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Apparently, President Obamas address to the nation about the Gusher in the Gulf satisfied no one. Pundits and bloggers, from the left to the right, scrambled for either Head & Shoulders (scratching their heads) or Claritin (to combat the allergy to anything the president says).
Yet the presidents address to the nation did exactly what it needed to do. It began the process of reframing the debate on our addiction to oil.
We can no longer talk about energy without talking about the 20/2. (We use 20 percent of the worlds oil reserves, even though we only make up 2 percent of it.) We can no longer talk about technology without talking about a new cold war -- against a green China. We can no longer talk about economics without talking about way-of-life values (this time, those of the Louisiana wetlands and the Gulf Coast). We can no longer talk about our nation -- our resources and our pride -- without talking about being Gods trustees. And we can no longer talk about the American dream and the good life without talking about the challenges and obstacles we must embrace together to make the dream and the goodness real.
Obamas first Oval Office address reminded me more of Reagans words after the Challenger disaster than Kennedys we will go to the moon speech, though Obama alluded to JFK as well. As space was the challenge of their times, energy is the challenge of ours. And so President Obama echoed his predecessors: We, the people of the United States, working together, can and will shape our destiny, forging a future through the hazards and dangers ahead.
I wonder how many others also heard the subtext in Obamas words: even as we dare the future, we must look heavenward, and be humbled; humbled, because some things really are beyond even the presidency; humbled, because we cant fix everything, and what we can usually requires more than a quick fix; humbled, because disagreement does not require dissension, and because, ultimately, we must all hang together.
Some mocked Obamas reference to The Blessing of the Fleet. But that symbolic celebration of the Gulf Coast fisherman speaks to us all. Clergy of different religions pray for the safety and success of men and women who will head out to sea. The blessing is that God is always with us -- Republican, Democrat, Tea, Green or any party -- we are all, together, dependent on Him -- something our forefathers acknowledged.
Give the president credit: He did not dwell on the source of this spill, the hands-off big business advocates. In a 2,700-word speech, he allowed only 71 to recount the results of a misplaced philosophy and the incestuous oil-and-inspector relationship at the Minerals Mismanagement Service.
I am so with the president on this. Feel-good blaming wont benefit the fishermen or fisheries of the Gulf Coast. It will not bring back those cancelled vacations to Gulf coast beaches. Obama said, Im happy to look at other ideas and approaches from either party -- as long they seriously tackle our addiction to fossil fuels. Given his willingness to engage those who disagree with him, even more, it seems, than with those who like his policies, he obviously meant it.
So why does the Republican leadership continue to mutter like drones, encouraging opportunism instead of seizing opportunity? When the president declared war on the spill, Bobby Jindal, the Republican governor of Louisiana, rushed to the cameras to declare, were losing the war. Well, yes, those who ignore their defenses and safety precautions start off losing a war; but those who work together with determination may yet win it.
Eventually, the artificial daily outrage of the Republican leadership, manufactured cookie-cutter fashion since Obama raised his right hand, begins to sound like the vuvuzelas heard at the World Cup -- the plastic horns which, as Madison Park, CNNs health writer and producer writes, sound like trumpeting elephants or even extended flatulence. Does this not describe the monotone of Mitch McConnell, John Boehner, etc. -- a wail and buzz that almost obscenely grates the nerves.
I wish some of my fellow talking heads would say to these Republican nay-sayers: You dont have to love Obama. You honestly do not. But, let me ask you, do you love America?
At long last, are you so intent on vuvuzeling Obamas presidency into failure that you dont care if you drag all of us, and our beloved country, down with you?
Snipe and blame will not bring the blessing thats granted even in the midst of the storm.
Only if we share the costs together, politically as well as economically, can we be sure of what sees us through -- what has always seen us through -- our strength, our resilience and our unyielding faith that something better awaits us if we summon the courage to reach for it.
Donna Brazile is a political commentator on CNN, ABC and NPR; contributing columnist to Roll Call, the newspaper of Capitol Hill; and former campaign manager for Al Gore.
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