Jindal Blames Obama

[erpowers]

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal was on the Today Show this morning trying to promote his new book and probably test the waters for a possible presidential run. In the appearance and as it seems in the book, Jindal tries to blame President Obama for the things that went wrong during the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

The thing that got me was that Jindal tried to blame President Obama for things that he had nothing to do with and things that most people would not blame him for doing. In the first example Jindal criticized President Obama for supposedly stopping workers from cleaning the oil spill in order to check that the boats had the proper saftey equipment onboard. I think most people would say you cannot really blame government officials for making sure their enough saftey equipment onboard the boats in the event of an accident. In addition, what would one want government officials to do? Risk the lives of people just so an oil spill can be cleaned up faster. The second example when Jindal supposedly took a Coast Guard captain into the Gulf of Mexico in a National Guard helicopter and showed the Coast Guard captain that there was actually oil in the water (the Coast Guard according to Jindal had been denying that there was oil in the water). To that the Coast Guard captain supposedly responded that it would take the Coast Guard about 24-48 hours to begin to fix the problem. To that I respond, first, that had nothing to do with President Obama. President Obama was not the person telling him it would take 24-48 hours to get things done. Second, Jindal was talking to a Coast Guard captain. I know captains are high ranking officers in the Coast Guard, but they are not the highest ranking officers in the Coast Guard. There are at least two levels higher than captains in the Coast Guard. In addition, this captain was not the person in charge of the Coast Guard's efforts. First, Jindal should have asked that captain why it needed to take so long to get things done. Then he should have worked his way up the chain of command until he got a proper answer or solutions or until he got to the highest ranking person in the Coast Guard. Then he either should have asked or demanded that something be done sooner. In my opinion Jindal's dealings with the Coast Guard captain puts more of a question mark on his leadership skills than President Obama's leadership skills.

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/#40191881

[WinkyDink]

1. Sorry, Bobby; that Jai Ho train has come and gone.

[gratuitous]

2. Certainly seems newsworthy

I saw Jindal's smarmy smile this morning just before I headed out the door, and wondered what he could possibly have that was worth a segment on the Today Show. Finger-pointing at the Obama administration is always newsworthy, as we're finding out. Blaming the Bush administration for launching an invasion based on a pack of lies? Not so much. GE made lots and lots of money off of that "mistake." No sense biting the hand that fed you so well, particularly if it might feed you again.

[spanone]

3. the morning shows are thick with thugs