I don’t understand the disapproval and in some cases anger towards President Obama for the oil in the Gulf of Mexico. We are a nation of risk takers, anytime one buys stock they take a risk with their money they use to buy stock, that is our legacy and drilling a hole in the bottom of the Gulf is part of that risk just as blasting a rocket into space is. There is only so much government regulations can do to protect us from our foolishness. Let us not forget that during the latter part of President Bush’s term we had a great many people tell us “drill baby, drill” as their solution to $4 a gallon gas so I don’t see how the oil spewing from the bottom of the gulf is Obama’s fault anymore than it is my fault. American has had many chances to move from these kinds of fuels but most Americans are pig headed when it comes to oil. We empower out enemies, we pollute our lands, and our oceans to get it and we stubbornly refuse to consider alternatives. No, this is not the fault of a president who has been in office less than eighteen months for more than one hundred years of foolishness. He can not single handedly put us on the right patch when so many are pulling towards the wrong path.
I also don’t understand why so many are angry of Obama’s response. There is little if anything a president can do to stop a broken oil well at the bottom of the ocean and I don‘t think most Americans want their tax dollars to go towards mopping up the mess on the beach. Who among us want to pay more in taxes for this, after all we are spending all we take in and then some to fight two useless wars there is none left over to pay to do what industry is responsible for causing. As much as those who hate Obama want this to be his Katrina this isn’t Katrina where our President’s appointees told us they were ready for the worst then when it happened failed to provide even the least in relief for almost a week after. Unlike Katrina, this president can not send helicopters and trucks of military to rescue those stranded, he has no strike force to defeat this attack on our shores. For the most part, those who are complaining about Obama are the same ones who said God sent Katrina to punish New Orleans for permitting the gays to march in their streets. It is the same ones who blame Obama for continuing Bush’s financial bailouts in his attempt to clean up the economic mess that the Republicans put our country into. For the most part those complaining are those who watch the “unbalanced and unfair” network and listen to all the right wing talk show hosts who tell them how they should think and feel, like puppets on the end of their strings. Most thinking Americans, notice I said Americans and not right wing Republicans, understand what has happened and that it is not governments fault that this oil well failed anymore than it is the governments fault that some nut case breaks our laws when he uses a gun to kill people.
Obama hasn’t done enough to get us out of Iraq sooner and I completely disapprove of his expanding of the war in Afghanistan, we went to Afghanistan to kill bin laden, he has been killed and now it is time to bring our troops home. I will give Obama credit for not acting like Hoover and doing all he could to save American jobs, I think he has done a good job in stopping the economic mess Bush left him. I don’t like the Healthcare law but given almost ½ of our congress refused to do their job and work towards a better law I think he may have at least enacted a law that will force the GOP in our future to work towards a better law. Frankly I am tied of those who draw government pensions and healthcare bitching about entitlements and if you look closely most do. Sara Palin family receives a check the oil exported out of Alaska to the other 49 states, that is money you and I pay and she and her family gets part of it and she is just one of many who bitch about government entitlements and the Tea Party brain dead just eat her up so I stand here to defend Obama. He has done far more right than he has done wrong and at least he isn’t a Palin Tea Party hypocrite one who speaks against entitlements while receiving them. Obama has done some of the things he told us he would do if he became President. Anyone who things Palin will do away with her entitlements while she is doing away with yours is a fool to think so.
So who is to blame for the Gulf, not government that is certain, the blame falls squarely on those of us who continue to allow the oil industry to keep us addicted to their product. Even George W Bush, a champion of big oil, told Americans that we are oil addicts and like any addict sooner or later you will pay the price.