The thing that seems to be getting the most play right now is the fact that President Obama is not "emotional enough" about the Oil Spill. Well, President Obama is not an overly emotional person. We had 8 years of that. If we wanted a President who just gets angry with no idea what he's supposed to be angry about then McCain would be President.
WE can get mad. WE can yell and cuss and rant all we want, but at the end of the day what the hell is that going to do? Would I love to see him cuss out BP's CEO? Hell yeah, but that's not how he rolls. I think President Obama IS mad, and I think he's showing his anger the way he does. Jonathan Alter was on the Colbert Report last night and he pointed out that President Obama doesn't get "hot" angry he gets "cool" angry. As in freeze you with a look or a tone angry. We've seen him angry before, we know how he is when he's angry by now, and he IS angry.
As far as wanting BP to pay, I think they will pay if Pres. Obama has anything to say about it, but since the beginning of this whole tragedy, what should he have done different knowing then only what was known then? The first priority is stopping the leak. We can always get them for whatever criminal and civil liability legally possible after we stop the leak.
I rather like having a President that thinks things through, I don't always agree with his ultimate conclusion, but I know he's just just going with his "gut" he's following the facts of the situation. I don't think he should be running around writing checks that he can't cash. I don't care about TALK, SHOW me what you are going to do to fix the problem.
This is not about the politics right now because people's livelihoods are really at stake. Obama can deal with the poll numbers, or not, later.
But I think we need to be realistic about what he could have done and what he can do now that he isn't doing. Outside of not stopping the drilling, not even in the Gulf, what isn't he doing that he should be doing? I'm not talking PR, I'm talking actual action.
I'm all for holding Pres. Obama's feet to the proverbial fire, but not over some BS like "not being emotional enough", if you wanted "emotion" over "logic" then you should have voted for the other option in 2008.
and for a little comic relief:
You see, Stephen can do all of that stuff, the President of the United States can't (although it would be fun to watch him beat up that BP CEO).
Update [2010-6-8 13:22:26 by Muzikal203]: Since it is apparently not clear to some people who I am talking about, I am NOT talking about people who legitimately claim that the feds could and should do more. If you want to pressure him to do more, then go for it. Personally, I don't think he really could have done more knowing only what we knew then, if you disagree that's fine we can debate that.
I AM talking about people who's complaint/concern is how "emotional" he is or is not being--which I'm pretty sure most of the people around here know applies mainly to the traditional media (hence the whole "that seems to be getting the most play right now" line above). That may also apply to you, that may not apply to you I'm not accusing anyone personally on this blog of doing that. I'm just saying that I don't want a President who's always running off at the mouth and making threats he won't be able to follow through on.
Hopefully that clears up any misconceptions about my diary/my thoughts.