Olby, Matthews, Fineman Notice That Obama’s Rhetoric Is Kind of Nebulous
Posted on | June 16, 2010 | 38 Comments
I did not watch President Obama’s Big Spill speech Tuesday night because (a) I was busy on something else and (b) I can’t stand to watch Democrats talk policy.
It’s annoying enough to listen to Republicans talk policy, but Democrats are so reliably 100% wrong that there is no point watching unless I just want to feel angry. And with my daughter’s wedding just three weeks away, there are already too many annoying things to make me angry.
Keith Olbermann, Chris Matthews and Howard Fineman get paid to watch Obama’s speeches, however, and their reactions on MSNBC to the Big Spill speech were interesting:
Olbermann: “It was a great speech if you were on another planet for the last 57 days. . . . Nothing specific at all was said.”
Matthews: “No direction.”
Howard Fineman: “He wasn’t specific enough.”
Olbermann: “I don’t think he aimed low, I don’t think he aimed at all. It’s startling.”
Which is to say, they’re starting to figure out that being President of the United States has not conferred magical powers on Obama, and he didn’t bring any magical powers of his own to the job.
A degree from Harvard Law isn’t necessarily helpful to fixing a mechanical engineering problem, which is what BP is dealing with in trying to cap the Deepwater Horizon well.
The Gulf oil spill is not a political problem. You can’t negotiate a compromise with a broken well. Nor is the oil spill a legal problem. You can sue BP, but litigation isn’t going to cap that well. And all the “community organizing” in the world isn’t going to fix the problem, unless you’re planning to plug the well with SEIU members.
What is Obama’s greatest skill? Reading speeches. As I remarked in February 2009, Obama could read the ingredients from the side panel of a box of pancake batter (“…dextrose, partially hydrogenated soybean oil with mono- and diglycerides…“) and inspire standing ovations from an audience of adoring Democrats. But all Obama’s oratorical powers are useless to the task of plugging that well.
The disappointment of the MSNBC personalities at the lack of specificity in Obama’s Big Spill speech was ironic to me, because I wrote in November 2008:
Perhaps the most brilliant thing about Barack Obama’s successful campaign was its vagueness. In offering himself as the all-purpose Change We Can Believe In, Obama gave believers a blank slate and a tacit license to project upon him their deepest longings.
Obama’s shortcomings in this crisis should not surprise anyone. As was repeatedly pointed out by Obama’s critics during the 2008 campaign, he had no executive experience. His campaign was about fine-sounding rhetoric, boundless promises and grandiose symbolism. His background was as a liberal activist, an academic and a state legislator.
Most of all, we were told, Obama was qualified to be president because he had such an excellent temperament.
Too bad you can’t plug an oil well with temperament.
UPDATE: Now a Memeorandum thread. Linked by Cassy Fiano, King Shamus, Political Byline, Fausta Wertz, Scared Monkeys, Jules Crittenden and Bob Belvedere at Camp of the Saints.

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