You can read the president’s remarks to the nation here. The only part I care about it this:
When I was a candidate for this office, I laid out a set of principles that would move our country towards energy independence. Last year, the House of Representatives acted on these principles by passing a strong and comprehensive energy and climate bill –- a bill that finally makes clean energy the profitable kind of energy for America’s businesses.
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.
So I’m 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.
All of these approaches have merit, and deserve a fair hearing in the months ahead. But the one approach I will not accept is inaction. The one answer I will not settle for is the idea that this challenge is somehow too big and too difficult to meet. You know, the same thing was said about our ability to produce enough planes and tanks in World War II. The same thing was said about our ability to harness the science and technology to land a man safely on the surface of the moon. And yet, time and again, we have refused to settle for the paltry limits of conventional wisdom. Instead, what has defined us as a nation since our founding is the capacity to shape our destiny -– our determination to fight for the America we want for our children. Even if we’re unsure exactly what that looks like. Even if we don’t yet know precisely how we’re going to get there. We know we’ll get there.
It sounds like Obama is going to fight for the climate part of the climate and energy bill. That’s great. A lot of people doubted that he would try. I wish he had spelled out a little what the obstacle is to tackling the climate part of the bill, which is a combination of the filibuster rule and a handful of Democrats from coal and oil producing states. I don’t think he needed to pick a fight with anyone in particular, but he should have told people that he needs their support to break procedural hurdles that won’t even allow him to get a vote on tackling these issues. If he’s going to go to war, and it sounds like he’s prepared to that, he has to rally the troops. I see this as too conciliatory, which is an ongoing critique of the president that many share.
On the other hand, the president tends to win, and he tends to know what he can get and what he can’t. If he thinks he can get climate legislation passed, he knows something that I don’t.
I thought it was a mixed bag. On the one hand, I’m more or less sure that we were not the target audience, as documented here:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/6/15/876283/-What-the-hell-did-you-WANT-him-to-say
On the other hand, I got really tired of him calling for the nation to pray. Like Rachel Maddow, I almost thought that was his solution: have everyone get into little prayer circles and hope it all heals itself.
Second, about the “specifics,” I didn’t care “how much” and stuff like that, that’s useless paltry information to most people; doesn’t matter. What I wanted, specific wise, was telling people to carpool, telecommute, ask your city council to change sprawl-encouraging zoning laws, bike more. GIVE THE PEOPLE IDEAS about how they can personally make a difference. This should have been a call to action.
There’s nothing he’s said that Republicans couldn’t point to and say, “yeah, our plan does that.”
The purpose of this speech was to create the space for Congressional action, not to spur individual citizen efforts, however noble. We’ll see if it succeeded pretty soon.
The Congress doesn’t need space to be called to action, they need a fucking leader. This wasn’t leadership, it was more “This is why I have called for Congress to come up with the ideas to solve our energy problems!” It was more of the rhetoric about listening and accepting what Congress does.
The Senate will definitely take action. They have no choice. The question is what will they do, and will it have some action on carbon pollution?
I agree. The religion and prayer part at the end was totally inappropriate and made him sound like a preacher rather than the President of the US. And what is this blessing of the shrimp season business? The Gulf Coast equivalent of the “blessing of the hounds.”
Get over it. The people of the Gulf Coast are praying people, and they want a president who prays for the same things they do. If this spill was off the coast of Maine, you wouldn’t have seen him go so heavy with that in his closing.
Get over it? I thought we lived in a secular society. The saturation of national politics and public policy with religion and religiosity is a serious problem that has taken us a long ways from where this country started.
And if he’s saying it to garner favor along the Gulf Coast, he’s the Panderer in Chief and not the President of the US, President of all of us. It had no place in a major speech. None whatsoever.
No.
We live in a pluralistic society that is inclusive and tolerant of a wide variety of perspectives…
As far as the society goes, it is pluralistic. As far as the government, it is secular and by design.
Um, no. It is representative of the will of the people by design; that which fuels the will of the people is beyond the scope of the Constitution as expressed by the 1st Amendment and clarified by Thomas Jefferson himself. Our Constitution keeps government out of the business of religion; it does not keep religion out of the business of government.
Of course, folks can always pass another Amendment…
That’s exactly what made it so sickening. The periscope was up for every little bit of pandering his writers could find. Think of it this way: you go to the doctor with scary symptoms. She does the tests, consults with colleagues, maked a diagnosis/prognosis. You go in for the verdict and she says, let us pray for God’s help. Could there be anything you want to hear less? You’re looking for her to fix you, not help you pray. That’s reserved for when you know the situation is hopeless.
The very best interpretation is that this was simply incredibly, humiliatingly, amateurish — straight out of the Speechifying for Idiots manual. Find some cliched quality in your audience and do a sentimental piety about it in the vain hope that that will make them like you better.
