Gulf Oil Spill Makes Obama Whine

Obama explains that his opponents would have fought him if he had pre-emptively cracked down on BP. From JustOneMinute:

In an interview with POLITICO, the president said: “I think it’s fair to say, if six months ago, before this spill had happened, I had gone up to Congress and I had said we need to crack down a lot harder on oil companies and we need to spend more money on technology to respond in case of a catastrophic spill, there are folks up there, who will not be named, who would have said this is classic, big-government overregulation and wasteful spending.”

Wow. Of course,others would have criticized the President for taking his eye off of the vital effort to reform healthcare. And speaking of which, if the goal of Obama's Presidency is to avoid criticism and confrontation (rather than, for example, advancing policies in which he believes), why didn't he just drop the push for healthcare reform?

The First Emoter also adopted an old Frank Rich talking point:

The president also implied that anti-big government types such as tea party activists were being hypocritical on the issue.

“Some of the same folks who have been hollering and saying ‘do something’ are the same folks who, just two or three months ago, were suggesting that government needs to stop doing so much,” Obama said. “Some of the same people who are saying the president needs to show leadership and solve this problem are some of the same folks who, just a few months ago, were saying this guy is trying to engineer a takeover of our society through the federal government that is going to restrict our freedoms.”

Let's see - BP is drilling on Federally leased site in a Gulf which borders five states and several other countries. I see an Federal role there that is a bit different from the Feds bailing out the guy down the street who over-extended himself when he bought a house, or taking over health care, but maybe that is just me.

From Red State:

Hmmmm. Notice a pattern?

Seems like our Commander-in-Chief feels that it’s not necessary to engage another being in conversation, because with his superior intellect, he’s able to discern what they’re going to say, without their having said it!
And then he blames them for what he thinks they would have said!

My Star Trek days were long ago, but even Spock had to come into physical contact with the party on the other end of the Vulcan mind-meld, if I recall correctly.

You can’t play this game, Mr. President. It’s not fair, but worse, it’s not presidential. (Imagine FDR before Yalta: “What’s the point of meeting with Stalin? I know he’s going to want Eastern Europe.”)(Imagine Ronaldus Maximus in Berlin: “I suppose I could ask Mikhail to tear down this wall, but I bet I know what he’d say!)

And your speculation deflects attention from the actions you did take with respect to the MMS, namely appointing Liz Birnbaum to head the agency: an Ivy League environmental lawyer who wouldn’t know an oil well if she were to fall bass-ackwards into one. How are you going to blame the Republicans for that boo-boo?

From Patterico:

It’s everyone’s fault except Obama’s. He even blamed the media for focusing on his lack of passion because it makes “good TV.”

Expecting government to do its job in cleaning up the BP Oil Spill is not a justification for Obama’s massive deficits; his takeover of the banks, the car industry, and healthcare; or his repeated bailouts, pork, and stimulus projects. Except to Obama.