Wow! I just finished reading a piece by David Gergen, on CNN, in which Gergen attacks Obama for not showing leadership in dealing with the oil spill and the European financial crisis. Can it be? Can David Gergen actually be seeing therealities of the situation rather than projecting his own hopes onto a bleak reality/
Gergen points out that an effective government would have done the following:
"• Brought in the CEOs of all the major oil companies and charged them with the duty of an all-hands collaborative effort to stop the spill and help ward off the damage.
• Brought in the best minds in the country, from universities and technology, for emergency efforts to find solutions.
• Moved quickly to mobilize the National Guard and other military forces, if necessary, ensuring that they received the resources needed to protect our beaches.
• Made a clear call to citizen volunteers to help where necessary.
• Given Cabinet officers an ultimatum: Get this under control in the next 30 days, or else.
There will be ample time after this disaster for finger-pointing and blame-laying. The key now is to get this spill under control before it does far more damage."
Strangely, it looks like Gergen has been reading this blog. Almost since the spill began, I have been lamenting the lack of leadership coming from the White House. All we got was talk, but no action. Nothing was done to attempt to remedy this disaster. Of course, the big difference here is that I am a conservative and was never a fan of Obama. Gergen, however, is a liberal Washington insider. For him to criticize Obama like this is big news -- it means that reality is actually piercing the haze of fantasy that has been hanging over liberal Washington. It is about time.
I have come to realize that the big O that was on all of the campaign posters for Obama was really a ZERO. And boy were they right! Obama has got to go!
1 comment:
Gergen is not the first Dem to have turned. James Carville and Chris Matthews each made strikingly negative comments about Obama's handling of the Gulf spill in recent days.
I would think that if these kinds of Dems had suggestions or crtiticisms, normally they would contact the White House or some liason to the White House and keep their criticism private. The fact that at least 3 fairly prominent Dems went public recently in a way that they knew would not help Obama's image, or their relationship with the White House, is very telling.
Did these people try to get through privately to the Administration and were treated dismissively or worse and they're really angry? If so, this could extend to other issues and really hurt Obama.
Did these people coordinate their comments to guarantee a greater cumulative effect? That also would increase the chance that this is not a one-off.
Maybe Arizona's law will soon get coordinated support. One can hope.
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