Ramirez on the real long-term disaster
posted at 5:25 pm on June 19, 2010 by Ed Morrissey
It spews at an ever-increasing rate. Nothing that people try even slows it down, let alone stop it. It threatens ruination to the entire nation. The Gulf spill? Certainly that’s true in the short term, but two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Ramirez thinks more long term in his latest editorial cartoon for Investors Business Daily. Like the Deepwater Horizon blowout, Ramirez’ focus lies on an unfolding economic catastrophe that is solely the fault of human error:
We’re hearing a lot about America’s addiction to crude oil in the wake of the Gulf disaster. We need to address the Gulf, but for the long term, we need to end Washington’s addiction to public spending, borrowing, and taxation, or we will endure a fiscal collapse that will dwarf the damage done by BP in the Gulf.
Ramirez has a terrific collection of his works: Everyone Has the Right to My Opinion, which covers the entire breadth of Ramirez’ career, and it gives fascinating look at political history. Read my review here, and watch my interviews with Ramirez here and here. And don’t forget to check out the entire Investors.com site, which has now incorporated all of the former IBD Editorials, while individual investors still exist.
Blowback
Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.
Trackbacks/Pings
Trackback URL
Comments
Good point there. Those that are most eager to sell us on the impending doom caused by our energy policies tend to be the same people that spend our money frivolously on every gov’t initiative that comes their way.
It would seem the rational response to someone that believes we’re approaching an energy crisis would be to prioritize elsewhere. That’s not what happens. That should lead any thinking person to wonder whether the end game is really increased gov’t control of lives and revenue rather than anything well intentioned.
stldave on June 19, 2010 at 5:36 PM
ji’Qlllework…!!!
Seven Percent Solution on June 19, 2010 at 5:41 PM
He Knows, He Just Doesn’t Care
The most damning thing about Obama’s response to the Gulf Crisis (the other Gulf Crisis) is not what it reveals about his lack of competence, but what it reveals about his lack of interest. And it has forced many liberals to recognize, what so many conservatives knew all along. That Obama just doesn’t care.
Politicians who don’t care what happens to the little people are nothing new. But Bill Clinton was a master at pretending to care. His performance in that infamous funeral clip testifies to a man who could turn on the facade of emotions in the blink of an eye. Obama isn’t very good at that. Where Clinton was a natural actor, Obama is an unnatural one. Unlike most politicians, he lacks that instinct, because he lacks any degree of empathy. And so Obama needs extensive prep time to get his show on the road. Without prep time and a teleprompter, the mask begins to slip and the man underneath is cold and distant delivering a mechanical performance.
Look at Obama and you see the mirror of liberal expectations. No sooner does Bill Maher deliver his black man line then Obama begins talking about kicking ass. As always Obama tries to manipulate people by becoming what they want him to be. But underneath it, the fate of Americans means nothing to him.
Tav on June 19, 2010 at 5:42 PM
How the Road to Socialism is Paved
One of the more insidious aspects of the government takeover is how such takeovers are pitched as reforms. Of course reform traditionally applies to institutions reforming themselves or being reformed by their constituents or shareholders. The idea of government reforming the private sector smacks of unlimited authority, which is exactly what it is. And so a government that cannot reform itself, that cannot stop its out of control spending, its constant legislative corruption, its culture of pork and kickbacks, its compulsive need to appropriate power, sets out to instead take over every aspect of life within the country in the name of reform.
Tav on June 19, 2010 at 5:42 PM
That debt is under water.
the_nile on June 19, 2010 at 5:50 PM
To quote the song: “Nobody does it better!”
Webrider on June 19, 2010 at 6:10 PM
Ramierz and daybyday have it right today. Both on my first on line gotta see.
Thanks HA for giving them a post.
L
letget on June 19, 2010 at 6:19 PM
Excllent cartoon!
Tomorrow do one with the oil cloud spewing forth from the top of the Whitehouse and the white “SPENDING” captioned replaced with OBAMA!
he has no intention of getting his hands dirty trying to stop it. He has not called in international experts, he has not even yet allowed international help. He intends to harm America and bring her to her knees for her past transgressions, for her greed, for her arrogance, for her international meddling. He is not one of us, he is out to destroy us.
He and O’Biden golf while his punk Rahm squeals that BP exec sails!
