Leave Obama The Hell Alone Already
Okay, so the oil rig explosion and subsequent spill in the Gulf this past April has been referred to as possibly the single most ecologically damaging event in U.S. history, and that’s probably justified. The impact to multiple ecosystems can’t be underestimated, and it’s only getting worse, what with plans A,B,C, and D not having worked so far…and B.P. now admitting that they might not be able to get a plug on this thing until August. The ramifications of this aren’t certain yet, but one thing’s for sure, it’s not going to be pretty. All forms of life that this cataclysmic cock-up touches…aquatic, land-based, animal and man…we’re all in for a rough go of it. And, as citizens of this country, we deserve to know how this happened, and somebody needs to be held accountable. Is B.P. to blame? There is some talk of cutting corners as it relates to safety, but this has yet to be established conclusively. But you know who’s not to blame? President Obama.
Obama didn’t cut corners; he didn’t scrimp on safety. There are those who said he didn’t act fast enough when news first hit of the disaster. Well, that’s probably because B.P. tried to downplay the significance of the crisis. They said it was only a matter of time before the leak was contained, and they also said that significantly less oil was being released than was actually the case. Obama had other things on his mind…like, oh, I don’t know, ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a controversial new policy regarding illegal aliens in Arizona, and Iran trying to establish nuclear capability, to name a few. It was only when B.P. failed repeatedly to stop the leak that it was revealed how bad the situation actually was, and then he responded accordingly, as he has throughout this entire crisis. But there are many that feel that he should have done more, reacted differently. To them I say, what exactly did you want the man to do? Swim a mile down and plug his body into the pipe, thereby stopping the leak? The only reason Obama is being blamed for this is because he happens to be in power right now. He wants to stop the leak, believe me. It’s just that nothing like this, nothing on this scale, has ever really happened before in human history. That’s why B.P. and every scientist in their employ…and everybody else, for that matter…has been trying to come up with a solution. Hell, Kevin Costner volunteered a suggestion, (though, to be fair, there are few more qualified to speak out about water-related disasters). What bothers me about all this is that people seem to be saying that Obama is just sitting there with his thumb up his ass while all this is going on. I know that everyone is frustrated and angry, but to blame Obama for these technological failures just isn’t fair, or logical. There are those who are even comparing this administration’s actions to Bush’s during Hurricane Katrina, and that’s flat-out absurd. There were about a million things that Bush could have done that he chose not to…not for many weeks, anyway. In Obama’s case, there just isn’t really anything else that he, personally, can do. That’s the difference.
There are those that no longer approve of the job that Obama is doing, at least according to the latest polls. I, for, one, don’t trust those polls too much anyway, but assuming that his popularity and approval rating is dipping, if it really is just because of this, that’s just sad. If you’re going to disapprove of what the guy’s doing, that’s one thing. But if it’s his perceived inaction that bothering you in this particular case, you need to realize that, unfortunately, there’s limits to what the man is capable of. He’s not a scientist. He’s not an engineer, or an oceanographic expert. He’s not Superman. Blaming the guy in charge when something bad happens that he is in no way responsible for is irrational, and I just hope that everyone involved can disassociate themselves from their anger long enough to acknowledge that.