Yesterday, I posted the following rant in response to a post about Obama’s firey BP speech. Responses were either, “FINALLY, Obama gets tough!” or disillusioned cries of “bullshit” from those convinced Obama’s evil, since things aren’t going spectacularly. The owner of the original comment wisely calmed the fires before any flame-wars broke out on his facebook (SMART THINKING, @Michelangelo!), but I’m kinda curious to see if anyone agrees with me.
I am suspicious that the nation has become addicted to media bursts. It seems like every time Obama makes a speech, folks get in a huff about it being a sign that either A. He’s finally doing his job, or B. This just proves he’s a liar, and he’s doing exactly the opposite of his job.
It seems to me that people interpret Presidential PSA’s as the signal that actual work is being done, rather than…. you know; the possibility that work involves sitting quietly at your presidential desk, and not making reality TV for everyone to get fired-up about.
Here was my comment:
“To start - this sucks; BP blows, the government has been overrun by OIL for ever. (Why can't we run our cars on corn ethanol?)
However... I can't help feeling that everyone's gotten addicted to the Republican's over-dramatized Presidential Pep Talks.
Just because Obama's not on TV saying "We'll get those BP Guys!!" every day like GWB was with Bin ... See MoreLaden, there seems to be an assumption that he's picking his nose instead of... ida know; learning how drilling works, organizing a website to accept solution suggestions, rounding up volunteers from across the country, hiring scientists to imagine future damage & solutions, talking with the industry in local meetings or on the phone, learning about the problem from people on the ground, rather than the white-collars who are paid to say "everything is going to be okay; you don't know anything, so just truuuuust us," .... stuff that happens in your office. Doing a press conference is, frankly, less worth our time than him doing his research. He's a lawyer; he will research; that's how you win lawsuits that force companies to be culpable.
“Ida know, guys; what *exactly* could've happened faster? I can't help but relate this to watching your sick animal at the vet; they can only do a biopsy before they give the drugs that may work or may just ruin the biopsy, they can only do the surgery if the drugs fail... stuff like that that gives everyone a sense of helplessness, but just goes to show that there is still a long way to go in technology.
It's not likely, they can physically do more to the well than they are at a time, right? Plug it and drill a hole in the side to maybe bypass it -- but perhaps side-drilling will weaken the chances that the plug will work (didn't anyway, but...)
And it's not like we can sue them for damages before we know how bad it's going to be. And it's not like Obama's able to supervise each cleanup employee, and know who's working hard enough and who's understaffed... all of this stuff just takes time, and I don't think the government was necessarily supposed to be able to physically handle this task faster/better than BP.
“Yes, it FUCKING SUCKS. But I don't think I can get behind the assumption that Obama's been slacking, just because he hasn't been giving these war-speeches on TV all the time.”
