I found it rather amazing that he praised China for their efforts at Green Energy. For starters.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gImzY-X-voQ

How much difference does it make????

How much difference can you make????

Grayson makes my heart sing. Seriously. I'm with you there. But there's no way on America's green (green??) earth that he'll get anywhere near the Oval Office.

Remember, we have to fight half the country, as we did when we got Obama elected.

Look, I hear ya, but we have to cut out this mindset of hopelessness, that the actual people we want to be in power can never be elected. The only reason that is the case is because we so very rarely even try precisely because of this idea that the guys who ought to win can not win. They can.

And moreover, sometimes you have to take some real lumps in bruising fights, lose a time or two and keep getting back up and swinging until it's the other guy on the mat and not you! I'm tired of settling for people we KNOW won't even try to do the right thing. That is exactly what has led to the terrible straights the nation finds itself in now. We have to stand up and fight for what we know is right, not for what we think we can sneak by the lobbyists when they aren't looking because we still want their money.

As long as our political leaders keep attempting to serve the corporations while merely giving lip service to the real and genuine needs of the nation and it's common citizens we will have no progress in this country. We have had 40 years of that bullshit. Isn't that long enough? It's time to gird ourselves for battle, lean to the left and go for it! And if we lose under those circumstances, at least we stood for something. We've experienced defeat more often than not since 1968 standing for nothing and that's what many people think the Democrats are for: nothing. That they're wishy washy, won't defend themselves when attacked let alone the country, etc...

Yeah I caught it. I also saw Olbermann, Matthews and Fineman tear him apart on MSNBC after it was over. Those three, with maybe the exception of Olbermann, who also threw in a GD on air, aren't all that liberal.

He showed no leadership, he continues to delegate to others when he should be grabbing the reins, he gave no concrete details on the spill, He gave us no definitive plans for battling the oil already spilled, he gave no concrete details on his plan to get us off oil, in short there wasn't much to the speech that I found enlightening or built my confidence that this spill is seriously being addressed...

I wanted to here more about plans to open up the rest of the Gulf, the Atlantic Coast and parts of the Pacific Coast to more offshore drilling (and, of course, building a lot of new nuclear plants). He was moving along pretty well on this until he was so rudely interrupted about 56 days ago.

Unfortunately, dear, yes. It was you. :)

I liked your wishlist, but it started too big a messy trend.

And now, tonight, we get more of a wishlist. And this one, too, is gonna get messy.

THIS, in a nutshell, is our problem.

How can Obama deserve a pile-up when the Big Easy is being too easy on big oil?

Jobs....yes. I get it.

Don't let it get you down, though. We knew this. It's our uphill fight, and has been for a long time.

Tell anyone you encounter, who's losing their oil company job, to check out idealist.org and look for a similar job with a green company.

Seriously.

LOL...15 minutes? That was about enough time to clear his throat.

I was looking for details. I was looking for him to be presidential and explain some concrete steps he has in mind for dealing with this. All we got to hear was more blather about blue ribbon commissions, study groups and fact finding. I didn't hear how the government was going to ramp up their efforts to contain the oil already spilled. We have a navy and a lot of boats. Instead we got hope, dreams and prayers.

There is a time to be a technocrat and there is a time to sieze the moment...and I am thinking he is completely unfamiliar with the term carpe diem. This is his defining moment as president to be the leader of our country and we get very little in leadership. He strikes me as someone who views his job as one where he cannot/ will not impose his will, or views, and everything is up to others to figure out. It seems like he thinks he is a manager and not a leader...

They are still processing this disaster and trying to weigh the benefits of drilling our own oil with the potential for more of these disasters. Maybe we can just concentrate on getting the hole plugged, getting the mess cleaned up, getting BP to pay restitution for the damage they caused, then take a breath, and THEN start the battle over where to go from here.

Fine stilli. Please tell me specifically, and in detail, how he said all of that was going to be accomplished other than his little prayer at the end of the address?

Libertine, tell me how YOU are going to address it, instead.

