“Don't make excuses. Take responsibility not just for your successes, but for your failures as well. The truth is, no matter how hard you work, you won't necessarily ace every class or succeed in every job. There will be times when you screw up, when you hurt the people you love, when you stray from your most deeply held values. And when that happens, it's the easiest thing in the world to start looking around for someone to blame. Your professor was too hard, your boss was a jerk, the coach was playing favorites, your friend just didn't understand. We see it every day out in Washington, with folks calling each other names and making all sorts of accusations on TV.”Rather than passing the buck, President Obama urged the class of 2010 to accept that it is their actions and their actions alone that will determine the directions of their lives, and that they are responsible for their choices; they are the makers of their own destinies.
Ironically, President Obama has spent his entire tenure in office playing Monday morning quarterback and blaming anyone and anything but himself and his administration – including former President Bush, Vice President Cheney, the Bush administration, conservatives on Capitol Hill, Fox News, and members of the tea party – for the problems and failures of the present and for standing in the way of his twisted version of progress, the “fundamental transformation of America.” President Obama has gone so far as to pompously liken the state of the country he inherited in 2009 to the division of the Union and the greatest threat to the survival of freedom and democracy this country has faced since its birth during the tenure of President Lincoln.
Perennially passing the buck, President Obama has repeatedly employed the theme of housecleaning and in particular, the symbol of the mop, to illustrate his efforts to “clean-up” the alleged disorder and chaos with which the previous administration bequeathed him. Willfully ignorant of the pervasive cries for real change Americans can believe in, such as transparency and accountability, President Obama has predictably attributed residents of Virginia and New Jersey sweeping tax and spend liberals from the steps of their capitols to anger directed at the Bush administration:
“The same thing that swept Scott Brown into office swept me into office,” Obama said in an interview with ABC News. "People are angry, and they're frustrated. Not just because of what's happened in the last year or two years, but what's happened over the last eight years.”Though Obama did nothing as a Senator to prevent the housing bubble or even to sound the alarm for the pending financial crisis, he is quick to cast aspersions and blame on others, all while ignoring the actions and – in the case of the oil spill – the gross inaction of his administration. President Obama, it appears, would have the graduates do as he says and not as he does.
Finally rising to the level of visible vexation following near two-months of maintaining his cool and collected public persona, President Obama has demonstrated his outrage regarding the BP oil spill by assuring the American people he is learning “whose ass to kick.” While Hollywood and the lame-stream media labeled President Bush’s lethargic response to Hurricane Katrina as genocide, they have been markedly silent to Obama’s “hands-off” approach to the Gulf crisis. In the forty-six days following Katrina, President Bush visited New Orleans 8 times and surveyed the damage only 2 days after the hurricane touched down. President Obama, however, who vowed he “would not rest” until the spill has been contained, has visited the Louisiana coast a mere 3 times and has yet found time to fundraise for Senator Boxer, vacation in Chicago, attend 4 commencement exercises, honor America-loathing Paul McCartney, golf, and play basketball. Obama has consistently reminded the American people that he and his administration have been on the job since “Day 1” regarding this disaster, but his actions and inaction are wholly inconsistent with this promise.
Americans were right to want leadership from the Bush administration in the aftermath of Katrina, and they are right to seek it from their Commander-in-Chief in the wake of a natural disaster that will affect our shores and industry for decades and potentially generations. Mr. Obama has been derelict with his duties, and in this instance, he would be wise to heed his own advice and stop shirking blame, roll up his sleeves, and get his hands dirty.
Mr. President, Americans are weary of your constant campaigning; the day you entered office was the day we began measuring your actions not the grandiose nature of your words. We see your anger. We are angry too. We crave information and the truth, and we want action. You have not placated your electorate with an occasional strategically placed curse word. Blaming BP CEOs, equipment manufacturers, and federal agencies that oversee drilling has not prevented oil globs from washing ashore. Nearly two months following the explosion that caused the leak, Americans should not be asking, “Who is in charge?”
Several days ago, President Obama finally declared of the oil catastrophe, “I take responsibility. It is my job to make sure that everything is done to shut this down.” This is the type of candid admission of personal responsibility the President touted in his graduation speech, which engenders faith in government rather than fear and mistrust. The American people are weary of Monday morning quarterbacking. We want a quarterback who leads his team swiftly and decisively, one who drops back into the pocket and hits his open receiver in between the numbers and admits when his pass is wide right. Any football fan knows receivers won’t go up the middle for a quarterback they don’t trust to know the precise timing of their routes. That’s how the great combinations like Montana-Rice, Manning-Wayne, and Jurgensen-Taylor are born: trust. Now, it is up to President Obama if he is going to become a leader who admits he’s dropped the ball, thrown some picks, and goes into the huddle at the start of the third vowing that the game rests on his shoulders. Mr. Obama, stop passing the buck. The fate of the Gulf region depends on your leadership and execution.
~Elf
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