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Which is to say, they’re starting to figure out that being President of the United States has not conferred magical powers on Obama, and he didn’t bring any magical powers of his own to the job.
A degree from Harvard Law isn’t necessarily helpful to fixing a mechanical engineering problem, which is what BP is dealing with in trying to cap the Deepwater Horizon well.
The Gulf oil spill is not a political problem. You can’t negotiate a compromise with a broken well. Nor is the oil spill a legal problem. You can sue BP, but litigation isn’t going to cap that well. And all the “community organizing” in the world isn’t going to fix the problem, unless you’re planning to plug the well with SEIU members.
What is Obama’s greatest skill? Reading speeches. As I remarked in February 2009, Obama could read the ingredients from the side panel of a box of pancake batter (“…dextrose, partially hydrogenated soybean oil with mono- and diglycerides…“) and inspire standing ovations from an audience of adoring Democrats. But all Obama’s oratorical powers are useless to the task of plugging that well.