Chris Matthews, Howard Fineman, and Keith Olbermann trash Barack Obama’s BP oil spill speech

   Last night Barack Obama finally addressed the nation about the BP oil spill, but all is not well in the land of the left. Much criticism has been levied at the president’s speech by the right. Some have even stated that Barack Obama went on national television and actually admitted that he had no clue on what to do next. Barack Obama’s mention that “we don’t yet know precisely how to get there,” is being used by local Boston radio hosts as proof that Barack Obama doesn’t know what to do.

  This is expected from the right, and frankly, I believe that this president has no clue as to what he should be doing about this disaster. But the right isn’t the only place that criticism of Barack Obama’s BP oil spill speech is coming from; some of his most ardent supporters on the left are also criticising the speech. James Carville has already left the Obama reservation and has criticised the president’s response– or lack thereof– to the BP oil spill, but now we are hearing people such as Chris– I feel a thrill run down my leg when I hear Barack Obama speak– Matthews, Howard Fineman, and of all people, Keith Olbermann reacted harshly to Barack Obama’s speech.

  Keith Olbermann had perhaps the harshest criticism of the speech, stating that “it was a great speech if you were on another planet for the last 57 days.”  That was a great line in part because it is so true. Barack Obama did nothing for the first 57 after the oil spill and continues to do nothing except tell the American people that he has been on the case since day one. Nobody is buying that line and that is why even  people like Keith Olbermann found Barack Obama’s claim that they will be able to recover 90% of the spilled oil laughable.

  But while that might have been the best line of the day, the criticism from the left did not stop there. From this article, here are some of the excerpts from the debate on Barack Obama’s big PB speech:

Matthews compared Obama to Carter.

Olbermann: “Nothing specific at all was said.”

Matthews: “No direction.”

Howard Fineman: “He wasn’t specific enough.”

Olbermann: “I don’t think he aimed low, I don’t think he aimed at all. It’s startling.”

Howard Fineman: Obama should be acting like a “commander-in-chief.”

Matthews: Ludicrous that he keeps saying [Secretary of Energy] Chu has a Nobel prize. “I’ll barf if he does it one more time.”

Matthews: “A lot of meritocracy, a lot of blue ribbon talk.”

Matthews: “I don’t sense executive command.”

  Both Howard Fineman and Chris Matthews criticised the president’s lack of leadership during the crisis by claiming that he is not acting like a commander-in-chief and that there is no sence of executive command being demonstrated by this president. They even went so far as to compare him to Jimmy Carter, a comparison that is normally reserved for use by people on the right.

  But there is one aspect to the criticism leveled by all three men that I actually find laughable; all three men mentioned the fact that Barack Obama didn’t have any specifics laid out in his speech. Is it surprising to these people?

  Barack Obama has never been specific on any issue, this is nothing new.

Olbermann made the comment about living on another planet for the last 57 days, but he must have been living on another planet for the last three years if he expected Barack Obama to be specific on this or any other issue. I have said it in the past, but it needs to be repeated; Barack Obama as a candidate was a clean slate, he was perceived to be different things to different people because he carefully and purposely did not take a clear position on any issue while he was a state senator in Illinois, voting present on any bill that could have defined him to the American people. He did this so that he would not have a clear cut record and would be able to seem as if he were whatever a person wanted him to be.

    But people like these three did not see this. They did not see– or chose to ignore– the fact that candidate Obama never sighted specific plans while running for president. Hell, he changed his Iraq war withdrawal strategy on a daily basis as a candidate. But Matthews, Olbermann, and Fineman are finally waking up to the fact that Barack Obama is an empty suit with no ideas and no clear vision on what he should be doing as millions of gallons of oil spill into the waters in the Gulf.

  I am glad that these people are finally waking up, as are millions of Americans, and are finally realizing that maybe– just maybe– Barack Obama was not ready to be president. It is just too bad it took a disaster of this magnitude to show these people that those of us who were leery of Barack Obama from the beginning were not leery of him because he is black– we were leery of him because he is not fit to be president; he had no leadership or executive experience and now we are seeing the results of his inexperience. We were right about Barack Obama all along and when people like James Carville, Keith Olbermann, Howard Fineman, and Chris Matthews begin to turn on him it justifies the position that we have held about Barack Obama for three years.