This is Leadership?


“We talk to these folks because they potentially have the best answers, so I know whose ass to kick.” – President Obama

“He [BP CEO] wouldn’t be working for me.”
– President Obama

“Bring those responsible to justice on behalf of the victims of this catastrophe.”
– President Obama

I could go on, but instead, I ask: how are these comments by the President helping stop a huge oil leak that is devastating our waters, endangering our wildlife, and negatively impacting the economy of the Gulf region, as well as hurting the people there, again?

There will be plenty of time for the President to investigate, potentially prosecute, talk tough and play the blame game AFTER the oil leak is stopped. Right now, the immediate focus of the President should be cooperating with everyone to stop the leak. We’ve learned from the past that cooperation is key.

It came as a complete shock to me when I heard the President say on June 8, DAY FIFTY of the oil spill, “I have not spoken to him [BP CEO] directly … Because my experience is, when you talk to a guy like a BP CEO, he’s going to say all the right things to me. I’m not interested in words. I’m interested in actions.”


Speaking of words, in his May 27 press conference, the President said, “My job is to get this fixed… in case you were wondering who’s responsible, I take responsibility. It is my job to make sure that everything is done to shut this down.”

And speaking of actions, in that same press conference, the President also admitted, “When it comes to stopping the leak down below, the federal government does not possess superior technology to BP.”

BP and the government need each other. So, I question again, how is the President publically chastising and threatening BP with criminal actions – a company that has pledged to pay for the damage caused by the oil spill accident and who likely wants this resolved more than anyone– helping to stop the oil? How is that finding a workable solution so we don’t see more economic loss? How is that encouraging cooperation between BP and the Obama Administration to get the job done?

And how do you get the actions the President says he’s so interested in, given he’s the one taking responsibility, when we are 50+ days into this spill and President Obama still hasn’t had a direct discussion with the CEO of BP?

Former President Harry S. Truman once said, “It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.”

Perhaps, it’d be more appropriate to share a modified version of this quote with President Obama: “It is amazing what you can accomplish TOGETHER if you do not care who gets the credit OR THE BLAME.”

It’s time the President stopped speaking out of both sides of his mouth and started being the leader. Take action, not just talk tough. Once the President can “plug the damn hole,” then he is more than welcome to find “whose ass to kick.”


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It is disturbing.

smitch61 Thursday, June 10th at 3:27PM EST (link)

Just think what could have been had the president in the very beginning rallied the American people, put off blaming anyone until everything was completed and met with people from everywhere to get things going. In my heart I believed this whole thing would be on the way to recovery if only it had been handled differently. God help us when we have a terrorist attack.

Leadership?

greyfox65 Friday, June 11th at 8:23AM EST (link)

I don’t want to be too harsh, but it becomes more clear everyday that this “reflective, somber, professorial” president has nothing more than the “look”. He can talk the talk but he cannot walk the walk. Behind that “studious” personna is an educated mind which doesn’t know what to do. CNN announced this a.m that Tony Hayward, CEO of BP has been “commanded” to meet with the President. Today is day 53 of the most destructive environmental disaster in this nation’s history, and only now has the President “commanded” a meeting with BP? Most of the Gulf Coast economy has been virtually shut down, and the wild life suffers an ever increasing devastation. What did the President do during the past 52 days? Partying at the White House, vacation time, etc. Did he deal with the North Korean act of war on South Korea? Not to anyone’s knowledge. Is he dealing with the flotilla of “peace”? Not to anyone’s knowledge. Is he dealing with the BP oil spill? Not to anyone’s knowledge. Photo ops on Gulf Coast beaches with Bobby Jindahl screaming in the background cuts no ice with anyone but CNN.
87 million and counting, Mr. President. Watcha gonna do?

Larry Cumbie

 
 

I believe you, Rep. Sensenbrenner...

deevee Thursday, June 10th at 3:37PM EST (link)

do a great job in Congress.
You have to know as many Americans know that President Obama is not a leader, he has shown himself and his administration to be incompetent. You are a leader and there are others who serve with you in Congress who are true leaders. Would you please be the Statesmen and lead the charge to correct this catastrophe in the making.
Alas, all Pres. Obama’s actions are worse that the original oil leak ie. closing down all deep water drilling, now thousands will be unemployed, oil prices are already increasing.
Leadership needs to come from the adults in the room.

