The recent Father's day weekend proved to be a revealing weekend indeed. While oil continued to gush from the hole that was the Deepwater Horizon, Tony Heyward, the perhaps/perhaps not CEO of BP was watching sailboat racing in England. While he was vilified by White House chief of staff Rahm Emannuel for having an out of tune PR antenna, the former Freddie Mac board member failed to mention his boss's PR antenna was broken as well. While figures were revealed that perhaps 100,000 barrels of oil are now flowing into the gulf, President Obama decided to go on another golf excursion.
When questioned about the propriety of continuing escape to the golf course in the middle of an escalating crisis, a White House spokesman said "I think that a little time off for himself on Father's Day weekend probably does us all good as American citizens." This bit of windy nonsense from a foot pad seemed to encapsulate the disconnect between by the absolute failure of the government to address this debacle and the people who are being rooked by it. The people suffer while the Washington fat cats go golfing. Yes, BP is the one trying to stop the leak, but the government is the one responsible for the cleanup. The claim that Obama is in charge never looked more fallacious.
While the government yakkers and their moronic minions in the media continue to cover for this blatantly indolent gasbag masquerading as a president, the republic lurches deeper into the ditch. Perhaps an update version of Marie Antoinette's "Let them eat cake" would be adapted for Obama: "Let them play golf!" This does fit the smug, almost royal attitude of Obama and his lazy retinue.
Ponder this. On father's day Obama, who is a father himself, splits from the family to play golf with his buddies. In other words, a weekend supposedly devoted to having a father and his children reaffirm their family bonds was simply good cover for Obama to sneak off and get in a round or two. We hear a lot of family/community values from this charlatan, but now we know in this case, it's all cover to go golfing with the boys. I think Michele should make him sleep in the hall on the floor for a week. Normally, I would suggest to her whose ass to kick, but there's been far too much usage of that phony line lately,
Even if the role of the president as "father" of his country seems quaintly sexist now, there's still the matter of what should be done by the leader of this large group we call America. What about the duties to be performed in case of an emergency? With billions of dollars lost, millions of plants and animals lost and hundreds of thousands of lives blindsided, this would seem to qualify as an emergency. Is golfing more important than addressing a cataclysm?
Article comments
1 - Glenn Contrarian
What, one article complaining about going golfing once a week wasn't enough? Do you think I'd let another one get by without pointing out once more that your boy Dubya spent NEARLY THREE YEARS on vacation? And each time he went on vacation, he needed either Air Force One or Marine One to get there.
But Dubya spending NEARLY THREE YEARS on vacation during a presidency that contained two wars and two recessions and the worst attack on U.S. soil since Pearl Harbor, well, THAT's okay with you, I guess.
Such incredible hypocrisy.
As with so many other things, I can't think of a single fault the Democrats have where the Republicans haven't done the same thing...but WORSE.
2 - Dan(Miller)
The less Gulf and the more golf he plays the better.
Dan(Miller)
3 - mrdockellis
Back playing golf last weekend, according the The Hill. Two wars, a Depression, and a nuclear Iran in the offing a he's still wasting time strolling around like some vagrant.
And Bush stopped golfing because he felt it did not reflect well on a commander in chief in time of war. Bush screwed up, changed and fixed the problem. Obama screws up and keeps screwing up by putting himself and his selfish country club needs before the needs of the country.
He doesn't care about Republicans. He doesn't care about Democrats. He only cares about himself.
Sorry no more talk about the issues.
Got to go it's tee off time!
Fore!
4 - El Bicho
you still think we're at war in Iraq? you should check the papers
5 - Jordan Richardson
So Mr. Ellis, you basically figure that Obama wanted the presidency so that he could play more golf. That's the hypothesis here?
6 - jeannie danna
I am trying to hold my tongue on this one and alas, I've failed...
WHAT A LOAD OF CRAP!
Your country is England, correct?
nuf said...
7 - Dr Dreadful
Your country is England, correct?
God, I hope not.
I like to think even our most rabid righties have at least a tenuous toehold on reality.
8 - jeannie danna
Hi Doc.
Sorry for my outburst:( I miss arguing with all of you Obama bashers.
Why no articles about Dick Cheney's secret meetings with BP?
Why no articles about why we need to get off the oil teat?
This is a free country, right?
President Obama can do what he wants on Fathers day.
peace :)
go ahead and rip my writing apart, Doc, it's been awhile...
9 - John Wilson
The premise of this article seems to be that the Pres should leap into the fray with dictatorial powers when the hands-off business system finally fails. Is that really the best model for a successful stable business system?
Doesn't that just lead to erratic cycles and severe dislocations due to arbitrary disaster, intervention and unpredictability?
We COULD have known that these disasters were possible and we could have known the regulations and requirements needed to protect against them. But we chose, over the past 30 years of Reaganomics, to ignore safeguards and let business run wild.
And so we have the natural cataclysmic result.
It's partisan. Whether Bush and Katrina or Obama and Gulf, we have unmanned our government, in advance, so that it is basically powerless in the face of these tragedies.
10 - John Wilson
That should read 'bipartisan', not 'partisan'.
11 - Dr Dreadful
Go ahead, Jeannie, and type 'Katrina' into that little 'Search Blogcritics' box at the top of the page. There are a lot of results, but look for the articles that were actually written in 2005 about Katrina.
The comment threads are quite interesting. Particularly the right-wingers' attempts to pass the blame onto the state and local authorities and to absolve Bush and FEMA entirely.
Not a trick they seem all that keen on pulling right now.
12 - jeannie danna
I did it, Doc, yes there are a lot of results, but why compare a natural disaster to what the oil and gas industry is doing to this planet?
This isn't political, it's environmental.