Paul Begala on Obama's Speech

[Ben]

I think this guy lost whatever cred he had even with Democrats. Even Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann said Obama's speech sucked. Some of the reader comments are pretty hilarious, considering the Daily Beast seems to lean a bit to the left.

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http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-06-15/obama-oval-office-speech-on-oil-spill-shows-personal-commitment/

Nothing But Net

by Paul Begala

BS Top - Wrap Obama Oil Speech - Begala Alex Brandon / AP Photo Obama entered the Oval Office on the run for critics blasting his response to the BP oil spill. He left having once again shown why his calm, cool approach connects with the country.

In his first address from the Oval Office, Barack Obama was forceful and focused; comfortable yet commanding. The only surprise was that I was so surprised. I should have seen this coming.

With all respect to the millions of people riveted to the World Cup, we Americans are basketball fans, and our president knows that. The NBA has a bone-grindingly long season, but savvy fans know the real action comes in the playoffs, the toughest action comes in the finals, and the nut-cutting comes in the last games of the finals. Timing is everything.

He hangs back, holds back, resists fully engaging. His supporters get nervous, then edgy, then panicky. And then he swoops in to save the day.

His high school teammates called the future president "Barry O'Bomber" for his proclivity for launching long-range jump shots, and tonight he took yet one more high-pressure shot from downtown. Nothing but net.

The timing of when you shoot a tre is important: the later they come in a game, the more they matter. Three-pointers are the dagger that can put the game away or bring a team back from the dead. Tonight's speech was the latter.

• More Daily Beast writers react to Obama's Oval Office speech

If Marshall McLuhan was right, then for this presidential address the setting was the message. For the first time in his presidency, Barack Obama sat behind the Resolute desk in the Oval Office and addressed his fellow Americans. From that room presidents have sent millions of Americans to war. They have sought to heal broken hearts, to remake our government and revive our economy. Barack Obama has, at turns, done all those things -- but never from the Oval Office. Even before he opened his mouth he communicated the most important message: dealing with the Gulf oil disaster is, as Joe Biden would say, a BFD.

This has become a pattern. In 2007, Sen. Obama was dead in the water in Iowa (well, dead in the cornfields anyway), his supporters began to panic. Obama listened to his internal clock and told his nervous followers not to worry - I'm a strong closer. And close he did. When the game was on the line he took his game to another level, and handily defeated both Hillary Clinton and John Edwards.

Thus began what is now a familiar play. He hangs back, holds back, resists fully engaging. His supporters get nervous, then edgy, then panicky. And then he swoops in to save the day. It happened in the campaign, on health care, and now, can we dare to hope it's happening on the BP disaster?

As one who has been critical of the president's response to the disaster so far, I was enormously impressed with this speech. Obama communicated his personal commitment, and the commitment of the entire country, to the people of the Gulf region. He called for a new energy economy - one that creates more jobs and costs fewer lives. Perhaps most important, he made accountability a presidential priority. BP must be punished; the people of the Gulf must be made whole; the American coastline must be reclaimed.

He closed on an emotionally resonant note for all of us who grew up fishing in the Gulf: the blessing of the fleet. In so doing he told us that he gets it. He understands this is not about barrels of oil and billions of dollars. This is about a way of life. This is about a life-giving region. And this is about the eleven lives that were lost.

There is a villain in this story, and it's not Barack Obama. It is BP and its corporate cohorts. This is why the Katrina analogy is so unfair. The guy who was president when New Orleans drowned -- I can't recall his name offhand -- froze our government in icy indifference. His own people did not know that American citizens were stranded at the New Orleans convention center without food or water. They did nothing as Americans were drowning and families were clinging to life on their rooftops. Can any fair-minded person realistically compare that to President Obama's earnest, engaged--and until tonight somewhat emotionally aloof--response to BP? No way.

In fact perhaps Obama's rhetorical reticence is a result of him watching his predecessor read grandiose promises in New Orleans' Jackson Square, only to see no follow-through. Action is eloquence, the bard said. And our wonderfully eloquent president knows that no matter how powerful his words, he will be judged by his actions.

Barack Obama has been compared to Michael Jordan, but to me the president is more reminiscent of Jerry West. Exceedingly disciplined, sometimes maddeningly under control in an emotional sport, West was never one for high-flying, death-defying 360-dunks. But with the game on the line he rarely missed. That's why they called him Mister Clutch.

[longeyes]

Michael Jordan didn't play with an imaginary ball; "Barry Bomber" does.

[makattak]

When you're already all in, all you can do is try to sell your losing hand as a winning one.

[Monkeyleg]

Kevin Drum at Mother Jones had a rather different take on it:

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On Twitter, here was my insta-reaction to Obama's oil spill address from the Oval Office:

What a terrible speech.

