The no-due-diligence presidency

Here are a couple of quick anecdotal examples of why this is the no-due-diligence presidency.

1. Obamacare and as Nancy Pelosi pointed out - we have to pass it to see what's in it.
2. During the BP oil spill the President claimed to be on top of the situation but blamed the disaster entirely on BP. This despite the fact that his slow response and clearly not knowing all the facts indicated that there wasn't much due diligence coming out of the White House and it seemed entirely befuddled.  Angry, but befuddled.
3. His last address to the joint session of Congress demanding they pass the bill - that he still hasn't fully released (see item #1 for a historical comparison).
4. The $0.5 billion loan to Solyndra to make solar panels a year before the company declared bankruptcy, when the GAO had concerns about this sort of lending;

Plenty of venture capitalists made foolish bets on Solyndra, but the federal government was the most reckless. The Obama administration wanted to throw money at the likes of Solyndra without due diligence, or much diligence at all. In 2008, the Government Accountability Office warned that the Energy Department loan program — created in a 2005 energy bill — had inadequate safeguards.

Perino: Right on Energy, Wrong On Obama

Dana Perino, former Bush Press Secretary is quoted in Politico giving her take on President Obama's seemingly snake-bittern energy policy. The context and position of the article in which her comments are quoted is that President Obama had bad timing on agreeing to expand offshore drilling just before the BP disaster and on compromise with Republicans on nuclear power not long before the nuclear reactor problems in Japan as a result of the earthquake and tsunami. Okay, that's a bit unlucky. But luck often follows the decisions or non-decisions of those it affects.

Quick hit observations

Some quick observations this morning.

-When the unemployment rate for July is announced later this morning, I EXPECT an increase in the unemployment rate. Don't let them continue to clobber you with the unexpectedly adjective. If every increase had been that unexpected, we should fire the economists for repeated incompetence.

-RIM has been hit in Saudi Arabia with a ban on its messaging and other applications due to 'security concerns'. People can send messages without government being able to track it. So? How about banning burkas so people can't smuggle explosives? This is either political power concentration, economic protectionism or part of a local hysteria that has swept other countries in the Middle East. Perhaps all three.

-Is all that oil in the Gulf gone? Was Tony Hayward of BP right that it is a drop in the bucket? Or is it still a disaster and just hustled off the front pages to protect President Obama? Perhaps a bit of both.

8 things you didn't know about the Gulf oil spill

Here are a few apparently little known facts about the Gulf Oil Spill:

- the state of the art Deepwater Horizon drilling platform was made in South Korea.

-The name of the leaking oil reserve, Macondo is from a the name of a cursed town in the Gabriel Garcia Marquez novel “One Hundred Years of Solitude".

- Anadarko, the minority partner with BP on the well, is likely to suffer a greater financial setback (relatively) than BP.

-The well is estimated to hold 50 million barrels of oil.

- Leaking at 60,000 barrels per day it would take approximately 833 days to drain the entire well.

- At Day 79, that represents almost 10% of the entire well spilled, if current spill estimated rates hold true.

-The offshore U.S. Gulf of Mexico is estimated to have over 1.5 billion barrels of oil reserves.

- There's a very cool tool here, to view the northern Florida coast and alerts in near real time.

Wait, who pays for laid off oil rig workers?

After meeting with President Obama, BP agreed to set aside a special $100 million to compensate oil workers laid off as a result of President Obama's six month moratorium on deep water drilling. Why does it feel more and more like the United States is operating at the whims of an emperor?

Obama to say nothing meaningful tonight

It would be absolutely pointless for the President to go on the air tonight to speak to the American people while having nothing meaningful to say about the oil spill, right?  That doesn't mean he won't do it. The President will probably have a lot to say tonight but I doubt very much of it is going to be meaningful.  What he does say will likely amount to a bunch of promises about the future that aren't directly relevant to the current crisis.  If ever there was an instance of someone viewing a situation through only their own lenses, this has to be it.

Obama, 3 a.m. and the long walk from leadership

Is it just me, or will the President's switch from seeming nonchalance on the oil spill to one of potential face-time overkill something that isn't likely going to help his popularity too much?  He's dug himself a hole and there is no easy climb out of it here.

Obama Getting Tough When The Getting Is Politically Necessary

Stories like this that attempt to portray the President in a positive light used to make my head spin with their unbelievable bias.  Now I look at this sort of journalism storytelling from the AP as merely self-defeating for liberalism.  They aren't fooling too many people any more. And on some level they do seem to be figuring that out.

Finally! Eric Holder Takes Action

Eric Holder came to his senses today and started acting like an independent Attorney General and decided to launch an investigation and potentially prosecute anyone found guilty in the Sestak bribery scandal.  Holder has finally stood up and decided to go after illegal activity despite the political implications.

Eric Holder today did not start acting like an independent Attorney General and decided to launch an investigation and potentially prosecute anyone found guilty in the BP oil spill. Holder has NOT stood up and decided to go after activity based on the potential political implications.

One must applaud his fortitude in these trying circumstances.  It figures.

Obama's Oil Spill Schedule

A video that sums up the Top Priority oil spill;



Two vacations speaks volumes.

You own it Mr. President

President Obama seemed prepared to let BP twist in the wind alone on the Gulf oil spill. That is, he was prepared to do so until the Top Kill procedure looked like it might be successful.

Does Obama Want BP To Fail?

A lot of pundits have been watching President Obama and wondering why he seems so ineffectual and or out of touch on the BP oil spill.  A number of reasons have been forwarded - he's tired, he's out of touch with it's importance, he's not in control of the situation, he's ineffective and unprepared.  Let me add one more possibility - he wants BP to fail.

Politics: Yes This Is Obama's Katrina

The President is in real trouble over this oil slick in the Gulf. His inaction has started to raise the ire of Democrats as well as Republicans. While his defenders are quick to point out that BP, not Obama caused the oil slick, the argument, deliberately, misses the point. The fact of the matter is like President Bush, he has been tied to the disaster whether fairly or not and what matters is not who caused it but who is going to solve it.