Why should Obama care if senior Americans depending on dividends from British Petroleum and other companies to make ends meet? How dare BP spend money on trying to rehabilitate its tattered public image?
Obama went on, saying he would not take lightly any current or future attempt by BP to nickel and dime economic and other claims along with Gulf Coast...
You know, this process of threatening or bashing BP, the oil industry, and the Bush Administration while in a state of denial over the government's own involvement or miscues is counterproductive and disingenuous.
Leadership requires constructive advice, at times going against the grain in doing the right thing.
But let's suppose the shoe was on the other foot:
Today's unemployment rate dipped to an unadjusted 9.7%--but new jobs, below projections, were dominated by short-term Census temp hiring. GDP increases are moderating. Now what do you think would happen if the Obama Administration decided to eliminate interest payments on the federal debt--and do you think we should allow a White House Press Secretary to promote the institution's public image? Should we be talking about how a profitable company, regardless of whether it is dealing with a single failed project, rewards shareholders, while the Obama Administration has added over $3T to the national debate, a record for any one full term, never mind half term?
What should Obama have done? Let me give a hint of where I think the administration went wrong. First, you need to set expectations, what government can do and what it can't do. Second, you need to identify the nature of the government response--in particular, protecting the coastline. There are ways to contain a spill, e.g., booms, supertankers, skimmers, etc. The President has control of certain resources, e.g., the Army Corps of Engineers, the Coast Guard, etc. Are there any critical paths in emergency planning which must be resolved? Third, you need to calm an agitated public, not add to a panic. Fourth, you need to identify clearly identified milestones and deliverables and constantly update relevant issues in a responsive manner.
Regular/Cable Movies I've Recently Watched: My Thumbs Up
Occasionally in this blog (e.g., click here), I'll review some movies I like. I don't watch entertainment television, and I'm not a professional critic like Siskel or Ebert. I've probably gone to a theater 2 or 3 times over the past decade. However, as a writer who is currently working on a volume of short stories, I do have an appreciation for the art of storytelling. I love musicals (maybe my latest musical interlude series gave that away), but the following three films are more dramas.
- "August Rush" (2007/feature release). There are only a handful of films I've seen for the first time and told myself I have to buy a copy. I found myself captivated by each scene leading to a memorable climax. Rock singer on tour meets a beautiful classical musician. They have a very brief affair, which ends involuntarily for professional or family reasons. The affair results in a child prodigy son, whom is separated at birth from his mother, whom is led to believe the baby died. Both parents eventually leave their professions; the rock singer has never forgotten his lady love and searches for her, and the woman eventually discovers their son is alive and desperately searches for him. The child prodigy, raised in an institution, is convinced somehow his parents are out there somewhere and somehow his music will bring them all together. A modern day fairy tale that works.
- "The Nanny Express" (2009/Hallmark). A lower middle-class young woman living with her seriously-ill widower father is struggling to earn her way through college to become a teacher. She comes across a nanny position for a well-do-do professional whom a few years earlier became widowed with a teen-age daughter and a preteen sun. The children play an updated version of Von Trapp children pranks on hapless nannies. There's the predictable storyline of the widower and the nanny beginning to have feelings for each other, and another of the teen daughter hostile to the idea of someone replacing her beloved late mother.
- "Meet My Mom" (2010/Hallmark). A workaholic father divorces his wife, whom retains custody of the young son. The son's class has a project of writing to military personnel deployed in Bosnia, and he becomes penpals with a GI whose significant other could not deal with his being away for months at a time and left him. The GI, who was a talented ballplayer, returns to the states within a short drive to his penpal, and decides to offer the boy, struggling to make his Little League team, some coaching advice in person. The inevitable relationship develops between the GI and the boy's mother. When the inevitable orders are cut for the GI to be shipped out overseas early in their relationship, the mother worries about being fair to the GI and her son and thinks it's for the best to break up before the GI ships out.
Political Cartoon
Gary Markstein finds Obama's agenda floundering over its inept handling of the BP oil spill crisis.
Quote of the Day
The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it.
Albert Einstein
Musical Interlude: The AFI Music Top 100 (continued)
#77. "The Shadow of Your Smile"
#78. "9 to 5"
#79. "Arthur's Theme"
#80. "Springtime for Hitler"
