Obama"s Lackluster Speech
Even as PublicPolicyPolling.com released a poll showing "a majority of voters [in Louisiana] think George W. Bush did a better job with Katrina than Obama's done dealing with the spill. 50% of voters in the state, even including 31% of Democrats, give Bush higher marks on that question compared to 35% who pick Obama," the president sashayed over to the Oval Office to deliver his first-ever speech from that location.
It didn't go over very well, according to the dynamic trio of MSNBC's loquacious but empty talking heads, Chris Matthews, Keith Olberman, and Harold Fineman.
When liberals on a liberal cable network lambaste a liberal president, you have to know the goose is cooked and that something, more likely a great deal of somethings, is amok.
Matthews, who will go down in the annals of presidential campaign history as the only presumably heterosexual male reporter who twice felt a thrill run up his leg in the presence of Barack Hussein Obama, was the most surprising.
Not only did he say that the president had "no direction" and that it was "ludicrous that he keeps saying [Secretary of Energy] Chu has a Nobel prize. 'I'll barf if he does it one more time'. " Then, in the most unkindest cuts of all, he added, "A lot of meritocracy, a lot of blue ribbon talk" and "I don't sense executive command."
I guess the thrill is gone for Chris, at least for now.
Keith Olberman, not known for ever getting or giving any thrills, chimed in with, "It was a great speech if you were on another planet for the last 57 days" followed by, "Nothing specific at all was said" and "I don't think he aimed low, I don't think he aimed at all. It's startling."
Fineman was just Fineman in his observations: "He [Obama] wasn't specific enough. Obama should be acting like a 'commander-in-chief.' "
In case it's not obvious, I didn't see Obama's Oval Office speech. I was too busy doing other things, like cleaning out the garage. The above excerpts are taken from RealClearPolitics.com: http://bit.ly/aycJe0
Apparently, I didn't miss much, especially since Matthews' remark about the president lacking "executive command" was more than on target.
Without his handlers-and his trusty teleprompter-Obama seems totally lost, mired in his lack of direction for which he attempts to compensate by naming commissions, delegating responsibility, declaring crises, and engaging 24/7 in the blame game with respect to the Gulf mess.
It's long past time that he clearly define his strategy and take responsibility for said strategy.
He didn't light that fire on Deepwater Horiszon but he sure as hell has diddled since it started almost two months ago. He should stuff the platitudes about the buck stopping with him. No one gives a rat's derriere where the buck stops as long as when it does the guy ultimately in charge acts instead of just talks.
Time to step up to the plate, Mr. Obama, and hit one into the seats.
Screw that metaphor! Talk is cheap. It's time for the President of the United States to start acting as our commander-in-chief on the Gulf front and on every other front we face!
It didn't go over very well, according to the dynamic trio of MSNBC's loquacious but empty talking heads, Chris Matthews, Keith Olberman, and Harold Fineman.
When liberals on a liberal cable network lambaste a liberal president, you have to know the goose is cooked and that something, more likely a great deal of somethings, is amok.
Matthews, who will go down in the annals of presidential campaign history as the only presumably heterosexual male reporter who twice felt a thrill run up his leg in the presence of Barack Hussein Obama, was the most surprising.
Not only did he say that the president had "no direction" and that it was "ludicrous that he keeps saying [Secretary of Energy] Chu has a Nobel prize. 'I'll barf if he does it one more time'. " Then, in the most unkindest cuts of all, he added, "A lot of meritocracy, a lot of blue ribbon talk" and "I don't sense executive command."
I guess the thrill is gone for Chris, at least for now.
Keith Olberman, not known for ever getting or giving any thrills, chimed in with, "It was a great speech if you were on another planet for the last 57 days" followed by, "Nothing specific at all was said" and "I don't think he aimed low, I don't think he aimed at all. It's startling."
Fineman was just Fineman in his observations: "He [Obama] wasn't specific enough. Obama should be acting like a 'commander-in-chief.' "
In case it's not obvious, I didn't see Obama's Oval Office speech. I was too busy doing other things, like cleaning out the garage. The above excerpts are taken from RealClearPolitics.com: http://bit.ly/aycJe0
Apparently, I didn't miss much, especially since Matthews' remark about the president lacking "executive command" was more than on target.
Without his handlers-and his trusty teleprompter-Obama seems totally lost, mired in his lack of direction for which he attempts to compensate by naming commissions, delegating responsibility, declaring crises, and engaging 24/7 in the blame game with respect to the Gulf mess.
It's long past time that he clearly define his strategy and take responsibility for said strategy.
He didn't light that fire on Deepwater Horiszon but he sure as hell has diddled since it started almost two months ago. He should stuff the platitudes about the buck stopping with him. No one gives a rat's derriere where the buck stops as long as when it does the guy ultimately in charge acts instead of just talks.
Time to step up to the plate, Mr. Obama, and hit one into the seats.
Screw that metaphor! Talk is cheap. It's time for the President of the United States to start acting as our commander-in-chief on the Gulf front and on every other front we face!