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Friday, May 28, 2010

What's A President To Do?

Lawrence Auster asks: What is it that everyone expects Obama to do?
In the midst of the entire political universe, Republican and Democrat, dumping on Obama for not doing enough about the Gulf oil spill, this comment at Lucianne.com expresses more or less my own reaction:
Reply 22 - Posted by: Sfacheem, 5/28/2010 7:45:43 AM

I for one, an Obama "hater" and rock-ribbed conservative, cannot figure out exactly what it is everyone wants the president of the United States to do about this. It seems to me that if the private sector company that drilled the well and assembled the rig, and the U.S. federal department that oversees oil rigs can't figure out what to do, how does one expect the president to know what to do? Are we that shallow in 2010 America that we "need" to see that he "cares" by watching him roam around the oil-slicked beaches in a pair of rubber boots with a tear streaming down his cheek?

The infantile mind set of blaming the president of the U.S. for everything gone wrong in the world is for liberals. We should be above the practice.
Who can even rationally speculate as to what is going through the minds of the Obama worshippers?

But, as for me, and I suspect most others who are opposed to the leftist plans to subsume the nation, what I expect Obama to do is to pay the price for his own past demagoguery against Bush in particular (who is not a conservative, in any event) and all conservatives in general. What I expect Obama to do is to live, or as the case may be, die, by the same standard he demanded of Bush. Sure, the standard is illogical and unfair -- but *he* demanded it. Sure, he never expected to himself actually be held to the standard he demanded of Bush. So? I think that the schadenfreude of watching Obama hoist by his own petard is wholly appropriate.

Yes -- in isolation -- this dumping on Obama for "not doing enough" about the oilspill is misplaced; worse, it is wrong, both logically and morally. But, this is *not* in isolation ... the world didn't begin anew when he pushed his silly "Reset" button.


Perhaps, someday, the political expectations and discussions in this country will be conducted at the level of mature adulthood. Perhaps, someday, when someone demands/asserts "caring" from government as the criterion by which to judge the propriety and/or effectiveness of action or proposed action, the rest of us will raise an eyebrow and then quietly ignore the children.

Perhaps, someday, the "liberals" will grow up.

And, just perhaps, someday, pigs will fly.


Update (2010/05/31): Here is 'Ace of Spades' commenting on the question of this post

9 comments:

Crude said...

Maybe "What should the president do?" is the wrong question. It seems that if there's any proper question to ask, it's closer to "What should the president have done?" Did BP take a lax attitude towards safety, and did Obama's administration turn a blind eye to those sorts of things or largely leave the companies to their own devices? Etc.

Though I suspect what many people want is for Obama to use this opportunity to lash out at "Big Oil" or whatever.

leroy said...

The only petard that Obama is being hoisted upon is the one carried by all those who 'hate' him because he is not white and not republican.

They have stood in the way of every change he was elected to carry out. Then they scream that he's done nothing.

Mature adulthood is something which will be displayed when the hatemongers accept that Obama won the election and has the right to run the country.

Obama is the one with a 'caring' approach, it's the 'we have the right to rule' traitors who want a dog eat dog society.

Ilíon said...

Leroy, you really have nothing to say, so why are you bothering us whith this foolish and hypocritical shilling for leftism?

leroy said...

I do have something to say. I disagree with much of what you have said and have explained why this is so.

How does disagreeing with you amount to having nothing to say?

Hypocrisy on my part would be pretending to agree, on yours it would be insulting people rather than constructing a rebuttal.

Ilíon said...

Crude,
What you say is correct.

However, this post is about something deeper than this particular mini-disaster. It's about the "liberal" mindset which we have developed over the past few generations, fostered by the media and especially TV newscasts, of inappropriately looking/pointing at government (and especially the federal government), and especially the Executive of government, in assigning both blame and credit in false and irrational ways.

For instance, when there is a natural disaster, or some other big news item, what is one of the first things the yammer-heads on TV yammer about? It's about whether the Governor, or the President, has helicoptered in to "get a hands-on feel of the situation" and to "show that he cares." Oddly, no one seems to care about the wasted resources -- the massive diversion of time and energy and work away from actually dealing with the situation -- of having the stupid and pointless photo-op of the Executive "showing his concern."

For instance, there is little to nothing that government, and especially the Executive (whether mayor or governor or president), can do to "create jobs;" and, government simply cannot create wealth, but can only destroy wealth. Yet, what is it that the yammer-heads, and those who get their thoughts from the yammer-heads, are forever yammering about? In one way or another, they're always demanding that government take action to, or giving it credit for having, "create(d) jobs."

Crude said...

Ilion,

I think you may find the sentiments expressed by Rubio to be pertinent here, if you've not seen them. Frankly, it was the most impressive statement I've seen out of any politician in years.

Ilíon said...

I hadn't seen that; thank you.

Ilíon said...

Rubio: "You know what the fastest growing religion in America is? Statism. The growing reliance on government," Rubio said. "Every time a problem emerges, increasingly the reaction in American society is 'Well what can government do about it?'"

Recently somewhere I read a comment to the effect that "liberalism/statism is the never-ending search for solutions to non-existent problems."

MathewK said...

"What I expect Obama to do is to live, or as the case may be, die, by the same standard he demanded of Bush."

Exactly, liberals and their leftist pimps brought this upon themselves, now we must return what they did to Bush, with interest. And to top it off, the many times Conservatives did take the high road with the verminous left, they always kicked us in the teeth.

Zero can whine and cry all he wants to now, look elsewhere for mercy chump.