I read Eugene Robinson’s column “Enough of Asking BP,” after I had heard the president address the nation on the Gulf oil spill on prime time TV I for one appreciate Robinson’s call for military-like action designed to protect us as much as possible from the catastrophic consequences of the BP accident/national disaster.
But I also believe that Robinson, like his fellow pundits in the mass media, tends to talk about President Obama’s role as Commander in Chief out of context. The context is simply this: The President has to work with Congress and a host of inveterate bureaucrats to execute any plan. And isn’t that what he’s been doing for the past year and a half? And haven’t they been blocking him every step of the way?
President Obama is repeatedly charged, by progressives and conservatives alike, with “failure” to radically change our country’s political landscape whenever his administration is faced with a crisis. His unprecedented accomplishments are consistently ignored. For example, while all the posturing, pontificating pundits were screaming about action, Obama had already hit BP for $20 billion that will go to the aid of the people of the Gulf coast.
Frank Chapman
Via email