Ramirez on capping the blowout
posted at 2:20 pm on July 16, 2010 by Ed Morrissey
With the news that BP has at least temporarily capped the Deepwater Horizon well, we can hopefully focus on the cleanup and mitigating the damage from 87 days of leadership failures, disengagement, and lack of action. It will take longer than that to cap the damage from the blowout in Barack Obama’s polling, as two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist Michael Ramirez depicts in his entry for today. In fact, the Gulf crisis may be the least of Obama’s worries as the economy spins downward into stagnation:
As always, Ramirez leaves a treasure or two to those who pay attention to the details. Obama holds a polling chart in his hand, but pay attention to the pictures on the Oval Office desk. It’s all about The One, after all.
Will the end of the spill — if it’s indeed over — help bolster his polling? I’d say doubtful, for a couple of reasons. The demonstrable lack of leadership in the Gulf has stained Obama worse than the beaches of Louisiana and other states, and the problems in the cleanup are continuing. Having the illusion of leadership stripped by this crisis doesn’t mean that the illusion returns at the end of it. But mostly, the performance of the economy and the desperation of Recovery Summer has probably overtaken the Gulf crisis as the driver of his numbers. Unless he plans to transform himself into the free-market, laissez-faire policymaker that will be needed to spark significant growth in the economy, even this cap won’t contain the suck of his downward trajectory.
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
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That’s racist!
(and funny)
carbon_footprint on July 16, 2010 at 2:22 PM
Considering how detached he has tried to make himself from the spill, I would have to answer no, this will not help his polling. And as far as the well being capped goes, I would not count my chickens before they cross the road on that.
Johnnyreb on July 16, 2010 at 2:25 PM
That cap is too small for Obama’s Ego. It’s sure to blow.
portlandon on July 16, 2010 at 2:28 PM
Can they switch it from suck to blow?
Tony737 on July 16, 2010 at 2:30 PM
Before or after the jacuzzi?
Mel wants to know.
Disturb the Universe on July 16, 2010 at 2:33 PM
Just a little tip for Obama, read how the 1920-21 depression was handled. He may find a few good ideas by doing so.
WashJeff on July 16, 2010 at 2:33 PM
“Malia and Sasha, daddy capped the well, all by himself. The media say so; let’s go on vacation, to Maine. The South is for those red state hicks, those bible-thumping, gun-toting rubes. Wait until I’m done with the moratorium. They’ll beg to vote for me in 2012″.
Schadenfreude on July 16, 2010 at 2:34 PM
To claim that Ramirez is brilliant would be a disservice to both, him and brilliance.
What a national treasure, at a time when hardly anyone has steely ones left.
Schadenfreude on July 16, 2010 at 2:36 PM
The NAACP issues a statement against Ramirez in 3….. 2….. 1…..
UltimateBob on July 16, 2010 at 2:36 PM
If it could only cap the Federal Spending……
DL13 on July 16, 2010 at 2:37 PM
Is this what they call “top kill” and then they throw in there a bunch of golf balls and other junk?
Electrongod on July 16, 2010 at 2:39 PM
It’s racist because, both, Obama and Oil are black and need to be capped in order to stop them from spilling destruction.
carbon_footprint on July 16, 2010 at 2:41 PM
I have been working tirelessly until I finally capped the damn hole. i think that my knowledge and my leadership brought me to a new point in my presidency. I thank me for all of my efforts to make me look like the demigod that I am. I am grateful for the country having me and my ideas and my leadership.
jukin on July 16, 2010 at 2:43 PM
“Will the end of the spill — if it’s indeed over — help bolster his polling? I’d say doubtful, for a couple of reasons. The demonstrable lack of leadership in the Gulf has stained Obama worse than the beaches of Louisiana and other states, and the problems in the cleanup are continuing. Having the illusion of leadership stripped by this crisis doesn’t mean that the illusion returns at the end of it..”
..exactly!
