Grade Obama's BP spill speech

[yurbud]

My thoughts:

I was glad he said that ''some'' think corporations should police themselves and write their own rules.

Unfortunately, Obama's administration's work on health care reform and now Rahm's attempts behind the scenes to water down financial reform show that the ''some'' he was referring to work for him.

any mention of ''commissions'' is a cop out.

It was laudable that he mentioned that oil is a finite resource and we need to switch to clean energy.

However, he missed an opportunity to dramatically up the ante on the switch to green energy like requiring that 1% of all cars in available for sale in the US be zero emission, and 5% be hybrids within two years, and that number would go up one percent every year for the remainder of his presidency, or that every federal agency will only buy hybrids or electrics from now on.

Likewise, he could have said that every new building will have solar panels on the roof, and every existing home will have them installed by those who are currently unemployed, and the bill will be paid by big oil.

I'd give this a B-. It should have been the Apollo speech, but it had the enthusiasm and policy specificity of Clinton's Lewinsky apology.

[demosincebirth]

1. I'm not playing the game. nt

[Drunken Irishman]

2. Since it was a speech about the spill and not about energy independence...

I think he did a good job. It wasn't his best speech ever, but he did what he needed to do.

Yeah, I know so many were looking for him to map out our energy future. But that wasn't and shouldn't have been the intent for this speech.

So I'll say a B.

But I guess if you're looking for an energy independence speech...well it was a D.

Thankfully, it wasn't that.

[yurbud]

4. if energy independence was a real priority, this was a golden opportunity to put a stake in the oil

vampire.

[Drunken Irishman]

9. He had to focus on the spill itself...

IF he would have focused most of the speech on what we plan to do down the line, he'd get vilified for ignoring the crisis.

[yurbud]

13. it's not either/or: there could be a strong response now tied to the big picture and a stronger

concrete change in energy policy besides capitulating to big oil and even the dying nuke industry.

[bertman]

3. The Orator just flunked Oratory 101. Weak, no passion, no plan

EXCEPT for a COMMISSION.

Oh, and for PRAYER.

Absolutely disappointing and a totally lost opportunity to use his vaunted speaking ability to inspire Americans to change our use of energy.

[Cha]

5. You just got a big fail for being predictable.

[patrice]

8. That's what happens when you cut and paste a lot.

[bertman]

10. You can always count on me to be predictable when politicians suck up

to the corporations that control them.

[patrice]

7. The GOM is dying and you're criticizing the man on style? Plan = BP will pay and the people affected

will decide how that money will be used, while the rest of us get our shit in gear and make congress pass clean energy legislation.

Frak you.

[Name removed]

11. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[lunatica]

12. Personal attacks are not allowed.

[bertman]

23. Interesting that Patrice can say "Frak you" to me and it gets to stand,

but I call her a dipshit because she said "Frak you" to me, and my comment gets deleted.

[XemaSab]

17. You can't put a dollar on this crisis

n/t

[phleshdef]

14. If you call that "no passion", you don't understand the meaning of the word.

[depakid]

21. No amount of insulting talk can change the fact that the delivery was comparatively flat.

[yurbud]

15. I don't care about prayer or passion or lack of either--he needs to take appropriate action

Sort of like Peru did when they caught the leader of the Shining Path guerrillas. They put him in a cage on public display. That is the only way we should see BP execs on TV other than cleaning beaches in orange jump suits with shackles on.

[mochajava666]

18. Well summed up

Another epic fail of a speech and another blown opportunity to lead.

[handmade34]

6. I don't want prayer

I want everybody inspired to FIGHT... I want everybody working, calling, writing, ending consumption, DEMANDING change, angry...

God is not going to get us out of this mess, we are, if it is going to happen

[XemaSab]

16. I went outside to take in the garbage cans right after the speech

and I paused to edit the stickers on the back of the car on the way out.

I'm seriously disappointed.

[JVS]

19. Do you know where I could read a transcript?

[depakid]

20. Yet another missed opportunity

but at this point, it was pretty much what one could have predicted and expected.

Sans the prayer business.

[yurbud]

22. that's almost like an admission you know the speech is bullshit