McKibben: If Ever There Was a Moment to Seize. Will Obama Stand Up to Big Energy In Deeds?

McKibben notes Obama's refusal to seize the moment offered by the catastrophe in the Gulf is similar to how he has barely broken a sweat on global warming. He has a tremendous opportunity to help set the US on a better path. So far, though, he's been more talk than action.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/06/06-0

If There Was Ever a Moment to Seize
Will Obama Stand Up to Big Energy in Deeds as Well as Words?
by Bill McKibben

Here's the president on March 31st, announcing his plan to lift a longstanding moratorium on offshore drilling: "Given our energy needs, in order to sustain economic growth and produce jobs, and keep our businesses competitive, we are going to need to harness traditional sources of fuel even as we ramp up production of new sources of renewable, homegrown energy."

Here he is on May 26th, as political pressure starts to really build over the hole in the bottom of the sea that BP somehow seems unable to plug: "We're not going to be able to sustain this kind of fossil fuel use. The planet can't sustain it." Still, he added quickly, there's no need for any dramatics: "We're not going to transition out of oil next year or 10 years from now."

And here is the president last Wednesday, after yet another gimcrack solution at 5,000 feet under the waters of the Gulf of Mexico had gone awry, and real anger at the administration's lackluster performance crested: "he time has come to aggressively accelerate The time has come, once and for all, for this nation to fully embrace a clean energy future."

The question is: which one is the real Obama? Has he really been transformed by the oil spill in the Gulf, or is he merely trying to ride out the public reaction with stronger words? I think the answer is as murky as the water off Mobile. We don't know because so far it's all words -- the closest he's come to specifics is that pledge that we won't be off oil in a decade.

Which, of course, is true. Ten years from now, we'll still be using oil -- many of the people who bought new Fords this year will still be driving them in 2020. Exxon will still be in business. But this realism didn't necessarily preclude him from saying so much more than he did. Had he chosen to, he could have declared: "Ten years from now, America will be using half the oil we do today and producing ten times as much solar power." That would have been stirring. That would have put something on the line.

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On Edit: Changed Title

That transparency he promised sure hasn't happened.

And I find his devotion to protecting Bush offensive. And that makes Obama complicit in any crimes Bush committed, because he's covering them up instead of doing what he's OBLIGATED TO DO BY LAW, which is investigate and prosecute.

So yeah, all talk and no action on certain things. No biggie for some, but if the things he's not acting on have an impact on you personally, it's huge. Depends on which side of the fence you're on.

He'll agree to change "in principal" and then actually puruse incremental change over time. He doesn't believe in turning on dimes, and he wants everyone to be included in the change. So the folks drilling still have to be allowed to keep drilling while the folks working to end drilling also get to continue "working towards" the day when we won't have to drill.

Anyone who EVER expects this president to be transformational is going to be very disappointed. He's the BASF of the presidency.

"He doesn't make the war. He fights the war better".
"He doesn't invent the TARP, he spends the TARP smarter."
"He doesn't create Medicaid, he makes it bigger".
"He doesn't design health Insurance. He designs health insurance that's mandatory".

One day a man driving through a small town comes to a deserted stoplight. As he is pulling to the stop he notices that there is nobody as far as the eye can see. He decides to simply slow and cruise through the intersection. Sure enough, as he gets a few hundred yards down the road, a police cruiser lights up her cherries and pulls the guy over. The cop comes to the window and asks the perfunctory questions and the license etc. is all verified. The cop asks the man if he knows why he was stopped. The man says, "Aw, c'mon officer! There was no around AND I slowed down. What's the difference?"

The cop asks the man to step out of the car and opens the door. The man rises to his feet and the cop takes out his nightstick and begins beating the man. The man screams and ducks to avoid the blows. As the cop hits the man (not too hard,just taps) he asks him if he would like him to SLOW down beating him or to STOP beating him.

The fact is that the brand of incrementalism of which you write is not always a smart, effective or honest way to approach a problem. Granted not everything can be solved with a hammer, but I think there is a good argument to make that Obama's term could be described as a smarter, gentler third term of GW Bush.

Just sweeter and smarter.

"We will go to the moon" said JFK

"I'm gonna moon all of you with this change stuff" said ______?

He is guilty of not wanting to change directions quickly. So he tries to "modify" the previous positions and to try to "begin" to change course. No sudden moves, no instant reversals, "No Drama Obama". His intended final destintation may be well off of the direction or goal of his predecessor, but he's going to "turn the super tanker" and not try to drive it through its own wake.

I'm not a big fan of this approach on many subjects. And in this time in history he had a rare chance to be transformational in many subjects from the use of the military, to the effectiveness of the rule of law, not to mention establishing health CARE as a "right" in some sense. So I see his tactic as both morally difficult to defend, and the missed opportunities as "once in a lifetime" level kind of situation.

But he isn't "just like Bush". He's just trying to "walk away" from Bush, instead of runnning away quickly. I think it is a mistake, and as someone points out around here frequently, as much as he wants to "look forward, not backward" there are some big messes lying around that if he doesn't clean up, they'll end up being his problems.

I do map and compass work. Spend the better part of my summer vacations following maps and route notes to find my way to my next meal and bed. You'll always make mistakes. Some times you can back track. Some times you can just plot out an alternate route. But every once and a while you figure out you're way off track and the only think to do is to blaze a trail through the woods to meet back up with the correct path. And sometimes, no, it wasn't my fault. Bad directions or altered trail signs can lead one astray. Doesn't change the fact that the "right" solution is to just take the tough haul over the ridge, down the other side, and back on the trail upon which you belong.

Obama needs to blaze some trails back to the right paths. Trying to gentle turn from the wrong path and avoid the tough climb isn't always going to be the best choice.

The power in our society resides in Capital. Government is the crowd control subsidiary of Capital. Only one thing to do...

Kill Capitalism