Actions--Not Words

angela9 Friday, June 11th at 8:59AM EST (link)

This so-called president( I cannot capitalize this), is a fake. He can talk, but he cannot do, because he is unqualified. John M. and Sarah Palin tried to tell everyone he was not a leader, He hates America by his apologizing, bowing to leaders of terroists, getting mad at the wrong people. I see people are waking up and realizing the mistake of placing this inept individual in the whitehouse. I am reading some great blogs! We the People will stop the progressive, socialists movement!We want our Costitution and it’s principles back in our government. Begin with getting GOD back where he belongs!

Ditto...

msgrant (Diary) Friday, June 11th at 2:27PM EST (link)

My sentiments exactly, and well-said!

 
 
 

Pitch perfect

E Pluribus Unum (Diary) Thursday, June 10th at 3:52PM EST (link)

The world waits for the Boy President to figure out how to do his job. He is both dumb and selfish in his motiviations.

Gonna be a long wait.

Kill the Terrorists
Protect the Borders
Punch the Hippies h/t IMAO

 

It's a Shame People Bug Poor Barry In The Middle of Dinner.

Repair_Man_Jack (Diary) Thursday, June 10th at 3:53PM EST (link)

He seems like such a nice man….

Mr. Obama is pretending that an economic “recovery” is underway when he knows damn well that the banking system is just blowing smoke up the shredded *** of what’s left of that economy – James Howard Kunstler

especially when Michelle has a celebrity chef

mdd1956 Friday, June 11th at 8:41AM EST (link)

cooking some of that no salt, no sugar, no fat, no preservatives, no MSG, no dairy, no gluten, no wheat, no hormone, no nitrate, all local “food” for dinner.

No wonder he looks weak, there is nothing to eat in the White House

 
 

The EPA's Apocalyptic Failure

johnconradarens (Diary) Thursday, June 10th at 3:57PM EST (link)

Two thoughts:

1) President Obama’s rhetorical flourish about “ass kicking” is even more breathtaking when you hear the entire quote in context: “A month ago I was meeting with fishermen down there, standin’ in the rain talking about what a potential crisis this could be…we talk to these folks because they potentially have the best answers, so I know whose ass to kick.” Note that he’s “talkin’” to fishermen about whose posterior needs a dust-up. He’s not talkin’ to petroleum engineers, or geologists, or roustabouts, or roughnecks. He’s talkin’ to FISHERMEN. So, I guess the next time your house catches fire, you shouldn’t talk to the firemen, or the fire investigator, or the ambulance driver. You should talk to, I don’t know, the mailman. He stands in the rain and delivers mail, so I guess he qualifies.

And, 2) Why isn’t the President discussing what to do, long term, with the federal response if this sort of accident might happen again? There are dozens of deep water platforms out there in the Gulf, and any one of them could experience the same problem TODAY; if not an American rig, a rig owned by another nation. Why is he not proposing a massive “first response” team? Why are we not establishing, right now, protocols for first responders, from local HAS-MAT teams to the Coast Guard? Why are we not building, right now, more ships that can handle this sort of thing, ready with outfitted crews, complete with all the supplies they need to get to the sight of such spills rapidly? Where is the Gulf equivalent of a Fire Department? What the hell else is the Environmental PROTECTION Agency supposed to do? This is an apocalyptic failure on the part of the EPA, and it should be dismantled because of it, and rebuilt from the ground up.

Right on!

golfrbob Friday, June 11th at 12:09PM EST (link)

Obama wanted this delay:
Lets see: to further his cap and trade he said ‘NO’ for sand berms; he said ‘NO’ to surface burns; he said ‘NO’ to waiving the Jones Act-Bush waived it for Katrina; he said ‘NO’ to pre-activating the federal law to have fire booms stockpiled as required. Sounds like he was doing what he said the Republicans were doing to his healthcare bill. Lets face it, by the time the berm study was to be completed the environment was to be destroyed. Had to be political!

