Saturday, May 1, 2010

The "Obama's Katrina" narrative

The oil rig explosion and resulting spill has been in the news for over a week. It seemed to be a manageable accident with no cause for alarm, initially, but the clean up has become a debacle. Oil now washes upon the shores of gulf coast states while SWAT teams are dispatched by the federal government for....well actually.....what in the turds would they need SWAT teams for?

Anyway, the slow intervention of the Obama administration has become a growing narrative. Even the Obama worshiping NY Times has called the President to task for allowing the situation to snowball out of control.

Some are calling it Obama's Katrina moment. Comparing the reaction of this White House, or lack there of, to the actions taken by the Bush Administration after Hurricane Katrina.

Did Obama fiddle while the Gulf burned or is it just a right wing fantasy that Obama get tarnished by the same unforgiving press coverage that undermined Bush's second term? Of course there are loyalists who see the comparison as laughable., but what do i think, you ask?

I tend to agree with the Obama zombies that the President should not be blamed for any difficulties in the aftermath of the rig explosion but for much different reasons.

The federal government should not get involved with anything unless all other options have been used and failed. They are supposed to be a last resort for when a situation becomes unmanageable.....like now. Federal resources should not be dispatched at the first sign of trouble....anywhere....anytime. I dont blame Bush for things that went wrong after Katrina, and i dont blame Obama for not getting involved in this situation until it was clear the resources were needed.

I actually think its unfair to refer to Katrina in this instance. Trying to use the negative associations of a disaster for political gain seem like a cheap shot and desperate. With all the horrible decisions Obama has made and all the indefensible actions he has taken there is no need to invent a controversy in an attempt to impact his image.

Hopefully they will quickly get the situation in the Gulf under control and it will fade away as a story. There are much more important issues that require our attention. Congress is trying to push through as much radical left wing legislation as possible before their inevitable demise in November and we need to be shining the disinfectant of sunlight on as much as possible.

As for "drill, baby, drill"-- This awful accident should have absolutely no impact on our future drilling of oil. If we dont drill for our own oil some other, probably less environmentally conscious nation, will. Then turn around and sell it to us, sending one potential Exxon Valdez after another to our shores. Oil spills are a tragedy but inevitable while the world is relying on petroleum to fuel its engines. Our technology for cleaning up accidents gets more effective every year. Besides, oil leaks into the oceans naturally all the time....it is not something the Earth isnt designed to handle in some capacity. Its an unfortunate by product of prosperity....you can always live in a mud hut and ride your bike everywhere, clean your clothes in the river, and poop in the woods while hunting for your food.

I doubt even liberals are that interested in preventing oil spills.

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