To be honest, lib, I wish he hadn't given a speech tonight. I don't know what purpose it served, or what purpose he wanted it to serve. There was no new information for people who are paying attention, because there is no new information.

I tried to watch it as if I didn't know what was going on, and for those people, it filled them in, I suppose.

I tried to imagine what he could say that would make me feel better, and I couldn't come up with anything. And if I don't know what I want to hear, how can I expect him to know what to say?

There just isn't any new information. Until the damn oil stops flowing, and we find out just how ginormous the problem is, and how much BP is going to beef the cost of reparations, what the hell is there to say?

Well, the truth is you can't just have a list of a handful of things to act on. But you CAN campaign on a handful of broad principles. That is quite doable and instead of going into all the details you just focus on those and yes, campaign finance reform is absolutely essential. In fact, it is more so than ever now that the hacks on the Supreme Court have removed all barriers from corporate money openly taking over the process without any restrictions of any kind. Public financing is an absolute necessity if we are to break free of the corruption brought on by predatory corporate wealth. Peace is another broad principle and not peace through war as the current ruling class claims. No, peace through peace and that means massive cuts in the military budget. If we cut 50% in 4 years we'd still be the biggest military spenders on earth by quite a lot. Restoration of the rule of law might be another broad principle. John Stewart nailed Obama on his hypocrisy on this question tonight. Just nailed him... in a nice way of course.

I agree!!!!

Well at least he was poetic, uplifting and comforting.

Emphasis on the poetic.

Joe, there just isn't anything poetic or comforting or uplifting to say. We are between a rock and a hard place and anyone who is paying attention knows it. Any attempt to make where we are seem not so bad, or to try to be warm and fuzzy about it would just be bullshit. And I've had enough bullshit for the moment. Seriously, I'd rather be hit by terrorists, than to be hit by our own stupidity...it's easier to take.

I'm with Stilli on this. Joe, I love you, but we can't keep this up all night. You obviously feel more strongly than I do about a lot of things. And that's okay.

I have been wanting a reasonable President since I don't know when. I don't think we've come as close to having one since....well, before I started coming of age to vote.

Your unhappiness in this situation is now your own, I can't reason with it any longer. I can't try to help give any more enlightenment. Deal with it, Joe, as you must.

I will continue to deal with my politics as I see fit, in the meantime, and hope that we both reach the light at the other side of the tunnel.

Tell us exactly, and in minute detail, what is being done. All I got out of him was that when all is said and done it will get cleaned up and paid for by BP. What he forgot to add to that is, unfortunately, that clean-up won't be complete in our, or even our children's, lifetimes.

If he had nothing new to add on the efforts of the clean-up and containment, I agree, he shouldn't have taken to the air.

I should say, for the record, that I'm grateful Obama is walking the minefield of a moratorium. It would be insane to proceed with further deep water drilling until we have fully updated our regulatory regime and figured out how to deal with problems when they occur. Indeed, it may be insane to ever proceed. We need to prepare ourselves for sanity, even if it challenges our short-term cash flow.

This is incorrect LisB.

Can you imagine if JFK had gone on the air during the Cuban Missile Crisis and said:

"I will listen to any and all ideas from both sides of the aisle on how we might deal with the Soviet missiles being built as I speak on the island of Cuba. It is time that we, as a nation acted in our own self defense. It is time that we make sure our shores are safe. Together, we can do it. America has always been able to deal with crises and we will deal with this one too... even if we don't know how to do it, but we will do it I assure you. I refuse not to do it. So, my fellow Americans, let us pray that a solution comes to mind as to how to handle this threat. And when someone figures it out please let me know and we'll do it if it makes sense.

Thank you and God Bless America."

What's missing here in my faux JFK Cuban missile crisis speech is any plan of action. In this clip, the faux JFK is asking others to offer their ideas but he offers none of his own beyond confidence that everything will work out. That is not what people want from the President, any President, in a crisis.

