This is finally the reaction to glaring weakness when there are no Republicans left to blame.
The administration seems miffed and mystified that it is being criticized. After all, it can reel off dozens of swift actions taken in the aftermath of the spill. The White House's defenders want the spotlight aimed exclusively at BP. But this is a situation where body language and words are just as important as actions. Scheduling an 'angry' presidential news conference weeks after oil started gushing into the Gulf waters is exactly the wrong thing to do. Authentic anger isn't something you turn on for the cameras and leak to the press the previous day. Indignation and defensiveness are precisely the wrong message...Some realize BP is politically connected, even though they don't want to mention Obama is their number one recipient, which we pointed out three weeks ago.
The response of the Obama administration and the general public to this latest outrage at the hands of a giant, politically connected corporation has been embarrassingly tepid. We take our whippings in stride in this country. We behave as though there is nothing we can do about it.Others on the left notice a deep denial in the White House.
The fact that 11 human beings were killed in the Deepwater Horizon explosion (their bodies never found) has become, at best, an afterthought. BP counts its profits in the billions, and, therefore, it’s important. The 11 men working on the rig were no more important in the current American scheme of things than the oystermen losing their livelihoods along the gulf, or the wildlife doomed to die in an environment fouled by BP’s oil, or the waters that will be left unfit for ordinary families to swim and boat in.
Now the White House is having a hissy behind closed doors with the media because dammitall, they can’t stop asking questions about the spill. Oh that’ll work, that’ll make a difference; the biggest environmental disaster our country has experienced will go away if only the media shuts up about it.So what is Obama doing while all his supporters are wringing their hands?
Screw that. This has been nothing but a corporate-induced environmental and socio-biological experiment perpetuated on our commons without our consent, and the American public doesn’t take well to experimentation without debate in advance. Witness our slow-moving policy on stem cell research, for example. We don’t frigging like it.
And screw the White House for its insistence that the Fourth Estate stop pestering them and begone. The people have been demanding accountability through our elected representatives in the legislature, but it’s like maneuvering a massive battleship, one that is intended for the making of laws and not their execution.
But it’s the Executive Branch which is charged with the faithful execution of our laws, and it’s failing to do so. It has not done a competent job of communicating with the public or the media would not be hammering on them as they are for more information — and for once, the media is actually doing what we need of them, not what their corporate lords and masters expect.
Instead of scolding the press, the White House should be asking itself why it’s being pestered. Why has "oil spill" remained a trending topic among internet searches across various outlets for more than a month?
Why, talking basketball with Marv Albert, of course.
If LeBron James is unsure he can win in Cleveland, President Obama thinks there is an opportunity with his hometown Chicago Bulls.He's been refusing interviews with the White House press corps lately and won't answer a simple question, but he sure has plenty of time to talk hoops.
“You know, like I said, I don’t want to meddle,” Obama told TNT. “I will say this: Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah — it’s a pretty good core. You know, you could see LeBron fitting in pretty well there.”
Obama discussed a number of basketball-related issues with the broadcaster Marv Albert on a basketball court at the White House. The interview will be broadcast Tuesday night at 8 p.m. Eastern.
Now that the Chicago Blackhawks have reached the Stanley Cup Finals, surely Obama will have time to talk about his longtime love for the hometown team.
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