Keith Olbermann Whines and Undermines Obama’s Oil Spill Address

Last updated on July 18th, 2023 at 11:17 am

MSNBC Pundits Out of Touch With Americans

“We must make a commitment to the Gulf Coast that goes beyond responding to the crisis of the moment.”~~ Barack Obama

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Instead of gearing up to support the POTUS in his rather courageous announcement that we are addicts and need to get off of fossil fuel (this isn’t something done by Presidents who have an energy bill calling for alternative energy stalled in the Senate) or having his back regarding his new energy push, pundits on MSNBC attacked the President after his Oval Office Speech tonight.

Keith Olbermann led the charge, saying the President wasn’t mad enough and didn’t give any details. The President spoke for 17 minutes. Is it just me, or does that seem like a rather short time to give details for a new energy policy, gulf clean up, and more? Perhaps it escaped Keith Olbermann’s notice, but most Americans wanted to hear from their President to be reassured. They don’t want an angry President. If they did, they would not have elected Obama when they had His Angriness Himself (Walnuts) McCain begging to be chosen.

No, Americans were tired of a President leading with his gut. They wanted a thinker. Someone who stopped first before he and his End Times running partner threatened World War III over what turned out to be wrong information. And this is what we got.

Obama’s job tonight was to assure and inspire the American people. After all, he needs us to agree to change or his energy policy will not work. I thought his speech did an excellent job of laying down how we got here and where we need to go – especially for the majority of Americans who don’t immerse themselves in politics every second of the day. You know, those people with lives (unlike some of us).

The most important thing the President said tonight was, “One place we have already begun to take action is at the agency in charge of regulating drilling and issuing permits, known as the Minerals Management Service. Over the last decade, this agency has become emblematic of a failed philosophy that views all regulation with hostility – a philosophy that says corporations should be allowed to play by their own rules and police themselves. At this agency, industry insiders were put in charge of industry oversight. Oil companies showered regulators with gifts and favors, and were essentially allowed to conduct their own safety inspections and write their own regulations.”

That was the boom, out go the lights moment when the left should have been up cheering. Instead, we got whining and criticism. Obama is saying he is going to use this to undo DECADES of deregulation. This will change our country and our lives for a long time. It’s a BIG FUCKING DEAL, to borrow a phrase from Joe Biden.

Keith Olbermann wasn’t alone tonight in his attacks on the President. Chris Matthews joined in, though Chris’ critiques were at least based on history and a grasp of the process of passing legislation. And Howard Fineman was there, making it a real party — three boys bashing the President. If I didn’t know better, I would have sworn I was watching Fox. The President did nothing right in their eyes.

I haven’t seen such blatant undermining of an agenda…ever. It makes me wonder if MSNBC is funded by big oil. Because here we have their President, doing something no other president has done. And he desperately needs the American people to wake up and get behind him on this. And what does MSNBC do? They bash him for not being angry enough (last time I heard that it was a right winger speaking), not giving enough details (as if the people want to hear a dissertation from the “professor” and as if he is not giving more information tomorrow), Obama needs a new CCC (then he would be called a socialist), and lastly, Keith Olbermann with the ever clever quip, “I don’t think Obama aimed at all tonight.”

You know, Keith, I am so tired of ideologues who have never governed misleading the American people about expectations. I’m so tired of pundits ruining our political dialogue with incessant whining and desperate criticisms. I’m so tired of pundits NOT AIMING for anything except more viewers. The truth is, Keith’s just catering to the liberal base who love to hear their own attacked because it makes them feel like they’re not like the Right. They take deep pride in bashing their own policies for the sake of their egos not identifying with the authoritarian mind set of subservience. Of course, reasonable people realize that there’s a wide path between subservience and support.

I guess SOME people want Obama to be ANGRY. Me? I’m grateful he’s not reactionary and he thinks and listens.

Beware the ideologues. I’m just saying.

Sarah Jones

Listen to Sarah on the PoliticusUSA Pod on The Daily newsletter podcast here.

Sarah has been credentialed to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi multiple times and exclusively covered her first home appearance after the first impeachment of then President Donald Trump.

Sarah is two-time Telly award winning video producer and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.

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