What Obama Should Say Tonight

[Pepper]

Pinz

 

Steve is generous. I'd say 1/2 of the speech.

 

Steve Hayes points out he spent 1/3 of his speech on new policies.

[clearvision]

FOX talking heads poopoo speech.

[Pepper]

Only the damage and who's gonna pay.

 

No stopping the leak.

 

Has he talked about the oil leak at all?

[clearvision]

Palin is on FOX

[clearvision]

I'm still not impressed with her off the cuff interview/speaking style.

[pinz]

Has anyone done the math to figure out how much $$$ in lost crude oil this is costing? How many millions of barrels, at what price per barrel?

 

Arithmetic is not my strong suit...

[pinz]

Sarah agrees with Pepper... top priority is to stop the flow.

 

And Bill argues with her.

[clearvision]

Good response on what she would have said. Convey top priority is to stop the leak.

[pinz]

Sarah's arguing back at Bill. She sure has a lot of facts at her fingertips and presents them well.

[pinz]

Sarah was outstanding. It wasn't a campaign speech, just a for real list of what we ought to be doing and how to work with the people with experience to get this thing shut down. It sounds so common sensical.

[pinz]

Listening to Sarah rattle off steps to take, I have to wonder, again, if this foot dragging isn't purposeful. Her simple clarity makes his smoke, mirrors, and magic (BS) thinking look even worse in comparison.

[pinz]

I can't stand BOR. Maybe I can last through Monica...

[pinz]

Some numbers from an article today. They make my head swim.

 

The official estimate of the flow rate from the leaking gulf oil well has surged again, with government officials announcing Tuesday that 35,000 to 60,000 barrels (1.47 million to 2.52 million gallons) of oil a day are now gushing from the reservoir deep beneath the gulf.

[Valin]

 

[pinz]

WSJ:

 

WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama used his first Oval Office address to the nation Tuesday to outline a plan for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill that looked beyond containing the gusher to securing full restitution from BP PLC, refashioning federal supervision of the oil industry and ending the nation's dependence on fossil fuels.

 

Pepper, perhaps the notion of stopping the flow of black oil is merely too racist for him to consider....

 

Mr. Obama spoke even as the sense of crisis in the Gulf escalated. The government again upgraded its estimate of the amount of oil flowing from the well Tuesday, to as much as 60,000 barrels a day, 12 times the rate thought a month ago.

 

But Mr. Obama suggested the gusher was coming under control. BP should be capturing 90% of the flow "in the coming days and weeks,'' Mr. Obama said.

 

No wonder I can't grasp the numerical aspect of this!

[AceRimmer]

I don't hear a lot of love in that plan...

[pinz]

from AP:

 

NEW ORLEANS -- Scientists provided a new estimate for the amount of oil gushing from a ruptured well in the Gulf of Mexico

on Tuesday that indicates it could be worse than previously thought.

 

A government panel of scientists said that the ruptured well is leaking between 1.47 million and 2.52 million gallons a day of oil. That is an increase over previous estimates that put the maximum size of the spill at 2.1 million gallons per day.

 

"This estimate brings together several scientific methodologies and the latest information from the sea floor, and represents a significant step forward in our effort to put a number on the oil that is escaping from BP's well," Energy Secretary Steven Chu said in a statement.

[pinz]

LOL AceRimmer!

[Pepper]

NCTexan!

SrWoodChuck!

Yes, he said at the outset that BP was directed to mobilize additional equipment and technology. And in the coming weeks and days, these efforts should capture up to 90 percent of the oil leaking out of the well. This is until the company finishes drilling a relief well later in the summer that’s expected to stop the leak completely.

 

But that all gets lost as Obama focuses on his priorities going forward (gag).

 

I am claiming this as one of the earliest comments of Epic Fail on the Net for The Spill Speech with 6 minutes after the hour.

 

With the exception of those who have rightly claimed Obama as Epic Fail period.

 

6 minutes into Il Douche's speech:

 

Tonight I’d like to lay out for you what our battle plan is going forward:

what we’re doing to clean up the oil,

what we’re doing to help our neighbors in the Gulf,

and what we’re doing to make sure that a catastrophe like this never happens again.

 

 

This is like having a runaway train. Instead of stopping the train first, Obama is announcing a battle plan going forward, how to get rid of bodies on the track, telling people who are going to get hurt where to file for damages and whom to sue. And oh yes, by the way, stopping all further rail transportation by riding bicycles and Priuses to work.

 

His friends in script writing did not do him any good.

 

What would have taken to say stronger statements like this?

 

Here are our national objectives:

To stop the oil

To clean up the damage

to help those affected economically

and to ensure that a catastrophe like this never happens again.

 

Here is our national battle plan:

We will stop the oil by XXX

We will clean up the damage by AAA

We will help those affected economically by BBB

We will ensure that a catastrophe like this never happens again by CCC.

 

EDIT

 

I answered my own question.

 

Barack does not how to stop the oil.

 

He can only plan and promise.

 

He cannot act.

[nickydog]

My gosh. I am watching a repeat of Keith Olbermann's show after the speech and he and Chris Matthews and Howard Fineman are panning it. They sound extremely frustrated. Heh.

 

Edit: Ah yes, see WestVirgininaRebel's post for more details.

 

Second edit: And Geee's. I need to go to bed.

[Pepper]

How is the oil gusher like an epidemic?

 

"Already, this oil spill is the worst environmental disaster America has ever faced. And unlike an earthquake or a hurricane, it is not a single event that does its damage in a matter of minutes or days. The millions of gallons of oil that have spilled into the Gulf of Mexico are more like an epidemic, one that we will be fighting for months and even years."

 

 

It is not a spill. A spill implies it is a one time event and it is over. Then you clean up. It is oil spilling, a continuous oil geyser of oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico at 1 to 2 million gallons a day.

 

A good-sized bath holds 50 gallons, a million gallons would be 20,000 bath tubs.

 

Obama compares the oil gusher to an epidemic because he thinks that our dependence and use of oil is a disease.

 

He is the Doctor, he knows best, he has the cure: a Prius and a bike for everyone and a wind mill in every yard. Except for himself.

[Pepper]

Howard Fineman of Newsweek and I exchanged emails last night.

 

Obama's Curiously Flat Gulf Speech

Somewhere between Pensacola and the Oval Office, the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico went from an “assault” to an “epidemic”—and President Obama went from commander-in-chief to surgeon general. In Florida, he had referred to the disaster as an "assault" and spoke, at an Army post, in military terms, but by the time he got home he had changed the analogy to a medical matter.

 

And that, in short, is why his speech to the nation fell so flat even as he delivered it.