I want to know what happened to the brilliant orator we used to know. The whole exercise had a quality of being stitched together by incompetent consultants until there was no life left. Who the hell is he listening to these days? It wasn’t Axelrod or Plouffe, it wasn’t Rahm, even. It’s time for a top-to-bottom housecleaning at the White House before it’s too late.
Tough shit what they want. They also want more drilling, no spills, leaving poor BP alone, and where’s my money when the inevitable happens. If the people of the Gulf Coast are praying people, as you so condescendingly put it, they’re quite capable of doing it themselves without White House intercession. It was a cheap political gimmick that droned on for minutes better spent on substance.
And when did he become president of the Gulf instead of the US? Personally I’m embarrassed for him.
This was supposed to respond to Boo’s comment above.
It’s telling that you took that for condescension. Shows your bias.
Here is the sad reality of politics in America today.
The call for the nation to pray is what is going to keep Barack Obama alive – no not politically but physically.
The more he sounds like a “Christian nation” president, the less his middle name dominates folks’s consciousness.
That frames the bill in Congress as not contrary to Republican principles. But the Republican strategy is to prevent Obama from doing anything at all. This framing puts Republicans in a little bit of a bind. Oh, they can rhetorically cope just like they did on healthcare, but something will pass, it will have Obama’s name on it, and the Republicans will immediately start carping and demand repeal.
I’m just waiting for this Republican rhetoric about the financial industry reform bill. Can the energy-climate bill be far behind. Wait, Lindsey Graham has already backed out and is complaining.
Okay,
seriously, is it that big a deal that he asked for prayers or blessing for the region?
1st of all, take it from someone who’s from that region and who has family there. The prayers and blessings will be appreciated by the majority of Gulf coast residents.
2nd, I get it, not all of us are “religious” people are “people of faith”, but Obama has written about the importance of his faith, always has and probably always will. So why is it so surprising that he would do it now. Unlike Bush, Palin, et al, Obama doesn’t wear his faith on his sleeve, and he doesn’t seem to use his faith as reasoning for his policy decisions, unlike Bushie and the like.
For my money, if you are complaining about that part of the speech, then you were probably not gonna be satisfied with any part of th speech anyway.
Also, just cause he asked for prayers doesn’t mean he gonna put together “prayer circles”.
Way to be condescending to people of faith. Not all of them are crazed conservs. Some of us are flaming liberals as well.
yep.
And I think calling people to pray while not giving any specifics as to what he is doing is condescending to rational thought. Look, as President I don’t expect him to turn a blind eye to praying or faith, but knowing full well that prayer does NOT work, and not seeing ANYTHING substantive as torpid bunny documented in the post below, it really pisses me off.
I was disgusted when Bush dragged jesus into his speeches and i don’t like it when Obama does it either.
doug stanhope said it better than I can in the context of 9/11. i wish i could still find the video, so i will have to paraphrase:
Jesus says if someone with faith the size of a mustard seed prays sincerely, their prayer will be answered (book of matthew says a lot about this). But if that really worked a lot of super devout people I know wouldn’t have cancer, wouldn’t have lost limbs to various diseases, and would be a lot more well off than they are now.
And to be honest, I turned off when he said he was meeting with BP tomorrow and telling them to set aside a recovery fund. There was no ‘or else…’ attached to that. It was largely content-free. I didn’t learn anything i didn’t already know and i didn’t hear anything i really wanted to hear, like say a Manhattan project to get us off oil or anything like that.
But why would i expect otherwise: both of our parties are owned by corporations.
Amen. (So to speak.)
I have no problem with Obama’s religious faith or anyone else’s. But it doesn’t belong in a political speech. It’s a private matter. And for Booman to say I should “get over it” is disrespectful of me and my personal philosophy that doesn’t include belief in a higher power.
The speech was pretty blah and we all know anything that gets 60 votes will do little to solve the problems. Hell, it might even make it worse. I wish the President would call out his opponents and educate the public why his agenda/the house bill on green energy can not get and up or down vote in Senate. The next Congress has to end filibuster and the President needs to start educating the public now. Oh Well.
“The only part I care about it this”
We just have a massive disagreement about this. The president needs to protect the coastline right now. That’s the most important thing in this moment! Turn on CNN or MSNBC and they’ve got locals on all day talking about how large areas of the coast are totally unprotected. The president gives us paeans to the mythical can-do spirit, then says oh by the way the oil is going to continue to wash ashore. Which is true. What are you going to do about it? Then he tells us the coast will be made whole. How? How will that happen? Through a chaotic and haphazard clean-up effort directed by a corrupt and dishonest corporation that had a bullshit emergency plan? It’s nice he says BP is going to pay, but all this stuff about “every penny” is fantasy land. There is no such thing as “every penny”. When millions of gallons of toxic sludge is smothering coastal marshes, and will be there for decades if not for many generations, what is “every penny”? This talk about 20 billion or whatever is laughable. There is no price! What is being lost is irreplaceable.