Here is what Obama could have done just as an example, and yes I know the current President would not deliver a speech of this kind, but he could and he should. It might not have to be exactly like this but it could and should be of this character and tone. Here is an excerpt I envision as the closing of the speech after laying out the problem, clearly stating the short and long term damage the spill has created and tieing it all in to the larger issues that are directly related to it in terms of our oil dependence, etc...

"So with all this in mind tonight we can see that this is not just an environmental disaster and not just an economic disaster for the people of the Gulf states. Neither is this just an isolated problem that can be neatly and discreetly addressed and once taken care of we can go back to business as usual.

No. It is time that we, as a nation, understand that our dependence upon oil is a threat to our national security and it undermines the future prosperity and stability of our nation. For thirty years our government has failed to act under the leadership of both parties due to the ovebearing influence of corporations on our governmental process and as a result of a lack of will and courage on the part of our elected officials. The time has come for us to change all that as a matter of national survival and in the interest of the cause of liberty.

Tonight we must unite as a nation and with firm resolve declare that, as in the Cold War, we will, in battling this threat to our national security, as President Kennedy declared in his inaugural address: "pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and the success of liberty." In the present situation our dependence on oil threatens our liberty and our heritage as a free people and as such is totally unacceptable.

As President it is my duty to protect this nation and her citizens from all enemies foreign and domestic. Fossil fuels, while they have been very useful and abundant in the past century are our enemy today as surely as Al Qaeda is, and oil in particular, upon which we are now so dependent that we are causing unprecedented and dangerous changes in climate is the most menacing of the fossil fuels. Our oil addiction is contributing to the melting of the polar ice caps, the rising of the seas, the more severe weather conditions we have seen in recent years and more. We can and we must break our addiction as soon as possible by mobilizing all the resources of the nation in perhaps the greatest undertaking the United States has ever engaged in.

I am announcing today that from this point forward, it shall be the policy of the United States to reduce our dependence on oil (foreign and domestic) by 50% in 10 years as a matter of national security. Each and every department of government will be mobilized toward this goal. All of the 50 states will be enlisted as well. Each day that we allow the status quo to continue insofar as it concerns our dependence upon oil, we fill the coffers of terrorists throughout the world who mean to do harm to us and to our friends and allies abroad. The less oil we require in our private lives and for our great industries, the more we starve those terrorists of the money they need to buy weapons, make car bombs, and disrupt civilized life all around the world.

I am announcing an emergency effort to design and build within the next 10 years enough publicly owned and operated solar, wind and water powered electical capacity to produce at least 30% of the electricity needed to run our homes and businesses. As President I am anouncing that the United States will establish regulations as soon as practicable, but no longer than within 180 days, mandating that 50% of all the new passenger vehicles sold in this country be emissions free within 10 years and that 100% of all passenger vehicles sold in the this country be emissions free within 20 years. Additionally, we will require dramatically increased CAFE standards for all commercial vehicles using gas or diesel fuels. I will request that the Congress quickly approve a plan I will submit before the end of this month to invest in and expand the mass transit systems in all the great cities of the nation dramatically over the next 20 years on a scale comparable to that undertaken to build the interstate highway system begining in the 1950's. As a part of this program of building the mass transit infrastructure of the nation I will reques that the Congress authorize the planning and design of a completely modern cross country passenger rail system linking all the major metropolitan areas of the United States by the year 2040. I will request of the Speaker of the House and the Majority Leader of the Senate to remain in session without recess until this bill is passed and under no circumstances to pass this legislation later than October 1st so that it will be as clear as can be to the voters of this nation who, among their members of Congress is more interested in protecting our way of life and our future and who is more interested in protecting the short term interests of corporations more interested in next quarters profits. The voters can then pass judgment on those members of Congress appropriately.

Our failure to address what used to be called "the energy crisis" for 30 years has caused us now to fight three oil related wars halfway around the world that are extremely costly and do nothing to enhance our national security. Because of our oil addiction we have set in motion highly negative and difficult to reverse climate changes that will cause untolled problems in the coming years and it will only get worse if we do not act as though this threat is as urgent and real as any we have ever faced because it is themost urgent and potentially disasterous threat our nation or our planet has ever faced. By refusing to act we are telling our children and grandchildren that we are more interestedin our own convenience than we are in them. What decent American really wants that to be the message we give to the coming generations?

