Out of Touch
(Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Obama picks up balls of tar while touring the beach in Port Fourchon, La. on May 28, 2010, the day the oil spill was officially recognized as the worst in U.S. history.
While it has been unfolding on TV for six weeks, the president has appeared out of touch with the Gulf oil spill and is only now trying to insert himself into the crisis with his third trip to the area and televised statements about how "furious" he is with BP. Even liberal Washington Post columnist David Broder is asking if Obama is channeling former President Carter, whose administration was held hostage by the 444-day Iran hostage crisis. Wrote Broder this week, "Nothing is going to help Obama unless and until the engineers come up with a method for shutting down this gusher of pollution. He clearly couldn't prevent it, and he was slow in signaling its severity. But he owns it now, and until it is over, the man who aspired to be the next John Kennedy or maybe Franklin Roosevelt will have to hope he doesn't end up as Jimmy Carter."