 
 

Bill Cosby needs to b%tch-slap Obama nt

taxpayer1234 (Diary) Thursday, June 10th at 4:16PM EST (link)

Bill Cosby's ten things He would do if he were

suzanneatsuperior Friday, June 11th at 11:11AM EST (link)

president, Funny and right on the money. I don’t know when it was written but it still stands the test of time. I t was a e-mail and gone now. One of them I can remember is” He would put up towers every 500 ft with a sniper and for them not to shot to kill if the Illegals were running south. I thought if only this were true 65% of Americans would vote him in.

 

Oh Yes, Oh Yes

carolinalady Sunday, June 13th at 9:20AM EST (link)

And then a good shaking by the shoulders, and a good talking-to all the while!

 
 

Obama: Politicizing BP for his advantage

nepanyrush Thursday, June 10th at 4:23PM EST (link)

Obama’s telling the public that he expects BP to pay the salaries of all workers laid off by an offshore drilling moratorium is just deflecting criticism of his ridiculous moratorium unto BP. His moratorium, against the advice of experts (contrary to the WH’s original assertion), is coming back to hurt Obama because of lost jobs. What does he do? Lift the moratorium? No, just say BP has to pay the wages so that everyone is mad at BP and not Barry.

The strategy may work politically. Of course BP cannot pay for the entire Gulf economy. But Barry, the community organizer, is good at one thing: Pointing fingers at other people and deflecting the anger towards them.

remember Tawana Brawley ?

mdd1956 Friday, June 11th at 9:08AM EST (link)

undesirable oil drilling incidents declined dramatically all throughout the Bush years, the Bush administration also cleaned up MMS and the Obama admin failed to follow-up on key prosecutions. After which time incidents began to rise again culminating in this latest disaster.

the EPA thinks the air I exhale is a toxin and also thinks that specially designed oil spill clean-up ships from the Netherlands are environmentally dangerous

same thing is happening here. I’ll leave it to you to decide how the players all correlate but the following are facts:

we drill way out there in the gulf because we need the oil
we also drill in foreign lands where folks aren’t as enviro concious (think Sadam)
environmentalists limit safer near shore drilling
we could do less drilling but enviros blocked nuclear
they also resisted wind (kills birds)
solar ( damages desert environment)
hydro (kills the fishes)

they would have us use the food supply for fuel and by the way it takes about a gallon of diesel to produce a gallon of of ethanol which contains 30% less energy

Fact is: BHO is not in touch with reality

I remember Tawana Brawley vividly

earlgrey (Diary) Friday, June 11th at 9:15AM EST (link)

I had a paper route at the time and would read the paper as I was delivering it. I remember reading about it and thinking how horrible the crime was, but at the same time it seemed so extreme that it was hard to believe.

Looking back on it, the details were just totally unbelievable and I can’t believe people really fell for it.

 
 
 

The (P)resident is

Gmac Thursday, June 10th at 5:32PM EST (link)

not a leader and it shows every time he opens his mouth how out of touch with reality he and his cabinet are.

 

I thinkl I may need to borrow this from Obama.

Tbone (Diary) Thursday, June 10th at 5:52PM EST (link)

“Because my experience is, when you talk to a guy like a BP CEO, he’s going to say all the right things to me. I’m not interested in words. I’m interested in actions.”

And change it to:

Because my experience is, when you talk to a guy like Barry Obama, he’s going to say all the right things to me. I’m not interested in words. I’m interested in actions.

I do believe that I share this sentiment with the majority of American voters.

Envisioning when all that is Left is the Right.

Perfect.

snowshooze (Diary) Thursday, June 10th at 7:56PM EST (link)

Can we get it on a Tee Shirt?

 
 

"Did you find out whose a$$ to kick yet, Daddy?"

Locked and Loaded (Diary) Thursday, June 10th at 6:44PM EST (link)

Another great line for a Tee Shirt!

snowshooze (Diary) Thursday, June 10th at 8:41PM EST (link)

Keep ‘em coming…

 

Epic...

stephaniet Friday, June 11th at 8:37AM EST (link)

…win!

“*They* say the best weapon is one you never have to fire. I respectfully disagree. I *prefer* the weapon you only have to fire *once*. That’s how Dad did it; that’s how America does it… and it’s worked out pretty well so far.”

 
 

Spot on, Congressman...

