Obama’s Katrina

Ah that old saying – “It’s lonely at the top”. Will the gulf oil spill turn the media against Mr. President? They were sure quick to jump on W. To be clear, I do not believe Obama should have to take the brunt of this but I also know that Bush should not have had to take it for Katrina.

It’s the shear size, bureaucracy, and ineptness of our federal government to respond to anything. (Maybe another reason they shouldn’t touch healthcare – but I digress). It also appears that once again the state of Louisiana was ill-equipped or ill-informed to take action. This is strike 2. If you build your city below sea level you might want to have a plan in place in case a big hurricane hits. When you have oil drilling off your shores you might want to have a plan in place to contain a spill.

But now there’s chirping on the left that Obama is out of touch with the situation. When James Carville doesn’t have your back sir you may have a problem. Can the media be far behind? They are biting their tongues for now but if Top Kill doesn’t work you better grease up that silver tongue of yours ‘cause you’ll need to deliver another magical (yet empty) speech to save yourself.

Pretty soon we’ll be hearing the sports reporters on ESPN bash Obama like they did Bush. There’ll be the poignant picture of you gazing at the sludge covered birds and gooey marshlands with a caption of “why did I wait so long to react?” Eight years from now they’ll still be talking about how disconnected you were.

Again, there was not much you could have done Mr. President. You can blame BP but we all know you are indebted to them just as much as all of our politicians are.  You can rail against the evils of offshore drilling even though we all know we need to do it (and its track record was pretty darned good until now). Of course you can look for someone or something else to blame but remember –

It’s lonely at the top!

Good job Bill Clinton

I will admit that I haven't said that too often. As history does show however, Bill Clinton has proved to be moderate compared to Obama. Of course the Republican congress had a lot to do with what Clinton got done.

Anyway, I think it's a good thing he was able to free the two female journalists from North Korea. There could be some negative, unintended consequences such as legitimizing a rouge lunatic or raising the stakes the next time this happens, but thank god those women are out of that hell.

In general I don't have a lot of sympathy for people who voluntarily put themselves in harms way. Only are fine service men and women can use "It's my job" as a valid reason to do so. Those hikers that crossed over from Iraq to Iran by accident - why were they there in the first place? Mountain climbers ignoring weather warnings and forcing rescue workers to risk their lives - no sympathy. Flood/hurricane victims stuck because they ignored their warnings - again no sympathy.

But I saw the video of these two women coming home and it moved me. They are Americans, they have families and I am glad Clinton got them out of there. It is interesting that his wife, the Secretary of State, wasn't asked to do so or even the vice president. I am not surprised that nobody called George W. He and Kim Jong il weren't really on speaking terms.

I do have one question though. How the hell does Al Gore tag along on this? I've seen Bill and George H. Bush pal around but I haven't seen Bill and Al doing so lately. Every time he falls into a nice obscurity he has to resurface. I think it's a sad statement on him that he would insinuate himself into this feel good story.

Maybe Gore is just looking for another Nobel prize!