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Originally Posted by Iowa_Flames_Fan
The obsession with style over substance in US political culture is so dumb sometimes. This disaster could not have been prevented by better rhetoric--the fact that "how Obama sounded" is even an issue at all is just a symptom of how daffy it's become down there.
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I'm confused. The problem is that Obama has been caught short multiple times in this crisis with the most embarrassing not knowing about the discontinuation of the Top Kill. The bystander actions of his advisers, the embarrassing Great BP worker operation where they had BP workers cleaning the beach when he was there, and then shortly after he left they left, and the frustrations by the citizens in the area as Obama has not really even addressed the economic issues there outside of some nice sound bits.
When you have a president that has been tepid at best in reacting to this crisis and showing leadership throwing out lame platitudes about his daughter while stating that the buck stops here then its a failure of both style and substance and those columns have rightfully talked about them.
While this isn't as wonky as Bush's New Orleans, Obama has done a poor job of showing leadership, decisiveness or preparation in this crisis.
When a major Oil company in the spotlight over this whole crisis has blinded the President there is a problem. I would expect that Obama is going to have to start quietly gutting his advisers and he's going to try to find a fall guy to save himself.
But to me the bloom is basically off of the Obama rose, he's been badly spanked over BP.