The New Ugly American?
As gas prices soar, President Obama is sure not sounding like the multilateral un-Bush he once promised. Instead, he is urging others abroad to increase oil production.
But in doing so all sorts of hypocrisies emerge. We have urged the end of pro-American authoritarians in Egypt and Tunisia, apparently on the premise that they were far worse than the anti-American totalitarians in Iran and Syria. But that frightened to death our supposed friends in the oil-exporting Gulf. So now we are to beg them to produce oil while sending messages that they should leave at the first sign of domestic protest?
Worse, as we saw in the praise of Brazilian off-shore drilling, the President is essentially saying to others something like: 'Please drill off your coasts, in your tundra, anywhere to lower world prices and hence the cost of American gas on the eve of my reelection bid.' That sends the message that others are supposed to risk their landscapes in a way we, the far greater consumers of oil, now will not.
Still other paradoxes abound: Obama is pledged to the notion that we cannot "drill our way out" of the crisis. Over the last three years, he has insisted that tire inflation, tune-ups, and trade-ins are preferable to new drilling to reduce gas prices. His Secretary of Energy has insisted that European prices are something to emulate and that we might "cook" if we used our own fossil fuels. Obama himself has bragged of "skyrocket[ing]" electricity prices and "bankrupt" coal companies. The Secretary of Interior once as a senator insisted that he would not support offshore drilling even if gas got to Steven Chu's desirable $10 a gallon. So how can the president now suggest that drilling actually lowers gas prices or that lower gas prices are a good thing? I would have more respect for these crazed utopians if they at least had the guts to say, "Hell no, we aren't going to drill. And we don't want others to either, since at last we are on our way to high gas prices and that means our solar, wind, hybrids, and high-speed rail subsidized projects can finally pencil out."
In truth, the Obamite bureaucrats, academics, and politicos—when gas prices were low—pontificated about copying European cap-and-trade, mass transit, government owned car companies, and subsidies for wind and solar, and denigrated fossil fuels. Now with the political responsibility of governance, bewildered that the recovering global economy, Middle East unrest, and a weak dollar are inflating oil prices, and terrified about reelection, Obama has repudiated his entire past on energy and is reduced to a sort of ugly American, begging/bullying others to provide us the fossil fuels that we will not produce for ourselves. That the U.S. is running a $1.6 trillion budget deficit and a huge trade deficit makes it all the worse, since we are borrowing from others to buy the oil we ourselves will not drill for—as if the Brazilian coast or the Russian Arctic are not as precious to world ecology as ANWR or the Gulf of Mexico.
All this is as if the local college philosophy department tried to run Exxon for a day; in mythical terms it reminds me of frail Phaethon taking the reins of the chariot of the sun from his father Helios—as those below are alternately scorched and frozen in the ensuing chaos.
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Re: The New Ugly American?
I'm not generally prone to indulge in conspiracy theories, but I've found Obama's urging of Brazil to drill for oil to be so unusual in light of his long-standing anti-drilling stance, as to perhaps merit consideration of the influence of George Soros's high stakes investment ($811m) in Brazilian state-controlled oil company Petrobras.
I don't know if I'm wandering into fringe-lunatic territory with my suspicion that that has anything to do with Obama's perplexing inconsistencies, though.
On the other hand, perhaps it's purely coincidental. After all, Soros made the investment in the summer of 2008, months before Obama was elected.
Apr '11
Re: The New Ugly American?
You had me until the last paragraph. ;-) It seems that Obama is trying to corner the market on hypocrisy. It really is astounding. Today I heard his misstatement about hospitals billing twice for a mistake they made, even though a law (which he voted against) was passed in 2005 to prevent that. My father would have said, "that man has no shame".
Re: The New Ugly American?
Ha, same! I had to Wikipedia Phaethon to understand the analogy. My knowledge of Greek mythology is awfully lacking...
Jul '10
Re: The New Ugly American?
Diane Ellis, Ed.: I'm not generally prone to indulge in conspiracy theories, but I've found Obama's urging of Brazil to drill for oil to be so unusual in light of his long-standing anti-drilling stance, as to perhaps merit consideration of the influence of George Soros's high stakes investment ($811m) in Brazilian state-controlled oil company Petrobras.
I don't know if I'm wandering into fringe-lunatic territory with my suspicion that that has anything to do with Obama's perplexing inconsistencies, though.
On the other hand, perhaps it's purely coincidental. After all, Soros made the investment in the summer of 2008, months before Obama was elected. · Apr 27 at 4:10pm
Diane, I was tempted to note Soros' Petrobras investment, too, but thought folks might think it conspiratorial. I believe he has more than $2 billion in Petrobras.
