A Wall Street Journal op-ed wonders why the president has done nothing to stop the government from obstructing the Gulf coast cleanup:
As the government fails to implement such simple and straightforward remedies, one must ask why.
One possibility is sheer incompetence. Many critics of the president are fond of pointing out that he had no administrative or executive experience before taking office. But the government is full of competent people, and the military and Coast Guard can accomplish an assigned mission. In any case, several remedies require nothing more than getting out of the way.
Another possibility is that the administration places a higher priority on interests other than the fate of the Gulf, such as placating organized labor, which vigorously defends the Jones Act.
Finally there is the most pessimistic explanation—that the oil spill may be viewed as an opportunity, the way White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said back in February 2009, “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.”
My theory has been that this president, a true believer in big government, simply is temperamentally incapable of cutting back government interference. I guess you could put that in the incompetence category. It’s hard to dismiss the other two theories, though.
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