Here's a more mainstream critique, from SLATE: > Obama Disappoints With Oil Spill Speech
> Clive Crook, a senior editor at the Atlantic, summarized most of the instant > commentary on President Obama's big oil spill speech this way: It was > surprisingly terrible. After the administration made a big deal out of > Obama's latest visit to the Gulf Coast region and his address to the nation > that followed, viewers expected more. "I expected some new information. I > expected at least a detailed, authoritative account of what was being done, > and who was in charge of what," Crook wrote. "I thought there would be a more > precise statement of what was being demanded of BP. He gave us none of this." > And it only got worse from there, Crook says. Looking nervous [why? -- JD], > the president used the disaster—now estimated as being many times worse than > the Exxon Valdez spill—to call for a clean energy policy. But now isn't the > time. "[A]s we speak, the oil is still pouring into the Gulf," Crook wrote. > "What on earth were they thinking? This part of the speech blended > grandiosity and complacency: as though he were saying, 'Having dealt with the > immediate crisis, I'd like to move on to the bigger issue of which this is > just a part.' The immediate crisis hasn't been dealt with." In fact, it's > probably getting worse. Hours before Obama took over the national airwaves to > deliver his speech, the government group tasked with calculating the damage > from the spill upped its daily flow rate estimate to between 35,000 and > 60,000 barrels a day. At that rate, the Deepwater Horizon drilling site is > spilling as much oil every week as the entire Exxon Valdez. > Read original story in The Atlantic > [http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2010/06/obamas-disappointing-speech/58217/] > | Wednesday, June 16, 2010 < -- Jim Devine "Those who take the most from the table Teach contentment. Those for whom the taxes are destined Demand sacrifice. Those who eat their fill speak to the hungry of wonderful times to come. Those who lead the country into the abyss Call ruling too difficult For ordinary folk." – Bertolt Brecht. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