I tend to think it's a NIMBY thing among Obama's eco-masters, as well: OK to drill off of Ipanema, where there all those little brown people. Not OK to drill off of Santa Barbara where, um, real people live.
Edited on Apr 27, 2011 at 4:23pmAug '10
Re: The New Ugly American?
Am I the only person to have read The Ugly American? The eponymous character was a kindly engineer who did good works in a Southeast Asian country. His phiz was notably unattractive but otherwise he was quite exemplary. A minor point, but I do feel we should get our literary allusions right.
Aug '10
Re: The New Ugly American?
Marxist(academic) theory + cold hard reality + politics + laziness = total incompetence i.e. Obama
Re: The New Ugly American?
I haven't read it, but in defense of Dr. Hanson's title choice, this is what Wikipedia says:
Jan '11
Re: The New Ugly American?
Yesterday I read Ovid's take on Phaeton after that same day listening to a podcast by VDH. :-)
What amazes me is that half the nation sees that the emporer has no clothes, whereas the remainder seems blissfully unaware of the contradictions, "mis-statements and inconsistencies", and hypocrisy.
John H, that novel by Lederer and Burdick is a must read for any political junkie!
May '10
Re: The New Ugly American?
Victor Davis Hanson:
All this is as if the local college philosophy department tried to run Exxon for a day; in mythical terms it reminds me of frail Phaethon taking the reins of the chariot of the sun from his father Helios—as those below are alternately scorched and frozen in the ensuing chaos
I seem to remember it didn't end so well for Phaethon, either.
Does Dr. Hanson have a suggestion who we can elect to be our Zeus?
Dec '10
Re: The New Ugly American?
The top three oil-producing countries are Saudi Arabia, Russia and, uh, the United States. I guess this means Obama wants us to increase our production? Don't bet on it.
Jul '10
Re: The New Ugly American?
Tim Hughes: The top three oil-producing countries are Saudi Arabia, Russia and, uh, the United States. I guess this means Obama wants us to increase our production? Don't bet on it. · Apr 27 at 6:03pm
Is that before or after the Regime's hard work on America's energy posture?
Jan '11
Re: The New Ugly American?
As always, VDH illuminates and clarifies. But there was one thing missing from the general gist of his essay: Where is Hillary in all this - or, for that matter, in anything in recent weeks. Have I missed something or is she still Scy of State and supposed to have some influence on international affairs? Is her absence meant to establish a degree of separation from the Obama camp? If so, it's too late, I think, to do her any political good.
Dec '10
Re: The New Ugly American?
Our historic first Islamic apostate president will ration gasoline consumption then demagogue our hardship in his campaign speeches as having been mitigated by the superior foresight of technocratic government intrusion into the oil market. He will solemnly declare that the crisis would get much worse in the absence of our Washington overlords’ taking control of consumption—while simultaneously waving the green flag to cynically legitimize his draconian restrictions on production.
We’ll see if his gambit succeeds in convincing the American public that we are for the better having our consumption rationed by diktat, or if, finally, his collectivist policies are recognized for what they intend to achieve—the deliberately contrived scarcity of goods and services that empowers his chummy thugocracy to extort support, distribute favors, and inflict punishment.
Collectivists are now in power in Washington. They hold in contempt our individual freedom because they believe in the omnipotence of a secular ruling class. They are the subversives. In public, they dissimulate their intentions and project their perfidy on us. In private, they seethe in envy for the power they have not yet usurped.
Edited on Apr 27, 2011 at 7:51pmFeb '11
Re: The New Ugly American?
"as if the local college philosophy department tried to run Exxon for a day"...I see some potential for a movie!
Oct '10
Re: The New Ugly American?
In simple terms, the people have in large part have surrendered...
There is no longer the stomach to meet the challenge on the horizon.
It makes one ill to entertain the unthinkable outcomes of this.
Oct '10
Re: The New Ugly American?
Diane Ellis, Ed.: I'm not generally prone to indulge in conspiracy theories, but I've found Obama's urging of Brazil to drill for oil to be so unusual in light of his long-standing anti-drilling stance, as to perhaps merit consideration of the influence of George Soros's high stakes investment ($811m) in Brazilian state-controlled oil company Petrobras.
I don't know if I'm wandering into fringe-lunatic territory with my suspicion that that has anything to do with Obama's perplexing inconsistencies, though.
On the other hand, perhaps it's purely coincidental. After all, Soros made the investment in the summer of 2008, months before Obama was elected. · Apr 27 at 4:10pm
Simple solution for you, Unicorns, Rainbows and Fairy Dust...
If we did not do it it helps, just create someone new to blame. Sorry about that.