What magic did we expect from Obama?

[Nancy Waterman]

Expectation always leads to disappointment. Did we expect him to erase our collective depression as we witness this oil spill? Did we expect him to show us a pile of money from BP? Did we expect him to invent a new technology to clean things up on the spot? Do we expect him to be superhuman and not exhausted and drained from weeks of this crisis with no easy solution?

He is very clear about the need to move this very resistant ship of state onto a new path regarding energy. But it is now the norm to need 60 votes for anything. No one even questions that anymore, and it is crippling. In addition, the country is like an addict regarding oil, and addicts need to "hit bottom" before they will give up their addiction. Will this oil spill be a "bottom"? I doubt it.
Maybe when gas prices go up a dollar a gallon? What will it take?

Obama was right to remind us of the country coming together during World War 2 to get ourselves ready to do what needed to be done. Everyone sacrificed. It was precisely the right example. We are a million miles away from that right now. How much of a crisis do we need to get there?

I think he will extract a big fund out of BP in the next few days to pay for damage claims int he Gulf. That will be a start.

But there are no easy answers and expecting him to grow a rose out of poppy seeds is only going to lead to disappointment for us and weaken him without our support. We want simple quick answers and to move on. There is no simple quick answer, and we are stuck here right now. No one likes it, least of all Obama. This will take time and patience to find our way out of this mess, and Americans are not known for accepting the complexity and time needed to do things right. So we bitch and moan that our president isn't superman, and that our short attention span is being stretched. Obama thinks things through and works through them step by step. He is dealing with a need for 60 votes in everything which causes pretty much everything to be ridiculously watered down.

It would be nice if all the armchair critics in the country would instead have his back and ask what they can do to help. if this is a nationall crisis, then we should all be working tog ether instead of carping and complaining.

[ladjf]

1. All I have ever wanted from any leader is honesty, courage,

and intelligence. For me, it's difficult to determine how much of these three qualities Pres. Obama
possesses. nt

[mix]

21. +1 nt

[marylanddem]

2. "have his back"

but does he have our back?

[DrDan]

3. it is time for a leader to emerge. Sure hope one does.

[XemaSab]

4. I would LOVE to be asked to help

but unfortunately for Obama, I don't do prayer.

[Bitwit1234]

5. I for one would like to see Obama show more spine I am sick and

tired of him cowtowing to the republicans. But you are correct. What in the hell do people expect of this president. If BP has no way to stop the leak, how do they expect the government, which by the way, does not run oil businesses, and does not build oil rigs, know how to stop it. Obama has called on all scientist and engineers in this country to see if they can come up with a solution. Other than that, I guess they expect him to be a Merlin the Magician.

And magically plug the hole.

[Nancy Waterman]

Exactly

The government does not run the oil business.

[gmoney]

6. Competence?

[Skink]

7. a few card tricks would have been nice.

close up magic.

[Laelth]

8. Salazar should be fired. It wouldn't take any magic to do it.

In fact, there are a lot of things Obama could do that would require no magic.

:dem:

-Laelth

[Berry Cool]

9. I didn't expect magic. That's a straw-man argument, like so many I've seen on DU lately.

"You want him to be Superman." "You want him to be your Daddy." No. I just want him to be the effing President.

"You want quick, easy answers." No, I don't. I want complex, time-consuming answers if need be, but I at least want a sense that he has some idea of how to pursue them and will do so.

I want to know what I can do to help, but he hasn't come up with any action plans. Last night was all good-sounding promises and platitudes. And part of it was scary: essentially saying "We're going to get out of this, even if we don't quite know how." WHAT???? It's your job to work on figuring out how, sir. You're the President. I am not.

Tell me what you need from me, sir, and I will do what I can or what you want me to. But don't just tell me that "top men" are looking into it and we are going to somehow muddle through this. And please, don't leave me with the overwhelming impression that the most, the best, I can do about it is to pray for a solution.

I don't care about the need for 60 votes. I've been hearing that till I am ready to turn blue. He is not the only president to have to deal with a Congress disinclined to cooperate with him. Others have dealt with it. They have done the nitty-gritty necessary to try to get what they want done, cooperation or no.

Oh, and PLEASE don't call me an Obama hater. I voted for the guy. I want him to succeed. But he isn't going to make it by just saying stuff that sounds good, and he isn't going to make it by continuing to try to do only what seems to be feasible given the "need for 60 votes." That's not how health care got done--such as it got done, which remains to be seen. I thought he'd learned something from that. I thought he'd learned that the only way he's going to get anything done is by PUSHING HARD and being a leader and asking those of us who agree to push with him. Yes, we have to help. But he has to LEAD us. That's what we elected him to do. That is not asking him to be Daddy or Superman, that is asking him to be PRESIDENT.

Please, Mr. President. Tell me you are enacting a plan or two or three. And say I can do something more to help you than just praying.

Oh, and then, maybe we can talk about helping get me a job. Or, if not that, at least extending my unemployment benefits until I can find one.

[Laelth]

10. +1 n/t

:dem:

-Laelth

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

11. You want Obama to tell you what you can do? Here's the answer:

Right now, nothing: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37571477/ns/disaster_in_the_gulf/

And if you've got the ultimate plan to solve the problem (the plan that not a single expert alive has come up with to date, mind you), I'm sure we'll be all ears. Until then, he IS figuring it out, and there ain't no damn stone tablets coming from a burning bush on this one, so it's going to take a while.

[Captain Hilts]

16. +1. nt

[treestar]

17. Yes you do expect magic

You don't care about the 60 votes? But the 60 votes are real.

You expect Congress to act like sheep. the founders would turn in their graves.

Face it, the POTUS is not meant to be a dictatorial position.

