I followed that on NPR’s stream on line – which spared me the sights and sounds.

Two things I noticed: although the purpose of this was to show him on top of this – he was unaware  about the Feds approval of the barriers in LA as well as the firing of Birnbaum.

Here’s the talk of the barriers


So let’s take the example of Governor Jindal’s barrier islands idea.  When I met with him when I was down there two weeks ago, I said, I will make sure that our team immediately reviews this idea, that the Army Corps of Engineers is looking at the feasibility of it, and if they think — if they tell me that this is the best approach to dealing with this problem, then we’re going to move quickly to execute it; if they have a disagreement with Governor Jindal’s experts as to whether this would be effective or not, whether it was going to be cost-effective, given the other things that need to be done, then we’ll sit down and try to figure that out.

All the political effect of this disaster is a verbal moratorium of 6 months on drilling?

He still made the case for continued drilling

David Gura (NPR News):

“I continue to believe what I said at that time,” he said. “That domestic production is an important part of our overall energy mix.”

“We’re not going to be able to transition to these strategies right away.”

“During that time, we’re going to be using oil.”

Thursday May 27, 2010 1:35 David Gura (NPR News)
1:36
David Gura (NPR News):

It is important, he ads, that we not rely on imports.

Also, just like W after 9.11 urgd us to shop and fly to the fabulous destinations

He encourages Americans to visit the beaches affected by the oil spill.

His entire speech was centered on stopping the gusher, not much about the clean-up, which prompted me to comment

.

Thursday May 27, 2010 1:56 Citizen
1:56
[Comment From Notyoursweetie Notyoursweetie: ]

Does Obama know there’s clean-up to be done? Irreversible damage? It didn’t appear so

Thursday May 27, 2010 1:56 Notyoursweetie

I immediately got 2 answers

1:57
Frank James:

To Notyoursweetie at 1:56

I think Obama knows there’s clean-up needed and irreversible damage. He said as much during the news conference.

Thursday May 27, 2010 1:57 Frank James
1:58
[Comment From 2ndCitizen 2ndCitizen: ]

@Notyoursweetie – I believe he said, there will be areas that are damaged in heart-breaking ways, and it will be years before some areas recover. So, yeah, I think he’s aware.

.However, what I got is that he feels his job is damage control – and I mean political damage

“My job is to make sure that everybody in the Gulf understands that this is what I wake up to in the morning, and this is what I go to bed thinking about every night. The spill.”

.There was a point when he reminded me of W when he called the war “a dot in history” or something similar.

Obama’s version of derision was

“We’ve gone through a difficult year and a half,” the president said. “This is just one more piece of difficulty,” referring to the oil spill.

The illustration to this is what Google images gave me for “piece of difficulty”.

And who can forget the Helen Thomas highlight

Thursday May 27, 2010 1:31 David Gura (NPR News)
1:31
David Gura (NPR News):

A question from Helen Thomas: When are you going to get out of Afghanistan?

Thursday May 27, 2010 1:31 David Gura (NPR News)
1:32
David Gura (NPR News):

“Don’t give us this Bushism,” she said: “If we don’t go there, they’ll all come here.”
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