Obama's Failure To Lead (Again!)

Obama has just promised that the Gulf "will be better than it was before." Who is he kidding? It will take decades if ever for the Gulf to recover from this oil spill disaster. This is not leadership, this is lying. Better he finally tell the truth to the American people: we are out of oil and we have to change our way of living to reflect this reality. This means no more cheap gasoline and higher costs for all forms of energy. Offshore drilling must end because it is not safe. Our oil imports must be reduced and eventually eliminated because our dependence on oil from our enemies is not in our national interest. Will Obama have the courage to tell the truth and lead tonight when he gives his first oval office address to the nation? Don't hold your breath!

Peter Daou at Huffington thinks it's Obama's last chance to show leadership:

From day one, the principled critique of Obama has come from the left. From gay rights to civil liberties to secrecy to the environment to Afghanistan and national security, progressive opinion-makers have gone after the administration for failing to fulfill its overarching purpose of being the anti-Bush, to reverse America's near-fatal, turn-of-the-millennium mistake, to restore sanity to a nation that temporarily lost it, to reinstate fealty and respect for its greatest values. Unfortunately, the president and his advisers have been far more solicitous of opponents on the right, treating progressives like a familial annoyance, a needless irritant... The saddest part of all this is that principled progressive policy is also good politics, something lost on the vast majority of Democratic strategists.

•How long has the left been warning that if Obama reinforces Bushian policies, he'll lose the ethical high ground and with it his administration's entire moral compass?
•How early in the health care debate were progressives arguing for a stronger bill through reconciliation?
•How forcefully have progressives been warning that the public derision expressed toward them by the White House Chief of Staff and other officials will suppress the leading edge of the Democratic base?
•How blindsided and disappointed were progressives by the administration's supremely ill-fated announcement of new offshore drilling?
•And how unlikely would Obama's election have been in the first place without the thankless and tireless progressive opposition to Bush when Bush's approval ratings were astronomical and Democrats had no stomach for fighting him?
...With the Gulf calamity, Obama is once again a step behind the progressive community. Problem is, you can only play catch up for so long before you're perceived as a follower not a leader...With the address to the nation on Tuesday, it's time for President Obama to show the world that we won't let this catastrophe fade into the bottomless ocean of inaction, that we will save ourselves and our home. It's time for him to look in the progressive mirror and go big, and go left.