Does the President have common sense?

By Tom Quiner

An earnest Obama supporter looked me in the eyes shortly after the last election and said, “Obama, he’s just smarter than the rest of us.”

End of story.  In other words, there’s no further debate necessary.  If one disagrees with President Obama, they’re wrong, because Mr. Obama is smarter than the rest of us.

Candidate Obama immodestly promoted this kind of fawning fanship with his own grandiose rhetoric.  He characterized his nomination at the Democratic Convention as the historic moment when “the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal.”

Reality has sunk in with a vengeance.

Not only can he not control the depth of the ocean, he can’t control its color.  Oil is the new color of the ocean near America’s gulf coast.  The President is not responsible for this disaster.  However, the government’s response is certainly problematic.

ABC News reported on Louisiana Governor, Bobby Jindal’s, frustration with the federal government.  “It’s the most frustrating thing,” Mr. Jindal told ABC News.  “Literally, Wednesday morning we found out that they were halting all of these barges.”

The barges were stationed in Louisiana waters to suck out oil.  According to ABC, the Coast Guard halted efforts because they needed to confirm that barges had fire extinguishers and life vests on board.

Bureaucratic red tape halted efforts to clean the Gulf.  The President is boss of the federal bureaucracy.  A man of his intelligence must be heeded even if it means more severe ecological damage.  Even though we’re two months into the oil spill, that’s a worthy price to pay, don’t you think?  Bureaucratic regulations must always supercede a hasty response to an oil spill.  Regulations are more important than the ecology.

I have no doubt that the President is an intelligent man.  I have to admit, though, that I’m beginning to doubt his common sense.