Obama showed he grasps depths of global challenge

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/plum-line/2010/05/obama_showed_he_grasps_depth_o.html#more


Obama showed he grasps depths of global challenge
Greg Sargent


Commentators, understandably, will be analyzing Obama's big Gulf spill presser today to determine whether he did what had to do politically. Did he sound angry enough? Did he convincingly rebut legit criticism of his handling of the crisis? Why did he say "drill, baby, drill"?

But there's another set of questions to be asked: Did Obama signal today that he grasps the magnitude of leadership that will be required to solve the deeper, underlying problem? Did he seize on the spill to push for a fundamental shift in our thinking, and will he continue to do so?

The answer to those questions has to be Yes. It's unclear whether Obama fixed his immediate problems -- he opened himself up to more criticism by not knowing the circumstances of the departure of a key official. And there are still serious outstanding questions as to what Obama will do in short term policy terms and whether he'll confront entrenched interests aggressively enough.

But for those wondering about his global handling of the bigger, long-term problem, the presser had to be somewhat reassuring. Obama hit three main points. At a time when he's been strongly criticized for not rallying for meaningful energy reform, he used the disaster to argue that weaning us off oil is imperative, saying flatly: "We can't drill our way out of the problem."

Second, he conspicuously took the opportunity -- several times -- to link the spill to the need to pass energy reform.

"This disaster should serve as a wake-up call that it's time to move forward on this legislation," he said.

Obama also announced a six-month moratorium on more drilling, and it would be nice if that went on longer. But he clearly left the door open to extending this moratorium, should the commission's ongoing study of the disaster reveal that drilling can't be done safely.

"We can't do this stuff if we don't have confidence that we can prevent crises like this from happening again," Obama said. "And it's going to take some time for the experts to make those determinations."

This seems like a clear signal that the moratorium might be extended beyond six months. Indeed, by then the imagery coming out of the Gulf could still be horrific. Obama seemed to signal that a continued reckoning with the real costs of our current energy practices lies ahead.

"We think that the president showed he understands the long term challenge," said David Willett, a spokesman for the Sierra Club. "We were very encouraged to see it framed as, `We have to move off oil.'"

The devil will obviously lie in the policy details and in whether the administration meaningfully holds BP accountable, but in big picture terms, that seems about right.

so they resort to .."was he sufficiently enraged".

"DEFINE 'SUFFICIENTLY ENRAGED'.... The New York Times's Jeff Zeleny live-blogged President Obama's press conference this afternoon, and wrapped things up asking whether the president demonstrated to the country that he's "in control of the crisis on the Gulf."

During a full hour of questioning, he illustrated that he has a grasp of the technical challenges at work in the oil spill. He said the government was calling the shots, the buck stopped with him and the ultimate responsibility rested in the Oval Office.

But it remains an open question whether the measured tone that has become the soundtrack of Mr. Obama's presidency -- a detached, calm, observational pitch -- served to drive the point home that he is sufficiently enraged by the fury in the Gulf Coast.

"At least he resisted the urge to compare Obama to Spock."

Steve Benen 4:00 PM Permalink | Trackbacks | Comments (10)
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/

Whiners.

I guess that's why I can't listen to Joe Scarborough, Dylan Ratigan and sometimes even Ed Schutlz. I hate screamers, and I can't tolerate people who can't control their tempers.

Rage serves no purpose. Most people don't think clearly when they're enraged and are much more likely to overreact or make mistakes.

Figures that the media would prefer rage. No wonder they love McCain.

I prefer cool and efficient too. I stopped watching mediawhores in 2002(after two years) bc I couldn't stand the lies or the screaming..it gets nothing accomplished but ill health for those who engage.

Thanks!

PS - I agree with Cha... :hi: