19 June 2010

This is presidential?

Well, maybe I am just an old, cynical, sarcastic son of a bitch. Maybe, but somehow I cannot accept that Go-bomb-them is acting "presidential" in any way.
Yes, this is my take on his latest speech. You may have seen/heard it this past Tuesday. You know, the one where in he basically had nothing to say, but, he said it very nicely. The one where he ended it by asking us all to pray to some god or other to help us fix the mess in the Gulf.
Yep, he talked for a while and said nothing that is at all useful. Oh true, some of his loyal supporters, he still has a few I am told, think he gave a great speech. Well, those folks have access to drugs that the rest of us don not have. How any sane, rational person could say this speech was "great" is beyond me. The guy had no answers to give us. He still has not been told why this blow out/disaster happened. And he is the president, but he has not been told why. He also offered no solutions, except the afore mentioned prayer.
OK, some honesty here. I do not believe that prayer does anything at all to solve any problem. Yes, I am just an old heathen and do not pray to any sort of god critter. Those of you who do, well, if it makes you feel good, great. Personally, I have never seen any results, positive or negative, from praying to any god.
This is the very same president who has capitulated to the elephant gang on just about everything. Remember, he is all for some pie-in-the-sky bipartisanship. The very same "leader" who basically gave the "health" insurance industry nearly everything they wanted and passed it off on us as health care "reform". The same guy who would NOT even consider any sort of a true national health care policy, not even the most basic of a "public option". The same guy who will not even ask for Medicare to negotiate with the drug makers for better prices for those on Medicare.
This president does not appear to be "on top" of any issue. Why did it take him nearly two months after this well blew out before he addressed the people? What was he waiting for? It obviously was not to get the reasons for this disaster as he told us in this speech that he still does not have those answers. And he is the president of the US of A? The supposedly "most powerful man in the world"? And he still(!!) has not been told why this well is such a disaster?
I admit that I did not watch this speech, just read it and I have followed the commentary on it. After watching his earlier "performances" why bother to watch any more of his speeches? The guy talks nice, that is a given. But, what does he ever actually say? This is also not new. I remember back in early 2008 as the primary campaigns were just getting started, a cousin of mine emailed me to say that he "liked what Obama was saying". I replied and asked my cousin just what Obama had said that he liked so much. There was a long time before I got a reply to that, and when I did, it was to basically tell me that "he speaks well". No kidding? Hey, after eight years of trying like hell to figure out what Shrubbie was trying to say when he gave a speech, even I had to admit that Go-bomb-them does have a good speaking voice. The man does speak the English language in an understandable manner. But, his speeches are very, very short on actual substance.
Now that he is president, I am even more critical of him. Not only do his speeches lack in substance, his actions, what few there are, do not match the hype of the speeches. Where was the "actions" on health care? Where are the actions, much needed now, on this oil disaster?
Another comment on Go-bomb-them. In my opinion, he lacks, near totally, in any emotion. When does this guy get pissed off? If he ever did, how would we know it? His speeches lack in any emotion. Always the very same, level, measured tone. No fist banging the desk/podium. No raising his voice. No shouting, in short, no emotions at all. Therefore, no passion. No convictions. No leadership.
We are staring down the absolute worst oil mess in the recorded history and his "answer" is for us to pray to some god or other. This is leadership?
He mentioned a few things from our past that had caused this country to "rally around" on. He made reference to World War Two and the moon shot as examples of what this country can/could do. And yet all he can offer by way of leadership is for us to pray? How does he expect the country to rally around that? Does that work for any of you? It sure as hell leave me flat and very, very unimpressed.
Our country was able to rally around to fight the Nazi menace because we had real leadership. Yes, I agree that World War Two, like World War One, was unnecessary, but that is a very different topic. We also rallied to get the moon landing done because we had real leadership then also. Where is that type of leadership now? JFK did not ask the country to pray that we would send a man to the moon and bring him back safely. He challenged us to get the job done. FDR did not only ask us to pray to defeat the Nazis and the Empire of Japan, he challenged us to do it. Those presidents provided the leadership to meet those challenges. Where is Go-bomb-them and his "leadership"? My guess is that he is still waiting for some dreamed of bipartisanship to bail him out. Well, that ain't gonna happen folks. Nope, the elephant gang will never back him up. No way, no how. If he didn't get that message from the "health care debate", he never will. Every time he reaches out to them, they just slap his hand. The man is NOT a leader, no way. And right now, this country is in dire need of real leadership.
This mess in the Gulf has the potential to be spewing oil into the water for decades if some people are right about things. According to one article I have read, this could change all life on this planet. Very few people know just how big the oil deposit this well tapped into is. The reason is that oil companies are very secretive about the wells they drill to keep the competition guessing. One wonders just how much the government has been told about the potential of this well.
The only things that we know for sure are, BP is not telling the public all they know about this well, and the government is not telling the public all that they know about it.
As usual, the people of America are left in the dark. Also, we, the tax payers will be the ones who end up paying for the clean up. What I think is that this will be something our grandchildren and possibly even our great, great grandchildren will be dealing with.