The War Planner on July 16, 2010 at 2:43 PM
Will the well finally capped help bolster his polling? I doubt it. Two reasons: 1) The media will continue to focus on the messy and ineffective beach cleanup, dead wildlife, ocean currents carrying oil to the Carolinas, out-of-work fisherman, coastal towns affected. All to Obama’s detriment, and 2) The drilling moratorium will cause a backlash by the oil & gas industry and the coastal states affected. Obama will continue to be labeled anti-business, anti-jobs, stuck on solar panels and big stinking fans. And I’m still waiting for some more shoes to fall on the White House over their handling of this whole matter.
As I think about it, I can’t fathom how Obama, his Interior Dept. and Congress could have handled this more poorly. And it’s still not over.
16MPG on July 16, 2010 at 2:44 PM
Ramirez is a genius. He rivals Gary Larson and Steve Adams in my book.
percysunshine on July 16, 2010 at 2:44 PM
We’ve seen this before…an african American surrounded by hatefull whites…we see the chains, the chains that have bound us through slavery…this is a metaphor for a lynching of a black man…we also see the larger stereotypical sleepy eyes and bigger lips than the evil hatefull whites who cannot have a black man in the white house…we see the lustfull, wanton look of the hatefull workers eyes who will sexually assault michelle after this lynching…
obviously racist…
With our best regards,
The NAACP
LtE126 on July 16, 2010 at 2:47 PM
Watch, lest you lose perspective.
If the plug doesn’t hold, Laura Ingraham suggests catapulting Janet Napolitano into the hole.
Schadenfreude on July 16, 2010 at 2:49 PM
Maybe they could get michelle to sit her big fat Shanaynay ass on top of it.
LtE126 on July 16, 2010 at 2:54 PM
The Braying Jacka$$ Pinnochio was speechifying away today saying WE capped the thing but are not finished yet, it remains to be seen if what WE did will hold!
If WE play our cards right here, the Braying Jacka$$ Pinnochio could be finished come Nov. 2010!
IMPEACH THE IMPOSTER!
dhunter on July 16, 2010 at 2:55 PM
That’s funny! But oil is really either a greenish brown or a reddish brown… it isn’t black unless the air hits it and it start to oxidize or unless it’s refined.
Besides.. wasn’t Obama more a mocha?
upinak on July 16, 2010 at 2:55 PM
Not to be a critic, but as funny as it is, it would be better with a Stimulus Sign!
Stephen Macklin on July 16, 2010 at 2:57 PM
Just think how much lower his poll numbers would be if we actually had decent media coverage of the widespread spill damage. There was a brief mention not to long ago about the oil getting into Lake Pontchartrain and now we hear nothing about it.
scalleywag on July 16, 2010 at 3:02 PM
As soon as the cap is ‘certified’, Barry will be spouting “I plugged the leak!”
And 33% of the population will dutifully bow their heads in adoration. We are so screwed as a country.
GarandFan on July 16, 2010 at 3:02 PM
If the spill is indeed permanently stopped (time will tell), who stopped it? BP, not Obama! What did Obama DO during this oil spill, besides pick up a few tarballs in his delicate fingers, and TALK about looking for an @$$ to kick? While foreign aid was turned away, oil skimmers sat uselessly in the Atlantic and Pacific where they weren’t needed, and Gov. Jindal screamed for aid and wasn’t even allowed to pound sand, to protect his state’s marshes.
Will Obama’s poll numbers rise? If that well was gushing 60,000 barrels a day for 87 days, that’s over 5.2 million barrels, or 219 million gallons, of crude still floating around in the Gulf, and it will take MONTHS to clean that up, even if all available resources are mobilized immediately. All it takes is one hurricane, and there could be an oily storm surge extending many miles inland–because nobody was out skimming the slick while it was still concentrated near the original drilling rig. People complain about Katrina, but as bad as it was, that flood was only water.
If Obama thinks this oil spill is the perfect excuse to ban offshore drilling, he should think again. According to Rasmussen, overwhelming majorities (70%+) in TX, LA, and MS still support offshore drilling, even after this spill. They know that we need the oil, and they need the jobs, and they know how to drill and fish in the same water, if the Government does its job. Meanwhile, Gov. Jindal has a 74% job approval in Louisiana, because he is DOING something!
