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Thursday, June 10, 2010

CRASH: Obamic Leadership And Oil Don't Mix

The Obamic handling of the Gulf oil crisis is putting his many failings on vivid display, even as it highlights the incompetence and dishonesty of his people.


Nobody here is blaming Obama for the wild well.  Note that I'm not blaming anybody for the wild well, either.  That waits to be sorted out, and I have enough understanding of the drilling process to know that Kim-chi happens despite all people can do.

I DO blame environmental whackos...Obama among their enablers...for putting the process of drilling for America's oil in 5,000 feet of water, but that is not where the real, proximate blame lies for Obama.

I do not blame Obama for the failure to contain the wild well.  I don't blame anyone else for that either, figuring that everybody is doing what they can to bring the well under control. 

I DO blame Obama for rhetorical excesses throughout this ordeal.  But that isn't the worst thing he's guilty of doing.

No, I blame Barack Hussain Obama for his amazing and omnibus failures to lead in any meaningful sense of the term.  I blame him for the failure of mitigation in the Gulf.

"Plug the damn hole" is a stupid and petulant thing to say.  It was the opposite of leadership.  It reflects ignorance and arrogance.  It also is something the President Of The United States has no idea how to perform...or any control over, really. 

What the President has control over is a vast bureaucracy which includes immense resources.  He also has control...to a fair degree...of the miles of red tape Washington spools out over us in a never-ending stream.  He CAN cut that red tape in a time of crisis (real crisis, not that magic political crisis we know Obama so dearly loves).  Obama failed to use these two levers at his command.

Within a few days of the blow-out, we had offers from around the world by people who have faced similar oil discharges, and found innovative ways to deal with them.  Our bureaucrats muffed them.  We have had offers from people who knew ways to protect wet-lands, and our bureaucrats thanked them, and ignored them.

We know that miles of new boom material is being produced, stored, and sitting, and that innovation is waiting to be implemented...all because our bureaucrats are sitting on them.

And, we know that for callus political show-boating (i.e., "keeping a boot on their neck"), a whole essential industry has been derailed.  And we know that the Obamic head of the agency who did that lied about his scientific, technical basis for the action.  One trait of a leader is that they choose people of character and ability.  The Obama administration is populated with the most radical, least capable, and lowest caliber people in the U.S.  Integrity is a word nobody associates with Obama; yet it is an essential component of real leadership.

We know that the government of states directly effected by the oil have had plans they could not implement because of the overburden of Federal regulation, and that NOBODY connected with Obama saw to it that the weight was lifted to allow the states to act in the interest of their citizens.

When we are hoping people will think outside the box, and try new and maybe risky solutions, it is not leadership to talk loosely about "criminal inquiry".  There is NOTHING that will assure that people follow the safest POSSIBLE path than that, or that they will divert at least some of their thinking and resources to preventing some politician on a witch hunt from "kicking their ass".


Most Americans know executive ability when they see it in practice.  And most of us know when it just isn't there.  Not too surprisingly, many academics do not understand what it is, where it comes from, or even how it looks, despite studying the people who display it.

"There is a craving for a different kind of crisis leadership from President Obama largely because he's so capable of it as we saw on the campaign trail in 2008," presidential historian Douglas Brinkley said. "When he lets go and talks from the heart, he's one of the most effective political figures in modern times."
Leadership is not about "talking from the heart", though there is an element of that.  It is way past talking at all.  And, useful as it may be in a campaign, being a "most effective political figure" is of less than no use in a time of crisis.  Obama was a razor as a critic of others' leadership; that seems his sole talent in the area.

6 comments:

  1. Good take, rags.

    "Plug the damn hole" could well have been an historic moment of dynamic leadership (like; "Damn the torpedos...") - had it been accompanied by some manner of decisiveness and resolve. Who was in charge of making sure this didn't happen? You're fired. Who are the best of the best in the field to deal with this? Get them in here, NOW! Get BP CEO Heyward on the horn, NOW! Who said this crisis can't be controlled before becoming the worst environmental disaster ever? You're fired. Show me a bold and decisive plan to deal with this, and two back up plans - and have them on my desk Monday morning. Get every piece of oil containment equipment available on the planet to the Gulf. YESTERDAY!

    You wish. What we got...

    I am singularly focussed on this. I'm really sad about this. Now I'm really mad about this. I will kick somebody's ass, if I can just figure out who's ass to kick. Mylea will kick some ass too. No wait, she's just sad.

    President Steve Urkel will kick ass? Pathetic.

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  2. I'd add this...

    "Get me the head of every Federal agency that has any regulatory say in how this thing will be met. I want their plan detailing how they will expedite every means of mitigating the oil release when I hold my conference call with them in two days. Let them know that my goal here is to DO everything we can, and NOT IMPEDE anybody with the ability to help. I will ask for the resignation of anyone in the Federal agencies who will not help me meet that goal."

    That is not hind-sight, either. That is how a leader sets a tone.

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  3. An affirmative yup to that. But asking for resignations sounds to hopeychangey. How about, "Plug the damn hole or heads are gonna roll!" Too draconian perhaps.

    All the righteous indignation about Halliburton getting no bid contracts to cap the wells in Kuwait and Iraq is a good example. The wells were burning and spewing massive clouds of soot and noxious gas, and Halliburton was the only outfit that had the know how and equipment to get the job done in a timely manner. Putting it through the bidding process for a year or so, and settling on a low bid from Al's Well Capping and Taxi Service would have been a nightmare.

    Halliburton could quite possibly have some technology and expertise that would be of help in the Gulf. A leader might bring all available resources to bear, but never mind.

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  4. "'Plug the damn hole or heads are gonna roll!'" Too draconian perhaps."

    It certainly has a Johnny Cochranesqe quality...

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  5. "I want their plan detailing how they will expedite every means of mitigating the oil release"

    The problem is that he has no real world experience dealing with anything concrete. I seriously doubt he would be able to tell the difference between a workable plan and something ridiculous.

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  6. Well, baby steps...

    I think it's interesting that we here know more about the leadership process...not making any claims to deity...than does THE ONE.

    What to most people would be a no-brainer is to Obama something outside his kin.

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