Again, I like Obama, but the speech was garbage and his delivery was phony. I don’t care in the slightest about the politics. I want to see someone in control, not someone assuring me he is in control. You’re the president. You don’t “encourage” local authorities to use the national guard. You USE the motherfucking national guard. Get on the phone and get them on the beaches right now! Put everything you have on it. How about we stop spilling blood and money uselessly in central asia and put some bodies on coastal defense where they can do some good?
well, I don’t mean that I don’t care about containing the spill and protecting the coast lines, but I already knew what they’re doing. What I wanted to know was if he was going to cave on climate or use this as lever to keep it alive.
I’m sorry, but your phrasing does not distinguish you from an anti-Obama troll. “the speech was garbage and his delivery was phony” – huh? Obama has pushed renewable energy sources from the outset. Much of what is happening in the Gulf has to do with legal lines of accountability and Obama protecting the future legal claim against BP.
Some good points
Highly recommended.
“Garbage” may be strong wording, but I have to agree that the speech was flat and wholly inadequate to what was needed. One of my first reactions was to think for the first time I’ve ever even come close to the thought, that maybe it would be best if he didn’t run for reelection.
perhaps, but maybe you’re underestimating what we (progressives, democrats, usaians who want our country-environment-future back) are up against. I highly recommend studying the environmental situation in more detail
Right after Obama ok’d some offshore drilling exploration TarheelDem explained how none of it would come to pass, because each state was bound to nix the exploration/ drilling for environmental/ tourism reasons. In my class we looked at the videos of oilco.s discussion of “Obama wants offshore drilling” and of course they said “he’s not really ok’ing offshore drilling, he’s ok’ing exploration, for years in the future, that may not come to pass.” Of course they understood what Obama was doing and were furious about it. The entire crisis is taking place on two levels- the power politics of what is really at stake and the msm. But, let me say, my bad, I should post more on what the subtext/ subconflict really is. btw, most – all?- of my environmental studies colleagues didn’t understand the politics of what the Obama admin was doing.
Also Errol, you can check out this report on the state of the clean-up effort.
Or you can keep calling me a troll and pretending the federal/BP response is all hunky dory and we can move on to exciting congressional issues.
I know the trolls are paid to post the sh*t they post, it’s just a job to them and I should just take it in stride. Still, it gets to me.
Thanks again, Booman, for your insightful analysis and your optimism.
People who disagree vigorously with what Obama is doing (or more likely are upset about what he is not doing), even using colorful language, are not ipso facto trolls. And if we do not admit to and try to do something about what many of us consider his weak spots and failings, things are going to get much worse for his presidency and the Democratic Party. Admitting and examining problems are the first steps in solving them.
of course, and I agree with you. it’s the name calling and free floating insults that get to me. calling the speech garbage and the delivery phony – that’s not constructive criticism of policies or proposed policies. I also think that the name calling in many instances (I have no idea about tb and this instance) is intended to take advantage of progressive constructive criticism of Obama’s policies to create a, I don’t know, a free floating glob of reflexive Obama insults.
Thank you for your civil reply.
Perhaps the rhetoric is born of disappointment and frustration. But in any case, it’s not helpful. However, I have seen many, many good suggestions in relation to the BP et al. disaster that are worthy of consideration and implementation, but if there is a suggestion that Obama hasn’t cut the mustard, they are discarded immediately. This is even more unhelpful than the overblown rhetoric.
yes, well I certainly understand the frustration, pain and grief. I was teaching a course in environmental studies when the explosion took place and spent a portion of class time on it every day as I thought, and still think, it will turn out to be the defining event of this generation. My course is more or less on the ideological issues underlying the debates – hence the minimizing language (“leak?” “spill?) and the nature of the coverage was something we took apart in class, as well as reading Fishgrease’s diaries on kos and more of the science side. Be that as it may, I see 3 problems – stopping the gusher, transition to alternative energies, regional control over resources (vs. international corporate exploitation of same for the benefit of the few). I understand the emotions, but the emotions are just too overwhelming for me, so I tend to focus on the analysis. The long term issue, i.e. getting control of the corporations, is something our present SCOTUS is not going to assist with and I assume, perhaps wrongly, that Obama is well aware of that dimension of the problem, hence his procedure vis a vis BP. Thanks for the dialog!
when do i get my check?
O-bought-ma’s ‘speeches’ are just talk and nothing of any substance comes out of talk. Talking the talk is NOT walking the walk. I gave up on the oreo cookie who loves Rahmie.
I’m probably more critical of Obama than just about anyone else on this site, and i make no apologies for that.