If Obama wants to improve his poll ratings, he should send every last oil-skimming ship available to the Gulf, work WITH the Governors of the Gulf states to protect the coastline, and start pushing for meaningful tax cuts for small businesses through Congress.
But since Obama is too incompetent and leftist to do that, “capping” him is the best strategy.
Steve Z on July 16, 2010 at 3:08 PM
So glad it’s capped. Now the cleanup begins. No prob with Øbambi at the helm.
Mojave Mark on July 16, 2010 at 3:09 PM
I nominate him for a Nobel Prize
faraway on July 16, 2010 at 3:13 PM
Steve,
There is no way that it has been gushing 60K especially in the days before the riser was sheared off. IMPOSSIBLE. there were definitely too many restrictions before that point and afterwards with pipe still in the BOP stack and likely some of the lower casing liner shoved up into the BOP to keep it from shearing, means that thing is full of restrictions galore thus not flowing as freely as many thing.
What has been spewing is mostly gas and a lot of it, rather than oil.
There was a large school of tuna in the ROV camera earlier today.
Kermit on July 16, 2010 at 3:14 PM
I dare him to claim any credit for stopping the spill. As if he hasn’t insulted the gulf residents enough already with his talk about being on task from day one and not resting till it’s over. This is his FIFTH vacation since the explosion.
scalleywag on July 16, 2010 at 3:15 PM
Reader photos
http://www.sunherald.com/2010/06/29/2297206/reader-photos-of-oil-in-mississippi.html#http://media.sunherald.com/smedia/2010/07/13/09/16206021.standalone.prod_affiliate.77.jpg
scalleywag on July 16, 2010 at 3:17 PM
It will happen within the week. Count on it. Remember, this is the administration that took credit for Iraq, while Obama claimed the surge wouldn’t work when he was a Senator.
These are the people who had the audacity to allow Dodd and Frank to head the financial reform bill while these were the exact two who helped cause the housing bubble.
carbon_footprint on July 16, 2010 at 3:23 PM
I love Ramirez! He is the first site I go on when the computer comes on.
L
letget on July 16, 2010 at 3:23 PM
NEXT ON 24!
One window with minutes ticking down.
2nd window with Bush sitting in classroom with someone whispering in his ear that the world trade center has been hit for a second time.
3rd window with Jack Bauer screaming into the phone, “We need the president to make a decision now!”
Bush gets out of chair with “24″ countdown.
Screen displays, “Scenes from next season on 24!”
One window with minutes ticking down.
2nd window with Obama sitting in oval office.
3rd window with Jack Bauer screaming into the phone, “We need the president to make a decision now!”
2nd window shows Obama golfing, meeting basketball starts, etc.
1st window minutes cycle through very fast showing days passing.
3rd window finally shows Obama finally appointing someone to kick @$$.
1st window finally stops at ~1000.
shick on July 16, 2010 at 3:23 PM
I know it will, I expect it any moment. He’s waiting to make sure it’s really going to work.
He’s also the guy who waited how many months to make a decision about Afghanistan? And told the enemy when to expect us to retreat. And cut our missile defense. And still hasn’t sent as many troops as he promised to our borders. The list goes on. He’s so bad in so many ways there’s not room on the internet to list them.
scalleywag on July 16, 2010 at 3:28 PM
scalleywag, one of those oil photos looks like Michele Obama’s blouse she wore to the beach.
faraway on July 16, 2010 at 3:29 PM
This guy that sits in the Office of the President is the most clueless, classless, unintelligent, and unaccomplished of any of those in whatever room he is occupying!
Thanks Rush!
dhunter on July 16, 2010 at 3:32 PM
Seriously? Why would you wear something that looked like that?
scalleywag on July 16, 2010 at 3:37 PM
Wag the dog.