MacAoidh (Diary) Thursday, June 10th at 7:06PM EST (link)

…but I think it’s even worse than that. I think Obama is attempting to bankrupt BP. To what end, I don’t know – down here in Louisiana it’s becoming a major concern that BP is either going to go under before it can pay off all claims (three days ago that seemed ludicrous and now it’s all over the financial wires), or they’re going to get taken over by somebody like PetroChina – who would be the worst possible outfit in charge.

Frightening times. We’re on the brink right now.



Check out MacAoidh’s commentary on Louisiana and national politics at TheHayride.com

 

Obama will talk to Iran, North Korea, and Syria, just not to the CEO of BP

Fla Mom (Diary) Thursday, June 10th at 7:13PM EST (link)

Re: “It came as a complete shock to me when I heard the President say on June 8, DAY FIFTY of the oil spill, “I have not spoken to him [BP CEO] directly … Because my experience is, when you talk to a guy like a BP CEO, he’s going to say all the right things to me. I’m not interested in words. I’m interested in actions.””

From the New York Times, November 2, 2007: “In his Democratic presidential bid, Mr. Obama has vigorously sought to distinguish himself on foreign policy from his rivals, particularly Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, by asserting that he would sit down for diplomatic meetings with countries like Iran, North Korea and Syria with no preconditions.”

So he would talk directly to our enemies, just not to the CEO of a very successful Western corporation. Because, really, who can you *trust?*

Fla Mom

Fla Mom, your headline is dead-on

constitutionalconservative (Diary) Friday, June 11th at 12:01AM EST (link)

I have been loath to blame Obama for the oil spill (much as I’d like to politically) because ultimately the spill, and even much of the effort to stop it, inherently is not under his control. Deepwater drilling is a highly technical field and the government doesn’t necessarily have the right people to lead the technical solution.

But the fact that he still hasn’t spoken to BP’s CEO Tony Hayward, is a complete embarrassment and abdication of responsibility. I hope the Republicans will get this news out to a wide audience.

No, we can't blame him for the oil spill

carolinalady Sunday, June 13th at 9:27AM EST (link)

or for not cleaning it up, but we can blame him for OBSTRUCTING EVERYBODY ELSE’S EFFORTS TO DO IT!

 
 

Needed to be said Fla Mom

golfrbob Friday, June 11th at 12:25PM EST (link)

Well lets see, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a jihadic islamic(remember the young lady he had shot in the street); Kim Jong Il is a communist dictator-friendly to islamists; Chavez is a communist dictator-friendly to islamists. Bashar al-Assad is a Sunni dictator-friendly to islamists. Looks as if Obama has chosen who he likes to talk to-just not Israel and BP’s operation manager(most probably Christian). Hummh! Interesting.

 
 

bend over obama look between your legs and behind you into the mirror and you will see the A$$ that needs kicked. NT

bobojake (Diary) Thursday, June 10th at 8:43PM EST (link)
 

Sensenbrenner is my rep and he's right as usual...

WIBadger Thursday, June 10th at 8:58PM EST (link)

…he’s good people. Not a grandstander but a conscientious effective reliable conservative. I know most folks despise incumbent politicians except for their own, but JS truly is one of us and I wish he would stay longer. His seat is safe for this year but I believe he’s retiring in 2012. He’s earned it though. Spent many successful years in the private sector before entering politics and he understands life outside of govt.

 

Now Obama wants BP to pay...

bobmontgomery (Diary) Friday, June 11th at 12:02AM EST (link)

….the wages of all the people Obama laid off when he shut down drilling!! Do you believe the stones on this guy???

If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.
George Washington

I didn't think...

stephaniet Friday, June 11th at 8:54AM EST (link)

…he *had* stones.

“*They* say the best weapon is one you never have to fire. I respectfully disagree. I *prefer* the weapon you only have to fire *once*. That’s how Dad did it; that’s how America does it… and it’s worked out pretty well so far.”

I will just cry.

carolinalady Sunday, June 13th at 9:34AM EST (link)

I am retired and I have so little income that I paid no federal taxes last year. I depend on my BP dividend, it is the most amount of money I get from anywhere.

 
 
 

Excuse me, Hayworth is working for the O

Scope (Diary) Friday, June 11th at 8:54AM EST (link)

“He [BP CEO] wouldn’t be working for me.” – President Obama

He’s been busy bundling up all those BP donations to the O, and his progressives in Congress. I doubt he’d fire him from that job.