[Captain Hilts]

12. A wildlife fund to help Gulf wildlife-Mentioning wildlife as 'life' rather than 'bounty'? nt

[Vattel]

15. +1000

[Autumn]

13. magic? quick answers? armchair critics?

carping and complaining? Hell no. You paint with a broad brush. DU is a discussion forum. I think people get on here to discuss things. What do you expect? How about Obama works together with the people down there cleaning this up. Maybe mention in his speech, "BP give these people haz mat equipment." He seems to be clueless about what BP is doing. un rec

[depakid]

14. Nothing the so called "armchair critics" can do about incompetent management in his administration

or the President's aversion to conflict and propensity to preemptively "compromise" away traditional Democratic beliefs and values.

[Name removed]

18. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Cha]

19. Thanks Nancy.. I liked the speech a lot but

for some reason I felt like I was putting myself in the position of the people who are most affected by BP's Gusher in the Gulf.

Have you read this review by the Environmentalist group DotEarth in the NYT who hit on some salient points?

"President Obama kept the focus of his first Oval Office address on the prime issue at hand — restoring public confidence in his administration’s handling of an unfolding environmental calamity triggered by corporate malfeasance and bureaucratic negligence. He did a workmanlike job, touching all the beats needed in such a speech.

He did not do what some environmental and energy campaigners had hoped — chart a concrete course to a new energy future. There were plenty of allusions to such a future, but — for the most part — he carefully avoided specifics. (To see specifics in an energy speech, have a look at the Oval Office address delivered by former President Jimmy Carter in 1979.)

Obama has left open the prospect of pivoting to energy and climate as a top priority in coming months, but chose (wisely) not to use a moment of national unease, built on a backdrop of unchecked pollution, as a launching pad.

He also signaled that he is leaving open a variety of paths on energy and climate policy and no longer hewing tightly to the idea of a cap and trade system for restricting heat-trapping emissions — which he never wavered from during his campaign. This, too, is wise, given the paralysis in both Congress and international climate-treaty talks over conventional approaches to global warming.

Here’s how Obama described his open-door policy for energy proposals:..

"I am happy to look at other ideas and approaches from either party –- as long they seriously tackle our addiction to fossil fuels. Some have suggested raising efficiency standards in our buildings like we did in our cars and trucks. Some believe we should set standards to ensure that more of our electricity comes from wind and solar power. Others wonder why the energy industry only spends a fraction of what the high-tech industry does on research and development -– and want to rapidly boost our investments in such research and development."

http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/15/obama-seeking-new-ideas-on-energy-and-climate/

[Cha]

20. Nancy, ..here's "The Point by Point on Obama's Oval Office Address"

from a dailykos poster..

"I've heard a fair bit of commentary on Obama's Oval Office Address from last night. The one that strikes me with as most surprising is that it wasn't detailed enough. I was happy to hear one person in the MSM say the speech covered all the bases, and many won't be surprised that it was Big Ed. Thanks Big Ed. I hope that he goes into the details on his show today, because quite honestly, there was some red meat to be had. Some highlights include admitting the failure that is the MMS, announcing a Tennessee Valley Authority-like organization, the Gulf Coast Restoration Commission, acknowledging that, OMG, oil is a finite resource, and issuing a call to America for, yes indeed, an Apollo-like program for renewable energy."

The outline and details below the fold.

<snippets>

"Peak Oil and the Dangers of Continuing to Drill (an admission you've never heard from a President before)"

oil is a finite resource. We consume more than 20% of the world's oil, but have less than 2% of the world's oil reserves. And that's part of the reason oil companies are drilling a mile beneath the surface of the ocean - because we're running out of places to drill on land and in shallow water.

For decades, we have known the days of cheap and easily accessible oil were numbered. For decades, we have talked and talked about the need to end America's century-long addiction to fossil fuels. And for decades, we have failed to act with the sense of urgency that this challenge requires. Time and again, the path forward has been blocked - not only by oil industry lobbyists, but also by a lack of political courage and candor.

The consequences of our inaction are now in plain sight. Countries like China are investing in clean energy jobs and industries that should be here in America. Each day, we send nearly $1 billion of our wealth to foreign countries for their oil. And today, as we look to the Gulf, we see an entire way of life being threatened by a menacing cloud of black crude."

"And the Absolute Best for Last: A Call To America To Abandon Fossil Fuel"

We cannot consign our children to this future. The tragedy unfolding on our coast is the most painful and powerful reminder yet that the time to embrace a clean energy future is now. Now is the moment for this generation to embark on a national mission to unleash American innovation and seize control of our own destiny.

This is not some distant vision for America. The transition away from fossil fuels is going to take some time, but over the last year and a half, we’ve already taken unprecedented action to jumpstart the clean energy industry. As we speak, old factories are reopening to produce wind turbines, people are going back to work installing energy-efficient windows, and small businesses are making solar panels. Consumers are buying more efficient cars and trucks, and families are making their homes more energy-efficient. Scientists and researchers are discovering clean energy technologies that someday will lead to entire new industries.

Each of us has a part to play in a new future that will benefit all of us. As we recover from this recession, the transition to clean energy has the potential to grow our economy and create millions of jobs -– but only if we accelerate that transition. Only if we seize the moment. And only if we rally together and act as one nation –- workers and entrepreneurs; scientists and citizens; the public and private sectors.

Now, there are costs associated with this transition. And there are some who believe that we can’t afford those costs right now. I say we can’t afford not to change how we produce and use energy -– because the long-term costs to our economy, our national security, and our environment are far greater.

"I am damn proud of my President for having the courage to make these statements and monumental admissions while establishing a progressive energy agenda. I say to hell with the pundits. It only takes a bit of listening and reading to understand that last night was an historic moment for America and that President Obama made history."

<much more>
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/6/16/876491/-The-Point-by-Point-on-Obamas-Oval-Office-Address