Obama’s Oval Office Speech Short on “Present Tense” Substance
June 16th 2010 16:52
Jay Leno summed up what President Obama should have addressed from the Oval Office in very simple and understandable terms, “President Obama said today he is going to use the gulf disaster to immediately push a new energy bill through Congress. I got an idea … How about first using the Gulf disaster to fix the Gulf disaster.”
Fifty Six days and millions of gallons of oil after the Gulf Oil Disaster began, Obama addressed the world in a major speech that spoke far more to the issue of future reform and regulation than it did to the present crisis the gulf coast region is faced with. Instead of saying, ‘this is how we are going to stop the current oil leak”, the focus was upon “preventing a similar disaster in the future.”
If we do not have all of the answers to the current crisis, much less no clue as to how to shut the leak down; how can we possibly know how to address any future concerns with clarity? The reality is the oil leak is bigger than man’s ability to contain at the moment, but that is an issue which should have been confronted with transparency and honesty. Making a campaign style speech for the future does nothing for the people in the gulf coast region who are living in the reality of the present.
Predictably, the President is using this crisis as an opportunity to promote his own agenda of bringing major changes to the nation’s energy policies. Some changes may be needed, but now is not the time – just stop the leak! Unfortunately, the President is using a national crisis as a political weapon. Wind turbines and solar panels may be solutions to a future energy crisis, but they are not the answer to the current gulf coast crisis.
Obama offered no solutions for the leak or the damage the spilled oil is causing to both the economy and the ecosystem. He simply called it “a battle plan.” Let us hope and pray there is a tangible battle strategy included within the plan.
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