Eager To Shirk Responsibility, Obama Latches On To “IF” Arguments

“And IF I had done something to prevent it, some people might have said bad things about me, so the whole mess is really the Republicans’ and Tea Partiers’ fault!”

It sure is tough to be a leader when you obviously have no clue how to lead, at least that seems to be the case for the current occupant of the Oval Office.  Despite claiming that the federal government was on the Deepwater Horizon leak “FROM DAY ONE” [repeat ad nauseum, interspersed with carefully practiced looks of concern, morphing over a progression of days to looks of increasing irritation and peevishness as the crisis magnified by little in the way of federal cleanup efforts became harder and harder to pin on the recklessness and greed of BIG OIL alone], there is little doubt that the plans that the feds were required to have pursuant to the National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan (NCP) were not being acted upon, unless the plan was to have a lot of federal officials looking over the polluter’s shoulders, wringing their hands, and holding pressers where they appear before the cameras and indignantly claim that they were on the scene FROM DAY ONE! whenever any one got close to asking why the stain in the Gulf was growing,  but no one was gathering the oil up.

And now, squirming in the hot seat, and fresh off an exceedingly silly statement about trying to determine who’s ass to kick, the President has happened on a brilliant deflection strategy:  It is the Republican’s fault!  And those damn tea partiers are hypocrites, too!

From the Politico:

“I think it’s fair to say, if six months ago, before this spill had happened, I had gone up to Congress and I had said we need to crack down a lot harder on oil companies and we need to spend more money on technology to respond in case of a catastrophic spill, there are folks up there, who will not be named, who would have said this is classic, big-government overregulation and wasteful spending.”

I know, he didn’t actually name the Republicans, but it doesn’t really matter, as the Democrats only denounce defense spending as classic, big-government overregulation and wasteful spending.  I have to admit, it is a unique strategy.  “If I had done something to prevent this (putting aside the nasty fact that government doesn’t know how to fix it, so my faith in their prevention of it in an ongoing operation is next to nothing), then those nasty old Republicans would have shut me down.”  This is why having a President who is a parent to young children is so entertaining.  Those of us with children of our own recognize the excuse, and wonder about the role reversal.  Maybe he needs a few more minutes of daily nappy time.  Perhaps Rahmbo should get on that.

The childishness of this thinking is exceeded only by ludicrousness of the concept that a GOP that lacked the numbers to prevent Spendulous and ObamaReidPelosiCare could somehow do more than scold the President IF he had done something to prevent the growing ecological mess.  This argument simply underscores both the President’s inability to lead on the things that are rather than the things he wants to be, and the contempt he has for the average American when he says such things and expects to be taken seriously.

He wasn’t done with this contempt, however.  The small man in the really big chair had another bit of Chicago Leadership to share in the interview:

“Some of the same folks who have been hollering and saying ‘do something’ are the same folks who, just two or three months ago, were suggesting that government needs to stop doing so much,” Obama said. “Some of the same people who are saying the president needs to show leadership and solve this problem are some of the same folks who, just a few months ago, were saying this guy is trying to engineer a takeover of our society through the federal government that is going to restrict our freedoms.”

Again, this of course sells short the ability of the public to understand that the leases are on federal land, and that there is already a body of federal law regarding clean up of these type of these accidents.  Regulation of drilling is different from claiming GM and Chrysler are too big to fail, buying them without money while screwing secured creditors, and then giving them to the unions, or deciding that a group of people in Washington D.C. are better able to determine and administer the health care needs of Farmer Jones and his family in the apple groves of eastern Washington State.

I have been a parent for ten years now, and while my kids didn’t ask for the job of being my children, I wouldn’t accept an “It isn’t my fault because if I had done something to prevent it, you might have said unkind things about me.”  What in the name of great honkin’ Chuthuilu makes the President, a man who eagerly sought the responsibility to lead, think I would accept it from him?

Grow up, Mr. President.  SanFranNan’s declaration to the contrary, we’re in the second year of your enlightened adminstration.  Blaming other people for federal inaction while you are at fundraisers and on the links isn’t going to wash anymore.  You own this.  You asked for the responsibility; the criticism is the flip side of that shiny, shiny coin.

This is why after a year of this:

Fewer and fewer of us have any respect, let alone trust, for him.