The measures I have announced tonight and more will be required if we are to win this fight, protect our environment and more importantly protect the stability and prosperity of the United States for another two centures as our ancestors made sure it was protected and preserved for us. I am asking each and every one of you tonight to join me in this fight. I will need your active support to push these needed laws through the Congress. I need your voices raised in support of my call for Congress to act.

In the coming weeks I will need your help, your support and your prayers to get these measures passed but together we can do it, we must do it so that a hundred years from now our grandchildren's children will look back with pride knowing that this generation saw clearly the challenge before it and then, as Americans have always done, they did what it took to make sure that the cause of liberty was successful not only for themselves in the present but for our posterity.

There will be powerful interests that will emerge in the coming weeks and months urging us to "go slow" and telling us we do not need to take such dramatic action. Do not listen to them. In fact, when you hear those voices I urge you to reject them outright for those are the voices we have listened to for the last 30 years, that have fooled us into thinking we could ignore this massive threat to our future. We must send those voice the clear message that the time has come for them to listen to us, that we have waited too long already and we determined, at long last, to break our dependence on oil, to protect our environment and keep this country safe and secure.

We know from our history that there's nothing we as a people cannot do if we put our minds to it. So, again to paraphrase President Kennedy, let the word go forth from this time and place, that this generation of Americans will not rest until we know that we have done our part in securing the future of our people and our republic for the generations to come and that by so doing we re confident that the best days of America and the world are yet to come.

Good night and God Bless America."

Yes, I'm dreaming that we could get this much from one President in this day and age, but we can hope and we can articulate our vision for the nation. And, as the good book says, where there is no vision there is no hope. We cannot ever allow such a situation to come to pass.

It's real simple Stilli, he didn't propose anything. It isn't like I'm saying he didn't do everything I ever wanted. And it also isn't like it is only me who noticed he completely failed to use the speech to take any action or to demonstrate any sort of leadership. Now you can continue making excuses for his failures or you can open your eyes and start taking a more realistic view of what's going on instead of clinging to your fantasy that Obama is going to actually be the leader you had hoped he would be. So please, don't sniff at my post as though this is just a predictable criticism from someone who doesn't like Obama. It isn't personal to begin with. I look for leadership from my President as much as anyone and when it is so desperately needed but not demonstrated I have a duty to point that out and not make excuses for his ongoing mishandling of this extraordinary crisis.

You are right. What he said was essentially we should trust him. Sorry. Not good enough. Not from Obama or any other politician.

oleeb, you and I are NEVER going to agree on Obama. You have super human expectations of him, mine are grounded in reality.

He didn't propose anything, because there is nothing to propose right now. He let us know what is going on. Period. No news for anyone who is paying attention on a daily basis (like all of us) and a recap for those who aren't. Personally, I could have done without it, but for some reason, either he or his people thought it was necessary.

I wasn't expecting any bold new proposals. I wasn't expecting a cure for the situation. Why? Because there aren't any. If the best minds in the business don't know what the hell to do next, how can he? I'm sure he's wishing he could run into the telephone booth and come out in a cape and leotard and fly off to save the day, but, that ain't gunna happen.

This is going to take time to play out. Wish it wasn't so, but it is. It is painful, and maybe this time, the pain will be worth it. If we have to suffer over it, maybe we will stop being a bunch of weenies and do what we need to do instead of whining because we can't have our cake and eat it, too.

We have a lot of hard choices to make, and we aren't good at that. We are good at easy. A first term President can't do hard, as much as I wish he could. What needs to be done, can't be done in 4 years, and he can't get to 8 unless he takes the first 4 slowly. Maybe he won't be able to do it at all, but if that is true, God help us all. If HE can't do it, I contend it can't be done.

Well said and expressed, Watt. Thank you.

