Like The Anchoress, my gripe is less with President Obama (what’s he supposed to do, air drop a bunch of those fake fireplaces with Amish-made cabinets with battery packs to run them?) than it is with the disgustingly hypocritical media. But Obama did peg out the hypocrisy meter as well, given his unwarranted slam against President Bush over Katrina the minute he took office.I have a lefty acquaintance who made a huge point of hating President Bush for his supposed non-response for Katrina. Bush was wrong, Wrong, WRONG! He should have done THIS, and THAT, and THE OTHER THING! I politely sat through his self-congratulatory lecture about why he was so offended about, well, everything Bush did or thought of doing. He claims to have a “sense of justice more highly developed than most people.” O RLY?? Then why the crickets chirping now, bucko? That’s precisely what’s chapping me now – he and all his fellow-travelers who claim to have an enhanced sense of justice and Morals 2.0 – plus a singular lack of self-awareness of what hypocrites they are.
The Anchoress writes,
We’ve heard that “Bush ate cake”, while people suffered. (Obama ate steak and watched the Super Bowl). Bush did not quickly enough go to the disaster area to survey it and hug people and cry. (Obama – like the derided Bush – is wisely staying away so as not to impede relief efforts, but he remains un-derided). Bush dared to praise FEMA, even though FEMA was late because flood conditions and Gov. Blanco prevented them from doing much at first. Obama…hasn’t said much of anything.
… 7 days into the mess, he has not asked Americans to donate to the Red Cross or other disaster-relief agencies. He has not flown over the area to see the extent of the disaster. He has not gotten onto the ground to meet with anyone. This is the first thing that Obama can rightly be criticized for – he should now, finally, make an appearance. The rest of it, the steak-eating, the cocktails, the ballgame – it is brought up only to illustrate the difference between what was unreasonably demanded of one president, and what is (reasonably) excused in another.
It’s the hypocrisy, stupid. People like that acquaintance of mine who practically frothed at the mouth for the last eight years suddenly have nothing to say over rendition, a proposed “enhanced interrogation” loophole, ramping up the WH carbon footprint, more or less ignoring a major disaster, appointments of tax cheats and lobbyists and lying liars who tell lies, and some really massive gaffes. And that’s just in two weeks.
It doesn’t really bother me that he’s doing those things (well, his appointments are atrocious, but the rest, whatev…) except for the fact that the left has been shrieking about that stuff for years. Rendition and “enhanced interrogation” are The Worst Atrocities EVAR – except if Obama intends to do them. Then they’re peachy keen ways to Protect The Country.
Obama can keep the White House at whatever temperature he likes and eat what he likes, and Al Gore can have the biggest mansion in the country… but quit telling the rest of us that we can’t have our thermostats at 72° and eat what we please.
Obama can continue to ignore the first natural disaster of his Presidency… but he and the left should be falling all over themselves apologizing for their behavior toward Bush, especially Obama’s slam against him over Katrina:
“President Obama will keep the broken promises made by President Bush to rebuild New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. He and Vice President Biden will take steps to ensure that the federal government will never again allow such catastrophic failures in emergency planning and response to occur.”
I had no idea “taking steps” meant snuggling up in the Greenhouse White House watching the Superbowl and eating $100/pound steaks. Maybe all the hype about Obama being a “Lightworker” was simply recognition of his ability to blind his followers.
