I'm feeling fairly sad, hearing that a tar glob washed ashore near Panama City. My dad was once stationed at nearly Tyndall AFB, and I used to ride a bus past the smelly paper factory to a Catholic school located within walking distance of the beach--gorgeous white sand. I still remember a field trip to the beach, picking up shells along the beach. And,of course, my family went to the beach several times during the 3-plus years we lived there. The story has touched me in a personal way; some of my fondest childhood memories were on that beach.
Obama Would Have Had to Invent BP
Obama has taken the stereotype of the slick-talking used car salesman to the White House--and given it a bad name. Watching him try to pivot from the loss-leader (i.e., the BP oil spill) to trying to sell a high-cost climate change/alternative energy initiative, given a fragile economy, is painful. Trying to suggest one industrial accident justifies a radical reengineering of an already weak economy is a hard sell to Americans whom remember numerous oil embargoes and $4/gallon gasoline, with a decidedly strong public resistance against further tax-and-spend policies. As the Osmond Brothers sang, "One bad apple don't spoil the whole bunch, girl." Even Louisiana victims were opposed to the President's moratorium on deepwater drilling; the last thing the economically distressed region needs is Obama throwing thousands of workers out of jobs to score dubious political points.
With both the President and the Democratic Congress at below 50% approval ratings, and the Senate Republicans holding 41 votes to block, a broad bill is infeasible; certainly the bill that narrowly won House approval was dead on arrival. It seems that the White House is aiming at a political strategy of trying to pass a weakened climate bill before the election that will protect vulnerable incumbents (e.g., Murray, Boxer, Lincoln, and Reid), and then try to do the dirty work in a lame duck session.
To a natural, legitimate problem solver and administrator like myself, it is disheartening to watch incompetence played out on the national stage. [Ironically, Mortimer Zuckerman, who earlier this year considered running for the US Senate from New York, has a new column out, entitled "The World Sees Obama as Incompetent and Amateur."] No, Obama didn't cause the accident, but there are a number of common sense things, which one would think that Obama learned from the Katrina disaster.
First, leadership is more than public relations, a Clintonian "I feel your pain" politics. Obama seems to think it's enough to be seen at the shore, picking up a tarball or two, giving a speech or two. It's not enough. TALK IS CHEAP. WHAT WE NEED IS ACTION.
Second, in a crisis, bureaucratic analysis paralysis and inertia must be anticipated and explicitly rejected. For example, before the Katrina disaster, there were evacuation plans in place to evacuate New Orleans in an adverse event. The Democratic leaders, Mayor Nagin and Governor Blanco, refused to evacuate; in fact, Nagin left potential evacuation vehicles (school buses) in low-lying areas. This is not meant to reopen the fingerpointing over Katrina. I've repeatedly said that Bush should have acted first and apologized later. When you are dealing with a life-and-death issue, a philosophic discussion over the relative roles of the federal and local government is not appropriate; you have to focus on the mission first, and if the federal, state or local government or bureaucracies aren't part of the solution, they're part of the problem. I cannot underscore how disgusted I was over the Coast Guard stopping the oil skimming barges ordered into service by Governor Jindal (R-LA), allegedly for not having enough life jackets or fire extinguishers. Let me get this straight: because of some bureaucratic rule, you would rather see the oil reach the wetlands? If the Coast Guard, during an emergency, and I submit this constitutes an emergency, thinks the jackets or extinguishers are a problem, let the barges go on their designated task while they or others get the necessary number. But this kind of nitpicking is INSANE. The same thing with waiving the Jones Act. Are we seriously going to stop foreign vessels that can help recovery efforts because they don't wear the American labor union label? Obama doesn't get it... YOU DO NOT PLAY POLITICS IN A CRISIS. Personally, I dare the labor unions to tell the environmentalists (both Dem constituent groups) why the wetlands got polluted because of obsolete protectionist legislation. Yeah, I know--they'll come together to attack BP as the incarnation of the Antichrist. But the point is, a LEGITIMATE leader would have jawboned the bureaucrats to stand down, to bend the rules when necessary. As Kenny Rogers famously sang, "there will be time enough for countin' when the dealin's done."
Third, Obama looks for solutions based on political principles. This is probably most clearly seen from some of his "expert" groups, often drawn from political allies (e.g., environmental groups) or academia. No doubt, because of his frequent demagoguery against "industry lobbyists", he has conspicuously avoided naming industry practitioners to boards. It reminds me of when I tried to convince the rest of the MIS PhD faculty at UWM to list industry experience as a positive consideration for entering the program. I quickly got shot down by one of the senior faculty whom himself never worked in industry until after attaining his doctorate (in a consulting capacity). It's difficult to see how these groups could ever yield balanced, fair, useful findings, without, for instance, the explicit inclusion of industry safety engineers.
I'm personally tired of Obama's constant scapegoating of the hand he's been dealt, of BP's "recklessness". It's like he doesn't know how to deal with spilled milk. I once visited my brother's family; my nephew got overly excited and knocked over his glass of milk. Initially he was petrified, looking from one parent to the other for their reactions, while the milk continued to spread. I gently suggested that he get a towel and clean up the spill, and he immediately raced to the kitchen. There will be post-audits of the incident. What Obama should have done, except he's not a manager and doesn't know any better, is to go to industry competitors and get their perspective on what needs to be done and to give a frank appraisal of what he's hearing from BP : how they would handle the spill, what is BP doing right, what they're not doing, whether they have trained personnel that can join the effort (does anybody at all remember what other cities' police and firefighters did in the aftermath of 9/11?), etc.
What drew people to Obama at the beginning was his inclusive message, but in fact he has become the most hyper-partisan President in my lifetime; after Scott Brown's election, for the Democrats to go ahead and pass the corrupt Senate health care bill under reconciliation rules, despite overwhelming public rejection, is probably the single most arrogant abuse of majoritarian power I can recall. Obama just doesn't get it. He now makes George W. Bush, Wall Street, BP, Fox News, Tea Party, the GOP in Congress, etc., the enemy, It's like his mother never told him, "If you can't say something constructive, don't say anything." Stop whining, and start leading...
Political Cartoon
Eric Allie realizes that the US Constitution established checks and balances, but due to negligence of fiscal discipline and the last 2 elections, we have seen an explosion of bad policy ideas and red ink, with the GOP needing a unanimous vote just to block partisan "tax-and-spend" legislation in the Senate (and that only after Scott Brown's victory in January, not to mention manipulation of budget reconciliation to bypass the filibuster threshold). The red link will not only touch the Gulf coast, but stretch from the East Coast to the West Coast (and the two other states as well).
Quote of the Day
I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation and is but a reflection of human frailty.
Albert Einstein
Musical Interlude: Chart Hits of 1969
Zager & Evans, "In the Year 2525"
The Beatles, "Get Back"
The Youngbloods, "Get Together"
Marvin Gaye, "I Heard It Through the Grapevine"
Creedence Clearwater Revival, "Proud Mary"
