. Mexico has never had a problem "letting their people go." They want what we have and they don't care how they get it. But, they won't even try to bring Mexico into the 21st century. Calderon thinks it's great that the Mexicans here are sending $21 M. a year back there. When I saw all those Libs give him a standing ovation, I wanted to up-chuck. Such Traitors these hideous people are!!They DO NOT CARE how many illegals there are, they don't have to live and shop with themj. hose people are in their ivory towers ans look down their noses at we poor mortals.. I am so ashamed of those two-faced bottom feeders. Now, the other huge problem we face are all those Muslims who want to take over the world and kill all the infidels... They are not fooling around, I saw the photo's from London with those people and their sign's and they really mean to kill us. Well, we have just the right person in the White House don't we??? I do not believe he was born anywhere near American soil. That is the biggest reason why his past has been expunged. Also, he ignores, as best he can anything to do with our Judeo-Christian upbringing. Why? Because he is a Muslim.. They only allow him to do so much, like the Easter egg roll that was on a Monday. After all it was just a bunch of little kids looking0 for eggs.. I can't even remember anything about their 1st Christmas in the White House. There are some thingsn where they, of course, just go through the motions. Remember how everyone speculated about which Church they would attend??? None. They are Muslim. The Muslim's want the whole world, not just a few states in our South West.. We are in deep trouble and I wonder if the Sleeping Giant has awakened in time ?? I pray so !!!!
Buck
Friday, May 28, 2010 at 6:04 PM
How can anyone call him a Commander-in-chief? when he won't go as other Presidents and place a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers. This urks me to no ends. This should show all citzens his great concern for our Great Country.I agree and stand with and proclaim myself as a PROUD AMERICAN.
Kathy
Saturday, May 29, 2010 at 9:41 AM
First it was the SEC getting caught watching porn, then the Dept of Interior got caught doing the same thing. Perhaps if they'd been doing their job, which is overseeing companies like BP, instead of watching filth (while we pay their salaries), this whole thing could have been avoided.It's no wonder that O seemed distracted; he's like a cat in a sandbox with a limited amount of sand. While he's covering up one pile of poop, he's exposing the other piles. He knows full well that the whole administration is pooping faster than he can cover. He needs more sand, and guess who has to pay for it?
Theoldpatriot
Saturday, May 29, 2010 at 9:47 AM
Great commentary, Michelle! The emperor has no clothes. God grant us the strength to endure each remaining day of this marxist and godless heresy, until this evil administration and its congressional syncophants are kicked out of office once and for all. On this sacred Memorial Day Weekend, let us remember and honor all the true Patriots who have served and died to preserve liberty since our nation's founding. Those of us who care must stay strong to continue the fight in honor of their sacrifice, in these, the darkest days of American history. Keep liberty alive!
MichaelSSEC
Saturday, May 29, 2010 at 8:20 PM
RealPolitick:"I understand him not knowing about someone tending their resignation earlier that day considering his busy schedule."That's simply not how it works in Presidential politics. Rarely does anyone in an administration just up and resign with no notice. Typically, a resignation is preceded by days or weeks of behind the scenes discussion that includes the President. Days before an announcement is made, the President is informed at the very least that a resignation is imminent, so that he might have input in the selection of a replacement or even decide on a replacement himself.Therefore if he was in fact caught totally by surprise with this resignation it's yet another indication that this administration is completely unprofessional to the point of being inept. But when we elected a man who had never run anything, not even a lemonade stand, before in his life, I suppose we shouldn't be surprised when he lacks experience."I also believe he is greatly concerned with the crisis in the gulf, but then as President he has many other crisis’s too deal with such as North Korea’s aggressive behavior, several wars, party demands to campaign, meetings with dignitaries, etc., etc., and many more critically important matters we are not made aware of."Yet, that's exactly the point of Ms Malkin's column, that whenever Obama is seen to be handling a crisis he seems totally disengaged and uncaring. The man simply does not care about anything but himself. As we used to say, 'his I's are too close together.'As for all the other "crises" he's allegedly handling, don't be so quick to pay the man on the back. In the first place, he's not facing anything more than other Presidents have faced, yet he always seems completely out of his depth. Second, I noticed you didn't include his handling of the economy in your back-patting. Perhaps that's because he's done so incredibly poorly, even a cheerleader like yourself is afraid to bring up that subject. Third, he's done everything he possibly can to sabotage those two wars (not several, just two) because he doesn't want us to achieve our goals there -- Democratization of Islamic states formerly ruled by Islamic tyrannies. Moreover, what exactly has he done to halt NoKo's aggression, besides bow and scrape to every thug on the planet? Fourth, why didn't you bring up Iran, which is currently the most important security issue on Earth? Could it be because Obama has been not merely wrong in his handling of Iran, but suicidally wrong? The man is the worst President in the history of Humanity."This Gulf crisis should not become a political partisan “jump Obama” thing. It is times like this that we should all band together, be supportive and do whatever we can to help the situation."Right, like 9/11 should have been a time of unity in the face of a horrifying attack, but instead the Democrats decided it was a golden opportunity to smear Bush. The Left still tries to pretend Bush was really responsible for 9/11, just as he's supposedly responsible for the recession, hurricane Katrina and every other bad thing that ever happened. Nice try."I like to think of this nation as a family, a highly dysfunctional family, that in times of trouble we work together to find a solution."The only dysfunctional segment of the American family is the Left. Leftists oppose every solution to every problem, and instead push for increases in whatever stupid policies created the problems in the first place. Look, even as the recession blossomed all around us, the Left quite shrilly blamed Capitalism for the whole mess when even a child could see the "crisis" was created almost entirely by Leftist meddling in the real estate, mortgage and securities industries. When you rig the rules so that people who can't possibly afford a mortgage are given mortgages, and you pump millions of those bad loans into the economy, you get a catastrophe. So rather than accept the blame for their imbecilic policies, the Left simply circled the wagons, blamed Capitalism (the Messiah led the charge on that front) and pushed for (surprise!) more of the same policies that caused the recession in the first place. That's dysfunctional in the extreme."So many us are quick to find fault and criticize rather than point out the positive things, I guess it gets you noticed."Guess you slept through the years 2000-2008, huh?
Steve
Sunday, May 30, 2010 at 9:50 AM
Could they use Obama to plug the hole?
wate98
Sunday, May 30, 2010 at 6:15 PM
RE: Proud American's claim that Pres. Calderon was proud to have $21 million coming to Mexico from illegals in America. Not sure where the $ figure came from, but I'm confident it's significantly higher than that.Back in 1996 I was in a Kroger's grocery store in S.E. Mi, near a large Mexican community. At that time, the store mgr. informed me that at her store alone, $1.5 million was being sent to Mexico via Western Union- WEEKLY. That was just one store, and I wasn't even aware of any substantial Mexican community in the area. Nowadays, businesses owned and operated by members of the Mexican community are everywhere around here. Proud American, I think $200 billion American is closer to the true amount of money taken from America.
joe75
Thursday, June 3, 2010 at 11:35 AM
I believe that we need to do as other countries(ex:London) you can send money or buy money but it will be at the amount of you current peso. While in London in was $1.31 for one pound. Then the buy back rate was $1.61 a pound for 1 U.S. Dollar