A Crisis of Competence

Last night President Barack Obama delivered his first Oval Office speech. The address to the nation was designed to deal directly with the growing environmental and economic crisis in the Gulf of Mexico. Many people were awaiting this speech to see how exactly the President intended to deal with this national crisis.

Expectations, however were dashed as the President comments seemed to reveal more concern for resuscitating stalled “Cap and Trade” legislation, rather than offering concrete solutions for comprehensively dealing with the current oil spill and clean-up efforts.

Following the speech, criticism came from both the left and the right of the political spectrum.

Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews of MSNBC (who once spoke of tingling at the thought of an Obama presidency) blasted the President's address, saying…

"It was a great speech if you were on another planet for the last 57 days."

"Nothing specific at all was said."

"No direction."

"I don't think he aimed low, I don't think he aimed at all. It's startling."

"I don't sense executive command."

Additionally, The Heritage Foundation wrote this morning…

“The President has been using the oil spill to push cap and trade and “clean” energy investments forward, but global warming legislation—placing caps on carbon dioxide emissions—would do nothing to improve clean-up or to prevent future spills. It would distract from the very efforts to clean up and stop the oil that must be the top priority now. Nor would emissions caps magically create new problem-free sources of alternative energy. Instead, global warming legislation would raise energy costs for all Americans and kill much needed jobs