Unfair? Maybe! I mean, compared to Sarah Palin's (literally) incomprehensible burbling on Bill O'Reilly's show afterward it was a model of straight talk and reassurance. But that's a pretty low bar.

So let's unpack this a bit. The whole point of a prime time Oval Office speech (transcript here) is that it announces something big. On that score, Obama failed right from the start. He told us that lots of people are already working the cleanup. Yawn. That Ray Mabus is going to develop a long-term Gulf Coast Restoration Plan as soon as possible. A plan! Hurrah! That we're gonna make BP pay for everything. Roger that. And then this: "I have established a National Commission to understand the causes of this disaster and offer recommendations on what additional safety and environmental standards we need to put in place." A commission! So much for "going big."

Look, maybe I'm just feeling cranky tonight. There's nothing wrong with an investigating commission, after all. And I happen to think that Obama's reaction to the spill has been substantively pretty reasonable. But if you're going to give a big Oval Office speech and that's the best you have to offer, then let's face it: you don't have much to offer.

But that wasn't the worst of it. So far we've covered three of the four points Obama promised us at the beginning of his speech, and the fourth point was a call to action on clean energy. I still had some hope that maybe he'd redeem himself there. But here, for the edification of future generations, are my contemporaneous notes during this part of his speech:

now is the moment for this generation to embark on a mission.

lots of flowery language.....must rally etc. etc.

house bill is great. but happy to look at other approaches. yeesh.

great nation, we can do anything, blah blah blah

Unfair again? Maybe! After all, I'm the one who thinks the votes for a serious energy bill just flatly aren't there in the Senate, and maybe it's unfair to expect Obama to engage in a political suicide mission. Still, take a gander at what he said:

Last year, the House of Representatives [passed] a strong and comprehensive energy and climate bill — a bill that finally makes clean energy the profitable kind of energy for America’s businesses. Now, there are costs associated with this transition. And some believe we can’t afford those costs right now. I say we can’t afford not to change how we produce and use energy — because the long-term costs to our economy, our national security, and our environment are far greater.

So I am happy to look at other ideas and approaches from either party — as long they seriously tackle our addiction to fossil fuels. Some have suggested raising efficiency standards in our buildings like we did in our cars and trucks. Some believe we should set standards to ensure that more of our electricity comes from wind and solar power. Others wonder why the energy industry only spends a fraction of what the high-tech industry does on research and development — and want to rapidly boost our investments in such research and development.

All of these approaches have merit, and deserve a fear hearing in the months ahead. But the one approach I will not accept is inaction....What has defined us as a nation since our founding is our capacity to shape our destiny — our determination to fight for the America we want for our children. Even if we’re unsure exactly what that looks like. Even if we don’t yet know precisely how to get there. We know we’ll get there.

This gives pablum a bad name. Obama wants a bill. Pretty much any bill will do. But he didn't say a single word about what he himself wanted. A carbon tax? Cap-and-trade? Nuclear subsidies? Electric cars? Who knows? And as Kate Sheppard notes, he didn't breathe so much as a word about climate change.

I dunno. This speech felt entirely by-the-numbers to me. He told us about the spill. He told us the best minds in the country were working on it. He told us BP would pay for it. He told us he was setting up some commissions. He said he wanted an energy bill of some kind. Then he told us all to pray. It felt like he was reading off a PowerPoint deck.

This is, by a long way, the most negative reaction I've ever had to an Obama speech. Even on Afghanistan, where I was dubious of his strategy and felt his address at West Point was technocratic and unconvincing, I thought his speech had at least a few redeeming features. But this one? There was just nothing there. I felt better about Obama's response to the spill before the speech than I do now.

Too negative? Tell me in comments.

[Balog]

That first piece... wow. I think Chris Mathews isn't the only one who gets a tingling down his leg when he looks at Obama...

[AZRedhawk44]

I've got no problem with a democrat-led push to increase energy production by breaking ground on two dozen new nuclear reactors around the country, and Obama putting his name on it and taking credit.

It needs to be done.

I'm tired of politics being played with the future of our country.

The same painful decisions need to be made about energy independence, that need to be made about Social Security and this Health Care bill that was passed and isn't even in effect yet.

[MechAg94]

IMO, if Obama did start supporting nuke plants, he would probably publicly say he supported them then make sure the bureaucrats approving the permits and plans added additional red tape on the back side.  I'm not sure the guy really knows how to actually accomplish anything but image management. 

[longeyes]

Green energy is a euphemism for a return to pre-industrial medievalism, and pre-industrial medievalism is a euphemism for a feudal state controlled by the "nobility."