That said, where the FUCK do you get off calling the President an “oreo cookie”? that is a BLATANTLY racist comment, and it undermines any real criticism you may make about him and his policies. a comment like that says FAR MORE about you than it does about the President.
Your comment is truly shameful.
So what? I could care less. A whore is a whore is a whore, so what?
and an idiot is an idiot.
you’re not going to last very long here.
I thought it interesting that he forgot to mention the energy bill is stalled out in the Senate even though it passed in the House 1 YEAR AGO.
That if we really REALLY pray hard enough, this will go away.
That within a few days or weeks the well will be capped and 90% of the oil flow will be stopped. Really? He will regret that statement by Monday probably.
How and how much and when exactly are the folks in the Gulf going to get paid? Very murky on that most important point.
Never addressed the fact that first responders are getting sick down there and BP refuses to let the workers wear respirators. Would be nice if he could of said thousands of respirators are on their way down there right now.
Worst part he will “inform” BP that they will be picking up the tab for this. Not tell, not demand, not insist. Inform.
It sucked. He just basically went over what has happened, which anyone who has a TV or radio knows all ready.
And for goodness sake, God Bless America.
He asked for prayers???? Who were the only group of people JESUS CONDEMNED?????? Even took a bullwhip to, screamed at them, scattered their devices of counting, overthrew their tables, turned them out of the temple court????? Well, it was the $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
$$$$$ people of which O-BOUGHT-MA is one. He will get the prayers. ‘Please God, have mercy on the people who are not the 1$ers, save us from the ravenous $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ people, Rahmie, LIEberman, heck of a job Brown, Kissenger the war criminal, Feinstein, ………….I really hate to agree with Pat Buchannen, but there are way too many JEWS/ZIONISTS in powerful positions.
well, that comment is a bannable offense. Sorry,
.
elsewhere with little creativity.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."What a sad day this is. I spent yesterday in bumper to bumper traffic in Washington, DC, wedged in between one SUV after another, each with a single passenger. I was on the road and heard the speech on NPR in the car, without the benefit of Olbermann and Matthews and Rachel (not to mention the rest of the media) telling me beforehand what he had to do and say and afterwards how miserably he’d failed. I cheered when he stuck it to BP and talked about rebuilding the basin of the Mississippi River, wisely omitting details. Then, on NPR, the analysis was by Mara Liasson followed up by a hysterical, unchallenged rant by a Parish representative from Louisiana who railed at the audacity of the drilling moratorium and how Obama was destroying the Gulf Coast’s bread and butter, the Oil drilling industry.
I got home late last night to see a replay of Rachel ranting about the nerve of Obama to bring “Religion” and “God” into the speech, and 10,000 whiny, screaming, ill-informed posts on KOS and Huffington Post, complaining about the speech. I don’t remember any Oval Office speech, EVER, that wasn’t brief and short on detail, or for that matter one that didn’t invoke God or prayer in some way.
The short-sighted, keyboard-pajama Left is helping to enable the Right and the corporatocracy to stuff any progress we can make in this country. There is no sense of the big picture out there in the miniscule corner of the discourse we here in the blogosphere inhabit. To some extent it seems as if the very speed of communications enabled by modern technology is subverting our ability to objectively gauge how to ACTUALLY make progress–some things truly do take time, well beyond the shrunken two-hour internet news cycle.
Whether you believe in the power of prayer or not, whether you think the president should be asking for prayers in an address to the nation or not—these are secondary matters.
The primary issues at hand in the president’s speech last night were (in my view): dealing with the BP oil spill in the Gulf, changing US energy policy, and passing climate change/energy legislation.
I thought Ezra Klein (washingtonpost.com) had a pretty good analysis of Obama’s language and what it means (or might mean):
“The optimistic take, at least for environmentalists, is that this is the language and approach Obama uses when he really means to legislate. The pessimistic take is that Obama shied away from clearly describing the problem, did not endorse specific legislation, did not set benchmarks, and chose poll-tested language rather than a sharper case that might persuade skeptics.”
There was a good content: the independent fund, the rather vague commitment to some new energy policy. The part that disappointed me to the point of feeling sick was this:
I wanted to hear that he’d studied the issues and options, made his decisions, come up with a solid plan, and was going to fight like hell for his vision. But no, he’s going to set up a commission; he’s going to give a “fair hearing” to “other ideas”.
I wanted to hear about how we got into this mess and how we were going to retire those beliefs and that kind of politics, but all we got were some vague good intentions. I guess I wanted to hear something as solid and difficult and doable as putting humans on the moon. I wanted to hear “bada boom” but all that came out was “bada” “bada” “bada” without the “boom” ever being uttered. Instead the big finish was a fatuous call to dump it all into God’s hands.
I know he’s much better than this. It scares me what seems to happening to him. I think he needs to clean every political adviser who participated in this letdown out of the White House and hook up with some people who know how to do more than read polls.