THE GREAT PRETENDER

Prophets often prophesied without ever seeing the fruition of their prophecies.

So it was with the Platters.

How could they possibly have known that their once popular song was predicting the rise to power of a man who has absolutely no idea what he is doing?

Now, I want to make it clear that I do not blame President BO for the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. In my opinion, that would be a really big stretch.

It is even more of a stretch to blame it on George Bush.

The spill is not even the result of lack of regulation of the off-shore oil industry (as is being floated by some real dummies).

The spill is the direct result of negligence on the part of British Petroleum (BP), whose job it was to ensure that their equipment was in order.

No amount of regulation would have prevented the spill.

Imagine a rule that said: OK, people, you can't ignore when things aren't quite right.

Guess what. It already exists. But BP ignored it anyway.

See, what so many liberals don't understand is that you don't prevent mishaps by making them illegal.

In some places, certain guns are illegal, but somehow people continue to get killed by those very types of guns.

"Can't be!" you yell, "We've made them illegal!"

Well, can be. And is.

The issue is no longer who is to blame, the issue is how is this mess going to get cleaned up?

Enter stage left: President BO.

"I take full responsibility for the clean-up."

DON'T DO THAT...IT'S NOT YOUR JOB!!

"I'll hold BP responsible and make 'em pay every dime of the clean-up."

WELL GOODIE TWO-SHOES FOR YOU. THAT'S WHO DID IT...THAT'S WHO SHOULD BE RESPONSIBLE.

Why didn't you know that BEFORE you said that YOU would take the responsibility?

Three, soon to be four, trips to the Gulf later, and the spill still isn't cleaned up!

President BO seems to know that he should do SOMETHING, but he just can't figure out what that is.

May I make a suggestion? OK, well, I'm going to anyway.

DECLARE THE GULF OF MEXICO COASTLINE A NATIONAL DISASTER AREA...NOW!

That should have been the very first thing done.

Declaring it "of national significance," as Janet Napolitano did, is an absolutely useless gesture and accomplished nothing.

MOBILIZE EVERY BOAT, EVERY SHIP, EVERY BOOM, EVERY SCIENTIST AND EVERY EXPERIENCED PERSON IN THE US TO GET DOWN THERE AND GET TO WORK!

So far, the Coast Guard is the only effective entity that has been called up. Well they should have been. But they're not equipped for this.

LOOSEN THE REGULATIONS THAT PREVENT US FROM ALLOWING NON-AMERICAN TANKERS INTO THE AREA TO HELP.

What? You didn't know there was such a regulation?

That's because you believe we are an under-regulated nation.

The major stumbling block is a protectionist piece of legislation called the Jones Act which requires that all goods transported by water between U.S. ports be carried in U.S.-flag ships, constructed in the United States, owned by U.S. citizens, and crewed by U.S. citizens. But in an emergency this law can be temporarily waived as DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff did after Katrina.

President BO continues to do what he does best: lecture; posture; threaten; and talk, talk, talk.

And still, NOTHING has gotten done.

Oh...he's also good at pretending.

ADDENDUM: Thanks to Social Sense for reminding me of this example of Presdent BO's shallow meaninglessness:

"I was down there a month ago, before most of these talkin’ heads were even paying attention to the Gulf. A month ago I was meeting with fishermen down there, standin’ in the rain talking about what a potential crisis this could be. And I don’t sit around just talking to experts because this is a college seminar, we talk to these folks because they potentially have the best answers, so I know whose ass to kick.” — Barack Obama

Fact is, he treats EVERYTHING as though it were a college sophomore seminar...EVERYTHING.