An interesting change in tone that made me chuckle it sounded so strange and unnatural coming from him. Is this Rahm’s attempt to make him sound like a tough guy or less Spock-like? OK fine, he was down on the Gulf coast a month ago and he stood in the rain with fisherman. Hooray for Obama. Nobody expects Obama to be able to clean up BPs mess overnight though the many have been waiting for real leadership instead of believing BP. Maybe he did think the meetings were college seminars because how else could you believe BP for so long? If we hadn’t seen the same old routine of deferring on an issue (Wall Street, Health Care, etc.) until it spun out of control it might be different.
Perhaps “the talking heads” were not jumping on Obama immediately because they thought it was only fair to give him a chance to understand the situation and then act. Speaking for myself, it was only after watching the crisis go in circles and listening to the daily BP spin that I thought enough was enough. For Obama to cry about not being challenged from the start is weak and misses the point that yes, people were giving him a chance.
Good for Obama that he’s talking tough and even saying BP CEO Tony Hayward should be fired, but we’re deep into this crisis. There is a lot of lost time to make up and the gap needs to be closed immediately.
“I was down there a month ago, before most of these talking heads were even paying attention to the Gulf,” Obama told NBC’s “Today” show in an interview scheduled to air Tuesday. “A month ago I was meeting with fishermen down there, standing in the rain talking about what a potential crisis this could be.”A variety of critics have accused Obama of being too cerebral in his reaction to the undersea gusher now fouling the Gulf of Mexico, of failing to put the full force of the administration and of putting too much trust in oil company BP. But Obama told NBC his deliberations have been more than academic.
“I don’t sit around talking to experts because this is a college seminar,” Obama continued. “We talk to these folks because they potentially have the best answers, so I know whose ass to kick.”
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