 

I'm embarrassed....

rneville1983 Friday, June 11th at 8:54AM EST (link)

……by our faux “leader of the free world”. This pathetic guy couldn’t lead a Troop of Brownies on a camping trip and he done got hisself elected President of the United States. Well, elections have consequences.

The people and entities against we should be railing are the mainstream media which totally abdicated it’s responsibility of vetting Obumble, and the Democratic Party which had the brilliant idea of putting a half-black man on the ticket, knowing he’d get the black vote regardless of how inexperienced he was. Both of these groups succeeded in providing us the most incompetent president in the history of the nation. But all the evidence was there from the very beginning to anyone who wanted to acknowledge it. Had Obumble been a white Republican with the same experience, and had he decided to throw his had into the Republican primaries, he’d have been politely told, “Don’t waste your time and money. Go away, get a couple decades of real experience under your belt, and then come back and maybe we’ll talk to you.”

So here we have a guy no more qualified to run the country than your average academic hack, and not only our nation but the entire world is paying the price. Witness the new boldness of tyrants caused by Obumble’s obvious weakness as a world leader. His shortfalls might be mitigated had he surrounded himself with wise advisors experienced in the ways of running ANYTHING, but instead he dragged his pathetic gaggle of Chicago cronies with him and now he doesn’t have anyone to help him out of this giant hole he’s dug.

And they’re not even politically savvy. I don’t feel like listing all the politically stupid things he’s done since taking office……there are too many.

All we can do is hope to gain the House and Senate in November and castrate Obumble until we can get a real president in place in 2012.

Pray for our nation.

R. Neville
San Antonio,
Texas

 

Much to do, nothing done

dfallis Friday, June 11th at 8:58AM EST (link)

The last 2-months have proven that this administration began with 1-plan and that disaster was not included in that plan. Some say he is using the BP oil spill to further Cap and Tax, some even think it was a planned accident (hard to figure how), but whatever the case, there is nothing getting done. It looks like BP is trying to cap the well and from news reports of excessive lunch breaks and no work on the beaches, thats about it, right now. Obama, on the other hand, has done a lot of photo ops, tried to buffer the negative effects of health care (that one is costing the American taxpayer), he’s partied, he’s rested, he’s had a lot of things on his mind and the people he cares nothing about are getting the message “loud and clear” due to his inaction. The only way to get this man’s attention is to become a 3rd-world nation with a disaster, because he did more for Haiti in a much more hasty fashion than he has done about the disasters on American shores.

 

Appearances

ac7880 Friday, June 11th at 9:43AM EST (link)

It is all about appearances. What does it look like, or appear that Obama’s priorities are? It “appears” that golf, basketball, music festivals in the white house, fancy dinners, date nights, jetting around the world, vacations, fund raisers, meeting celebrities, parties, and blaming others are his priority.

Now MAYBE he is getting hard work done behind the scenes, but the APPEARANCE he and his staff create is horrendous when the economy is in the tank, 2 wars, borders wide open, massive oil spill, constantly blaming Bush for everything and anything.

Obama and his advisors are paying the price for the appearances they create.

 

Is anyone surprised?

MICHAELNLA (Diary) Friday, June 11th at 9:50AM EST (link)

This clown is elected POTUS and what are his qualifications?

A “community organizer?” Give me a break!

“Leadership?” This guy couldn’t “lead” a “one-car-funeral”

Although, O’Buffoon is the best thing to happen to the GOP since Jimmy Carter and come 11/2012, Hussein will be just like the “peanut-farmer”…”one & done!”

Lenin sure had the Liberals nailed when he called them “Useful Idiots”

Lets just hope the Gelding Old Party gets a testicle & spine implant by November so they can begin to recapture the Majority in the House and/or Senate next year and we can begin to turn this HUGE mess around that the Socialists/Liberals/Progressives or whatever the Marxists in Congress & the WH are calling themselves this week, have left us with!

Haven’t we seen this plot before…Liberals tax & spend us into the abyss and the GOP is expected to come in and pull us out…again!

And lets pray to God that the country can survive another two & half years of this bunch of incompetent fools in the WH & Congress.