Now what will they do to deflect the anger of the US populace away from the shenanigans in DC?
BobMbx on July 16, 2010 at 3:46 PM
Hahaha!
TN Mom on July 16, 2010 at 3:57 PM
Great cartoon!
We Gulf residents know the Gulf is already dead.
Now what we need from our fellow Americans is to help us lift this unnecessary, punitive moratorium.
Our wildlife and fisheries are gone. Now at least let us drill and try to pay our mortgages down here.
We are trying FILL the 12,000-seat Cajundome here in Lafayette, Louisiana, next Wednesday, July 21.
Please check out the very simple, straightforward, fact-filled website for the rally:
http://www.rallyforeconomicsurvival.com
If you can find the time, please call or write your representative and petition them to tell Obama to order Interior Sec. Ken Salazar to STOP fighting the New Orleans judge who overturned the first moratorium and to REMOVE THE NEW DRILLING MORATORIUM!
Sarah Palin would never have imposed such an unjustified, draconian moratorium, which is keeping the federal boot on Louisiana’s neck.
Please help us, America! It’s your energy costs that will spiral upward as we lose American rigs to Brazil and increase our dependence on foreign oil!
cane_loader on July 16, 2010 at 3:57 PM
I’d feel sorry for Mr. President except that 1)it’s his own fault his polls are in the tank and 2)he could care less what Americans think about him or what they want.
scalleywag on July 16, 2010 at 3:57 PM
Kermit, you’re truly an optimist! While I hope you are right, I am not as optimistic. This oil has to go somewhere – and from the inside source I have, it’s in plumes deep down and wobbling around like an amoeba stuck in a lava lamp.
This has coastal parish officials terrified at what a hurricane will bring.
cane_loader on July 16, 2010 at 4:00 PM
Once again, for emphasis:
http://www.rallyforeconomicsurvival.com
This is what we coastal residents are doing to try to fight the power
cane_loader on July 16, 2010 at 4:01 PM
Obama needs to order an immediate polling moratorium.
Christien on July 16, 2010 at 5:11 PM
New Bristol Palin thread up.
Well, this thread’s dead.
http://www.HotAirTMZ.com – the gift that keeps on giving
cane_loader on July 16, 2010 at 6:24 PM
Kanye West claims Obama doesn’t like black people in 3….2…..1…. *crickets*
infidel4life on July 16, 2010 at 7:05 PM
I do not think this cartoon is racist, but I did enjoy an email that was making the rounds. A picture of Obama in swimsuit wading ashore, I believe it was from his vacation in HI, with the caption…”First tar ball washes up on Florida beach.”
jbinnout on July 16, 2010 at 8:04 PM
What they are not telling about the BP oil crisis: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2010/07/heres_what_you_havent_heard_ab.html
This link has an excellent video of locals telling their stories about the impact.
The federal government has a lot to answer for in its lousy response. The people of the Gulf are suffering. The dispersants are a health hazard.
onlineanalyst on July 16, 2010 at 9:03 PM
Ramirez is a great artist. Elegant and intelligent to boot. Reminds me of the old Punch
The biggest problem in the cleanup is Obama’s refusal to bring in FEMA.
During Katrina, the press castigated FEMA for slow response
The scandal of the Oil Spill is the fact Obama will not use FEMA. The second scandal is the press refusal to mention FEMA has not been called in by Obama for this crisis.
FEMA is used to coordinate natural disaster recovery, but FEMA can be used for man made disaster if the President requests, as Bush requested FEMA for 911 recovery, as long as the States declare emergencies, as they all have
The press has not criticized FEMA on the oil cleanup, because FEMA is not there. It is criminal how our own citizens are being used and destroyed for political gain
entagor on July 16, 2010 at 10:51 PM
The gusher is stopped and all they can whine about is the pressure is lower than they expected. Just like job growth. It’s been very quiet on the media front for several weeks. The won’t report all the misery Zero has caused since he’s grabbed the mantle of being there since day one.
Kissmygrits on July 17, 2010 at 2:00 PM