The administration's desperate urge to do something about the oil spill—or at least, to be seen to be doing something—is a panicked response to political pressure from both sides. Even far-left New York Times columnist Frank Rich has begun to criticize Obama, and his grounds for doing so are interesting. The administration's flailing response, he writes, threatens to "capsize the principal mission of the Obama presidency."
Of all the president's stated goals, none may be more sweeping than his desire to prove that government is not always a hapless and intrusive bureaucratic assault on taxpayers' patience and pocketbooks, but a potential force for good…. We expect him to deliver on this core conviction.
In other words, Frank Rich believes that the boot on the neck gets results—and he is mad at Obama for not fulfilling that illusion.
That indicates the one real opportunity that I think we have for a legitimate criticism of Obama's response to the oil spill: he believes that force is the answer to—well, to everything. He should just be able to give orders—and reality should snap into line.
That's why I found the article below from Michelle Malkin to be interesting. She describes Obama as being bored and disengaged in times of legitimate crisis. I think she's responding to something real, but she doesn't quite name it correctly.
Obama tends to be disengaged from details of any kind. Despite spending endless hours on television promoting his health care bill, he famously flubbed a response in an early town hall meeting, when he was asked about a controversial provision in the legislation and had to admit that he was unaware of it.
This is not an example of Obama being too abstract or "cerebral." Quite the opposite. It is a direct consequence of his believing in the power of coercion above all else. His job isn't to focus on the details, to figure out solutions to technical problems, to sweat the small stuff. His job isn't to think. His job is to give orders.
That's why he can summon no interest or engagement in an actual crisis, which calls for clear thinking and effective action. He can only summon passion for assigning blame (to other people), for issuing threats, and for vilifying political opponents as tools of the special interests.
He's interested in putting his boot on our necks—not in the thinking that goes on in the brains whose flow of oxygen he just cut off.
"Obama: Crisis Bores Him," Michelle Malkin, National Review Online, May 28
President Bush's harshest critics often described his look during moments of crisis as "deer in the headlights." After two years of Hope and Change, America has grown accustomed to President Obama's crisis face: eyes glazed over….
"I am angry and frustrated," he heaved. Rather unconvincingly. He was "singularly focused," he asserted. Rather distractedly. The president did manage to work up enough energy to condemn BP and then turned to a moment of obligatory self-aggrandizement: "I'm confident that people are going to look back and say that this administration was on top of what was an unprecedented crisis."
How "on top" was he? Well, not enough to take the time on Thursday morning before his much-hyped appearance to nail down the details of how and why his Interior Department chief of the Minerals Management Service, Liz Birnbaum, was no longer in office. "You're assuming it was a firing," Obama told reporters. "I don't yet know the circumstances." He explained that he was preoccupied with other matters and couldn't get ahold of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.
Then, addressing all the ignorant Americans who have failed to appreciate his rescue efforts, Obama mustered up a semblance of indignation: "Those who think we were either slow in our response or lacked urgency don't know the facts. This has been our highest priority since this crisis occurred."…
The sterile performance was eerily reminiscent of his national-security announcement last December from Hawaii, when he appeared before the American people in tie-less informal island wear to read a bloodless, perfunctory statement about the Christmas Day bomber. Eyes down on his notes the whole time, he described the failed attack with the weariness of a small-town sheriff's deputy, rather than as the leader of the free world. Then it was back to the beach. This is Obama in crisis: disengaged, put upon, and impatient to get back to Me Time.