And this time, lets put a “stake in the heart of this monster” called “Socialism!”

 

LEADERSHIP

singnan Friday, June 11th at 9:50AM EST (link)

Sarah Palin for President!

Read her book, Going Rogue. She doesn’t care who gets the credit, just whether it’s done right and done well.

If she were President now, she’d be kicking **s.

She’s smart, courageous, honest, a true individual and yes, beautiful. Don’t let that scare you, though. She’s a Patriot and doesn’t care what you think–only that you care about Freedom and the true meaning of our Constitution.

I agree

suzanneatsuperior Friday, June 11th at 10:09AM EST (link)

Great Book, I found myself wanting to stand up and stick up for her againest her distracters.

 

Yeah, one of the better works of fiction I've read

Achance (Diary) Friday, June 11th at 10:12AM EST (link)

lately. She cares who gets the credit, and she makes sure she gets all of it.

In Vino Veritas

 

Gee, it only took one post to establish yourself as

mbecker908 (Diary) Friday, June 11th at 10:18AM EST (link)

an ignorant fool.

 
 

Wake up

suzanneatsuperior Friday, June 11th at 10:04AM EST (link)

People!! He is a Muslim he doesn’t care about America. Here is a quote from HIS book the Audacity of Hope “I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ulgy direction” also from Dreams of my Father “I ceased to advertise my mothers race at the age of 12 or 13, when I began to suspect that by doing so I was ingratiating myself to whites” also ” I found solace in nursing a pervasive sense of grievance and animosity against my mothers race” and this man is leading OUR country. This explanes why he does the things he does about the Terrotist and giving them trials in NY , What a slap to The American people. Do you think he cares about Illegals, NO how do you think his friends are getting in and why come down so hard on a Governer just trying to protect her state and him saying all that racist stuff on the so called news shows which helped fuel the riots. I could go on by why. Don’t go out and buy his books just go to the library if you can stomach it.

So suzanneatsuperior, what do you think about that birth certificate thingy?

mbecker908 (Diary) Friday, June 11th at 10:23AM EST (link)

I’m waiting with bated breath to hear you opinion of that one.

 
 

...... is it just me?

a-b Friday, June 11th at 10:33AM EST (link)

Does anyone beside me wonder what leadership we could expect should, God forbid, our homeland be attacked by one the many “peace-loving” groups that hate us so much?
50+ days in those in Washington would still be wondering what to do …. if anything. In the mean time, our enemies would have “their boot on our throat” and we’d likely be dead meat. Too late then to “kick anyone’s a$$”.
How’s that making you sleep nights America?

 

Uh... Obama wouldn't be working for US or a corp. if he were CEO.

Veronica (Diary) Friday, June 11th at 10:36AM EST (link)

His scheming and incessant plotting has made him ineffective.

I doubt he remembers his solemn oath to protect & defend the country & the constitution…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Pray as if everything depends on God, and work as if everything depends on us. – St. Augustine

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

OBAMA JUST SAYS 'NO'

golfrbob Friday, June 11th at 12:01PM EST (link)

Lets see: to further his cap and trade he said ‘NO’ for sand berms; he said ‘NO’ to surface burns; he said ‘NO’ to waiving the Jones Act-Bush waived it for Katrina; he said ‘NO’ to pre-activating the federal law to have fire booms stockpiled as required. Sounds like he was doing what he said the Republicans were doing to his healthcare bill. Lets face it, by the time the berm study was to be completed the environment was to be destroyed. Had to be political!

 

READ MY BLOG

superamerican (Diary) Friday, June 11th at 12:58PM EST (link)

Go back and read my posts to my blog from before Obama was elected. I knew. He was an inexperienced somewhat dim, but charasmatic individual. He had no economic education and a bitter distrust of business and businesspeople. And here we are. Running record deficits, expanding the size of government to record size and diminishing the very business that made this the greatest, most prosperous nation in history. Without successful businesses there will be no more real jobs.

And here we are in a democracy. Free to select then abandon presidents. He’ll go on to be the darling of the Left once again, as a movie star. IF he can learn to memorize his lines, and there’s no guarantee here!

So please read my conservative blog: http://www.periodictablet.com

Superamerican