No. Not at all.

You did say above to Lib:

"You ain't gonna get what you want. Because what you want is a fucking utopia."

And it is that sentiment I most believe to be incorrect. He isn't wanting utopia. He's just wanting some leadership and concrete action and he didn't get it tonight. What we got was a whole lot of what we've already heard with a finale request that we all pray on it. That is lacking in vision and it is not utopian to expect that he might have done something, anything by way of offering any kind of real vision including actions tonight.

I think we can get what we want, or certainly more than we are getting but not by settling. We can only get more by demanding more, by insisting our leaders act on our behalf and represent our interests. Calling our expectations that responsible and effective action finally be taken to protect the environment and get us off of oil isnot unreasonable or utopian except in an environment where discussion of effective, responsible action is verboten by the people who keep holding us back and their servants in elective office.

Bullshit. Everyone but the most die-hard Obama fans is SCREAMING for these details. EVERYONE.

And I suspect had he given them, you would have a different set of rhetoric ready at the tip of your fingers to explain exactly why laying out a plan in minute detail was the pitch-perfect response for the situation.

I knew it was going to be bullshit. If Obama was going to do something different or more effective he wouldn't need to make a speech. He's just delivering bromides and marking time. Now it's all about keeping the pictures of the oil-soaked large marine mammals out of the press and hopefully all this will start to fade once the leak is stopped and folks focus on 2010 in September ... what Gulf States? They are all fucking republicans anyhow, they deserve it.

One thing I do wonder about is the National Guard troops he mentioned. I haven't seen a single one ... where are they?

Oh ye of little faith. I never expected to say that to you.

Chin up, Dick.

I loved it when Obama said that he has ordered BP to stop using dispersants, and that BP has sheepishly complied.

I loved it when he said that the flow is finally being accurately measured so that scientists can better gauge what's necessary for cleanup.

I loved it that he used the language of war, since it triggers a tireless Pavlovian response in Americans:

Good evening. As we speak, our nation faces a multitude of challenges. At home, our top priority is to recover and rebuild from a recession that has touched the lives of nearly every American. Abroad, our brave men and women in uniform are taking the fight to al Qaeda wherever it exists. And tonight, I've returned from a trip to the Gulf Coast to speak with you about the battle we're waging against an oil spill that is assaulting our shores and our citizens.

Assaulting our shores and our citizens? WTF?

This speech was a complete failure of imagination.

One might assume, rightly or wrongly, that the actions being "waged" in this particular "battle" fail to address the crisis properly. I would say the independent press confirms that the actions are in fact inadequate, primarily because BP is calling the shots.

But at least we know Steven Chu is a Nobel Prize-winning physicist! I'm personally relieved and reassured that Nobel Prize winners are on this.

To sum up: We're on our own, folks!

Until the damn oil stops flowing, and we find out just how ginormous the problem is

This is TOTAL BULLSHIT!

The way to "find out" how "ginormous" the problem is is to MEASURE IT.

That's what scientists do: They learn the parameters of a problem by taking measurements.

But we aren't doing that!

We are instead allowing BP to disperse the problem.

If you want to earn your Democratic stripes, stilli, stop accepting and regurgitating the BP-approved CORPORATE BULLSHIT you are being handed by the administration and start educating yourself about this disaster! You seem to know nothing about it! That's appalling. Yet you blindly defend Obama from thread to thread.

Well, your loyalty is admirable, but loyalty doesn't make you a Democrat, it makes you a Republican! So get busy! Start reading what scientists (not politicians or businessmen) are saying about the Gulf disaster and what should be done! Chop chop!

You can't present a plan, when you aren't yet sure what you are dealing with.

And you can't make a plan without the facts. If you don't measure the output of the gusher, then you don't have a critical piece of information.

Measuring the flow is completely doable. Measuring the flow should have been done immediately, as many scientists have made abundantly clear.

But we aren't measuring it, stilli. Why? Because BP doesn't want us to know how bad it really is since they are being held liable. And "liable" costs money. Do you get that part of it yet?

