It's Time For Obama to Man-up

It is time for President Obama to man up. Actually, it's past time, but we can't get a person to do something in the past. We can only move forward, so it's time for the President to act like a man rather than a little kid.

The explosion in the gulf has turned loose massive amounts of oil in the Gulf of Mexico. Three days following the explosion the Dutch offered the United States some skimmers to help clean up the oil. They were told no thank you.

Two weeks following the explosion, the Governor of Lousiana, Bobby Jindal sent a request to the Federal Government to allow him to start building berms to protect the shoreline from the oncoming oil. It took until late May for the Feds to say "you can have six" but not 30.

The only thing we've heard the President say during this time is that BP is at fault. BP will be held accountable. This is going to be a major environmental disaster and we need to pass Cap and Tax. We need climate change legislation.

The President is acting like a little kid saying "Johnny threw the ball through the window, spank him mommy." In most families, the first thing that gets done is the window gets replaced, then the punishment is meted out. But not with this President. He spends his time blaming BP. Meanwhile the oil is still flowing in the gulf.

Mr. President. BP will still be at fault six months from now. They will still be at fault a year from now. PLUG THE DAMN HOLE. Then worry about meting out punishment. After all, that's what our court system is for. The only thing you've accomplished is driving BP's stock down. Tell me something. How will BP pay if they go bankrupt before this hole is plugged?

The priority is to plug the hole. BP has been working on it. The government should be putting someone there to oversee the work being done. That person should have an idea of whether the work being done has a legitimate chance. He should be making sure that BP is doing as they say and verify all of their actions. If BP is not doing the job, then the President has the power to shut BP down. All he has to do is gather some experts, from other companies if necessary, and when he's dissatisfied with BP, shut them down and immediately move in the experts and let them take it over and plug the hole.

He should also be waiving any restrictive laws that hinder any help we can get in cleaning up this mess, such as the Jones Act. He should be inviting any and all help to clean up the oil. We are the first to go to the aid of other nations when they have a disaster. We were there for Haiti. We were there in South America after the earthquake there. We were there when they had the tsunami a few years back. Why are we being so arrogant to refuse help when offered during our disasters?

Again, it's a simple process. He can designate someone to handle the cleanup. Gather the offers of help and remove any hindrances in our laws that would hinder this. He doesn't have to do this personally, he should have someone appointed to do this. These press people keep trying to compare Obama to Reagan as a communicator. They could have added another comparison by claiming that Obama was great at delegating authority and having them report to him.

Obama also has a Justice Department with an investigative service. They could investigate this quietly and arrange for any prosecution, quietly, and filed their charges, which there is likely to be, when the other priorities are done. There is no need for him to threaten BP. They are still working on this. Why keep harping on how you're going to hold them responsible and that they will pay without due process? He gives terrorists access to the court system, why not shut up and let the court system handle BP when it's over?

We are now 57 days into this and NOTHING has been accomplished. Oil is still leaking. Oil is now on land more coming. For the past couple of weeks, the press has been asking 'Is this Obama's Katrina?' The only thing that accomplished is to get Obama down to the gulf for some photo ops.

Now, in an effort to get the Katrian correlation dropped, he's trying to compare this to the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001. This doesn't compare in any way to the terrorist attacks, unless terrorists blew up the oil well. If terrorists did blow up the oil well, then Obama is extremely slow in getting to the bottom of it and making them pay for their actions.

Remember what happened on September 11, 2001. Four airplanes were hijacked and three of them flew into buildings. It was an attack by terrorists. President Bush knew within hours that it was Usama bin Laden that carried out the attack. In less than a month, Bush started bombing Afghanistan. October 7, 2001.

In the past 57 days, the closest Obama has gotten to anything with the gulf other than photo ops, is to play golf. If this was really like "9/11" why is he playing golf? Why is he taking two vacations during the first month the oil spill was going on? This is reminding of the comments liberals made following 9/11. They wished that Clinton was still President so that he could get all of the accolades that Bush was getting. If that's what Obama wants, then there is no hope he'll get his priorities straight. The attacks on September 11, 2001 were planned in advance. The oil spill was apparently due to shortcuts to save money.

Obama should quit worrying about how he looks and start caring more about how the beaches are going to look beause he didn't hop on this as quick as it happened.

Many of the liberals are now saying that it's wrong for Conservatives, Republicans and Independents to complain about Obama not doing what needed to be done because we are supposedly against big government. There is something that you liberals should learn right now before another disaster happens and this President sits on his hands. Government has its place. Protecting our borders. Protecting our country.

This oil spill is out in the gulf. The gulf is not a state, it's part of the area controlled by the government. This oil spill is affecting so far, three states and is about to move to a fourth. One governor cannot deal with the spill because he can't make decisions for his neighboring states. Alabama has to decide what's right for them. Bobby Jindal hopped right on this and said he needed berms to keep the oil away from the land. Will it work? We don't know for certain, but he decided it was his best option and nobody has presented a better solution, so for him to decide to do it to protect his state is exactly right. If he fails, it's not going to be because he was sitting on a golf course, working to keep the press out so they can't see his scores. If he wants to go into a partnership with Governor Haley Barbour of Mississippi, he has that ability.

But the President is responsible for all five states that border the gulf. His job is to not just look out for one state, but the country. The governors only take care of their own states.

Tonight, the president is going to address the nation from the oval office. I'll bet that he uses this speech to tell America how it's necessary to end our need for fossil fuels and move to "green" technology. Great idea if it will work. But the problem is that the technology is not there yet. Our immediate problem is that we need oil for our everyday lives now.

I'll bet that he also uses tonights speech to push for Cap and Tax legislation. It's not needed. We don't need our rates going up with higher taxes on energy companies that will be passed on to the consumer.

Whatever he comes up with, you can be sure that it will be nothing but blame. He'll blame BP and threaten them. He'll mock the Republicans somehow and he may even blame President George Bush. But in the end, you can bet that it will involve more regulations denying freedoms, shuffling government agencies and it will cost us more in taxes.

The way this president has performed for the past 57 days, I'd just as soon have him use his speech tonight to resign. The only thing that worries me about that is that Joe Biden would be an even worse president than we're getting right now.

This speech should be used to build up the American spirit. Asking the public to come up with ways to move us away from oil and on to whatever else will power us. Wind, solar, hamburgers, it doesn't matter. We have innovative people in this country that could and someday likely will come up with solutions to our dependence on fossil fuels. But, it's not there today.

Man up Mr. Obama. Take responsibility for your inaction in preventing or at least trying to prevent the oil from reaching our shores. Get your priorities straight and quit whining about how terrible BP is. Everyone has been blamed except for Obama. Even George Bush has been blamed for this oil leak.

There is one bit of good news if there can be anything good about a disaster. Come November, Obama is going to be a lonely man. He's going to get up the morning after the election and find out that there aren't any liberals left in Washington DC....except for him.

You're welcome to comment.

Brett