IMPEACH or lose our country as we know it and her precious southern shores!
dhunter on June 19, 2010 at 6:23 PM
And why is there so little discussion in the press and blogs of “You think the Govt. is screwing up the handling of the oil spill, what do you think is going to happen with Govt. controlled health care”????
And in a similar vein of this cartoon how about one of Obama speaking, his fingers pointing here, there, everywhere and all we see coming out of his mouth is an uncontrolled gusher of: “Blame Bush, Blame Republicans”.
albill on June 19, 2010 at 6:55 PM
A gusher of $5,000,000,000.00 per day in deficit spending during our young inexperienced president’s first 400 days.
UN-F’ING-Precedented!!!!!!!1111111!!!!!eleventy
jukin on June 19, 2010 at 7:17 PM
This is apocryphal, but Einstein is supposed to have said:
Earlier this week I was musing about a comparison of our national debt and deficit to oil spilling into the Gulf. One penny per drop of oil? One dollar per drop? Drop per day versus dollars per year? Close? That was my mental image this week, but didn’t attempt the actual computation. And because of compound interest, unlike the Gulf leak, our debt is just going to get worse and worse.
Paul-Cincy on June 19, 2010 at 7:35 PM
Can we drop the White Mosque and Congress, pols included, into the Gulf in hopes of plugging the damn hole.
madmonkphotog on June 19, 2010 at 8:05 PM
Ramirez is a national treasure.
Few can say so much with so little actual words, and yet be understood by everyone that views his work.
NavyspyII on June 19, 2010 at 9:30 PM
Really makes me wonder if this is not all intentional. Maybe not an act of sabotage, but sabotage nonetheless, after the fact. A normal human being with his power and position would have created a war-room atmosphere from the day of the explosion….an all-out national emergency…calling on every source: engineers scientists, one and all with knowledge of oil-rigging, accidents, and clean-up. That’s all there is to it…make the best effort you possibly can.
Didn’t happen that way. Instead, he spurns all efforts of help and then waits weeks before finally announcing the price-tag that BP must pay, and oh yeah, the gewgaws; the wonders of renewable energy.
Shame? He doesn’t have any.
betsyz on June 19, 2010 at 9:35 PM
Ramirez is awesome and all, not knocking his work but… is this a paid sponsorship? It always reads the same way, etc… if it is paid it would be a bit more respectful to just say so.
DaveS on June 19, 2010 at 10:05 PM
No, it’s not a paid sponsorship. I like Michael and his work and I like having the link to his book and our interviews whenever I use one of his cartoons. I also like to remind people to read IBD on those occasions. They’re good about letting me republish the cartoons occasionally, so it’s at least a courtesy to give them some props.
Ed Morrissey on June 19, 2010 at 11:30 PM
I think it’s worse than that. Obambi is a puppet, a Manchurian President. He has no managerial nor administrative experience. The one thing he is good at is campaigning, using a stump speech and a resonant voice to promote himself.
The people behind him have more real-world experience, but they are ideologues, and view problems only through a lens that asks, “How can we use this to pursue our agenda?” So on the one hand, Obambi is bombarded by the press and the public with demands that he step up to the role of President; on the other, he is told to ‘look Presidential’ but use the current crisis to further The Agenda. At best he comes off looking confused, and incompetent; at worst, utterly lost.
We have more than two years of this guy to get through.
MrLynn on June 19, 2010 at 11:59 PM
This oil spill is the perfect metaphor for the entire Obama presidency. Continuous, billowing waves of toxic destruction poisoning the entire country and everything great about it, relentless and deadly to everything it touches. That is the Obama presidency.
Show me where I’m wrong.
Fishoutofwater on June 20, 2010 at 12:24 AM
The oil spill will do less long term damage than the 0bama Regime.
Wolftech on June 20, 2010 at 8:11 AM
I love Ramirez. If his politics were liberal, the media would be calling his cartoons genius.
hawkdriver on June 20, 2010 at 9:01 AM
Ed, be careful. I don’t see a disclaimer that if someone clicks through to that link and buys something, Amazon will toss you a few shekels for the referral. Just a matter of time before Anthony Weiner claims you’re doing something unethical.
The Monster on June 20, 2010 at 11:30 AM