To put a finer point on that: We use the language of war to camouflage our incompetence.

At the very least the Feds should be mobilizing teams of unemployed workers and sending them to the Gulf. And sending the bill to BP.

I didn't watch. Did he ever find out whose ass to kick?

Thud is an accurate description.

A few months ago, I approved a proposal to consider new, limited offshore drilling under the assurance that it would be absolutely safe - that the proper technology would be in place and the necessary precautions would be taken.

That was obviously not the case on the Deepwater Horizon rig

First, so those people who gave you assurances, are you still employing their advice? Are they now helping out in the Gulf?

Second, That was obviously not the case on the Deepwater Horizon rig, doesn't this sound like the president is saying that this rig and the disaster are not symptomatic of a pervasive problem? That implication seems to be in the sentence.

***

If you haven't, check out this article:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/15/AR2010061502292.html

I think it raises some intereseting points:

the Obama administration, is...obstructed by a partisan Republican opposition, powerful entrenched corporate interests, and a minority of corrupt or conservative Democrats. The thinking is that if progressives organize independently and forge smart coalitions, building a mass movement for reform with a moral compass that can transcend left-right divisions, we may be able to push Obama beyond the limits of his own politics, overcome the timid incrementalism of the establishment Democratic Party and counter the forces of money and power that are true obstacles to change. As Arianna Huffington has said, "Hope is not enough. . . . We need a 'Hope 2.0' that depends not on what President Obama or other politicians say or do but on what we as progressives do."

...It doesn't matter whether you think Obama has done the best that he can or that he has compromised too easily. What's important is to alter the balance of power. And that means recruiting and mobilizing to unleash new energy into the debate.

...progressives can help Democrats find the voice they need to avoid debilitating losses this fall. And by challenging the limits of the current debate, progressives can open political space for the fights that need to happen to show working Americans that Democrats are fighting for them.

The tension between Obama and the progressive movement isn't a threat to the president. Rather, it may be needed to save him.

Obama is not responsible for the occurence of the spill, at least not directly so. As President, however, he does bear responsibility for the failure of the government during his tenure to do anything about MMS or to adequately regulate the oil companies who everyone on earth knows are not exactly a bunch of angels. But the fact is, the President's ineffective, lethargic, and unacceptable response to this disaster is his responsibility directly. I am astounded you excuse his failure to the point of saying:

"You can't present a plan, when you aren't yet sure what you are dealing with."

In two months he doesn't know what he's dealing with? Bah! Stilli, it is his job to know and that is why so many people across the board are so disappointed in his performance on this matter.

If progressives are once again called upon to save the corporate Democrats asses it won't matter much in the end I hate to say because the success of the effort will depend upon the corporate Dems changin their ways and they won't. We know that. They will cynically use progressive rhetoric at election time and then return to their ineffective, corrupt ways once the election is over just as Obama turned on progressives the moment the nomination was secure in 2008.

I don't doubt there would be a desire to use progressives, again, in such a way, what so ever. But a strong movement guards against that.

And announcing major subsidies for the development and technology of western oil shale.

Wow, with allies like this, it should be a breeze to transition to a Clean Energy future!

John Stewarrt now going after some Obama policies:

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-june-15-2010/respect-my-authoritah

"This is not just their problem but a national problem.."

Agreed.

"I didn't hear that guy tonight"

I have to agree.

But you're here, so not all hope is lost!

"Seriously, who the hell else do you recommend?"

Some asshat upthread recommended a particularly outraged commenter on this blog.

These are not serious people you're dealing with here, Steve. They know how to fix the disaster in the Gulf with 100% certainty, and 100% effectiveness. Just ask them.

I'm here to bitch, just like you. All that matters is what we do when we're not here.

I don't quite get the 'thud' onomatopoeia. Are you making some kind of drum-beat point?

Show me ONE place where I have asked Obama to make a speech. Never happened. You are tripping, girl. I'm not "you people". I'm "me". Get your facts correct, or blow it out your ass.

I've offered tons of specifics as to what I think would help - so has every other person criticizing the response. But. I. Am. Not. The. President. We're fucked because Mr. Obama is. And he's a turning out to be grade-A asshat.

Hopefully the statements about National Guard troops aren't bullshit, because that would be a good thing and I'd be happy to see a more visible presence. I'd still love more info on it from a human who actually bothers to inform themselves about reality - which completely does not seem to apply to yourself of late - because that was the first I'd heard of it.

Oleeb wrote his usual blog critical of the president.

Thud!

At his Press Conference, Obama blamed the Bush administration for what he called the "cozy relationship" between MMS and the oil industry, but was then asked by CBS' Chip Reid: "you knew as soon as you came in, and Secretary Salazar did, about this cozy relationship. But you continued to give permits -- some of them under questionable circumstances. Is it fair to blame the Bush administration? Don't you deserve some of that?" In reply, Obama acknowledged:

Well -- well, let -- let me just make the point that I made earlier, which is, Salazar came in and started cleaning house, but the culture had not fully changed in MMS. And absolutely, I take responsibility for that. There -- there wasn't sufficient urgency in terms of the pace of how those changes needed to take place.

Was hiring a BP executive one of the ways that Salazar was trying to end the "cozy relationship" between Interior and the oil industry? Was automatically issuing exemptions from NEPA's Environmental Impact Study requirement a way of doing so? Of course "there wasn't sufficient urgency" in cleaning up MMS. What happened here was obvious: Obama chose one of the most industry-pleasing, industry-subservient Democrats to head the Interior Department despite what everyone knew was the pervasive corruption at that Department and its serving as an industry rubber stamp for years. And Obama got exactly what was obvious he would get by making that choice.

Of course, back in late 2008, objections to Salazar from environmental groups were dismissed as the obsolete, left-wing purity obsessions of ideologues. We were in a Post-Partisan, Pragmatic Age where such concerns were no longer valid. In fact, note how the industry representatives invoked classic Obama jargon to heap praise on Salazar: "'Nothing in his record suggests he’s an ideologue,' said Luke Popovich, spokesman for the National Mining Association. . . . industry officials praised his moderation. . . . oil and mining interests praised Mr. Salazar’s performance as a state official and as a senator, saying that he was not doctrinaire about the use of public lands."

In Obama's Washington, "centrism" and "pragmatism" mean allegiance to the corporate interests that run the government, and anyone who objects to any of that is an "ideologue" or a purist or too "doctrinaire." And, of course, as is true for every issue -- from gay rights to judicial selections, from reproductive rights to economic policy -- there were a handful of D.C. environment groups (such as the Sierra Club) who masquerade as progressive organizations but whose overriding mission was to blindly validate whatever the Democratic Party and the White House do, and they defended the Salazar pick (numerous environmental groups are now calling for Salazar's resignation).

Most amazingly, even as BP continues to spew oil in unfathomable quantities into the Gulf, this all continues now: "The Obama administration waived environmental reviews for 26 new offshore drilling projects even as the BP oil disaster spewed hundreds of thousands of gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico." And just this week: MMS "approved a new drilling permit for an offshore well in the Gulf of Mexico."

In this episode one thus finds virtually every harmful dynamic of the Obama era. Indeed, this story is found in virtually every realm. Ken Salazar and Sylvia Vaca are to the Interior Department what the countless Goldman, Sachs officials are to Treasury and other financial regulatory arms of the Obama administration. The administration has taken some commendable steps to at least create the appearance of limiting lobbying influence, but the corporate ownership of the Federal Government is as strong as ever. Ken Salazar, the BP exemptions, and the very dubious excuses being offered to justify them illustrate that as much as anything.

I wasn't talking about the spill in that last paragraph, but rather the totality of Obama's presidency and what he might be able to accomplish.
You might want to re-read the comment...

In Obama I think we may have perhaps the best chance we've ever had to get this country working together. If he, with his skill set and personal story can't get us working together, I think we are doomed.