Enter the Motif

The day after President Obama’s first Oval Office speech I want to bring up something that has not yet been used as a talking point by my fellow members of the vast right wing conspiracy, but should be.

Here are three quotes in the past 24 hours of what the talking point revolves around before I get into what it and why it is important.

“This is an assault on our shores, and we’re going to fight back with everything we’ve got.”- 6/15/10 Speech to Troops in Pensacola, FL

“I’ve returned from a trip to the Gulf Coast to speak with you about the battle we’re waging against an oil spill that is assaulting our shores and our citizens.”- 6/15/10 Oval Office Speech

“And I want all Americans to know that I will continue to fight each and every day until the oil is contained, until businesses recover, and until the Gulf Coast bounces back from this tragedy, as I know it will.” 6/16/10 Speech after BP meeting

In the past 24 hours the Obama Administration has created a war motif that is woven throughout the President’s statements. Why are they doing this? The answer is simple. The President needs to prove two things to the American people that have been called into question since he has been on the national political scene. The first is that he does not have the executive experience needed to be an effective President. So far, he has lived up to the billing as an inexperienced and temperamental leader who has a hard time making any kind of decision. The perfect example is one two fronts- the oil spill and the economy. On the oil spill all he had to do was waive the Jones Act (which requires that only American made, owned, operated, and manned ships transport goods between American ports) and say to the Governors and BP “Tell me what you need and it is yours, lets stop the oil, minimize the impact, and go from there.” He did not, and it was well after a month when he finally answered questions about the spill
On the second front, the economy, his leadership has been questionable at best. He told us that we had to pass stimulus after stimulus to save the economy. The economy is still stagnating while the Federal Government prints money to pay off its debts. The Government has continued to extend unemployment benefits, which provides a disincentive to gain employment, and he has been bailing out companies and mortgages, creating a massive moral hazard going forward. He still believe the Government creates wealth and can make up for the dip in consumer spending, which is a problem, because the government can only spend more when it takes more from the people (either now or later- two terrible options).

The second part, where the war motif comes in, is his inability to be a strong Commander in Chief. He has bowed to foreign leaders on numerous occasions, he has had a difficult time backing Israel, our one true ally in the Middle East, and he prefers understanding murderous tyrants such as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Kim Jong Il rather than show that America does not have to cave into their demands. President Obama and his advisers know that at times he has been criticized for looking weak on foreign policy and the war motif helps with this issue of showing his strength.

Remember, the Obama Administration will never let a crisis go to waste- and the introduction of the language of war shows that they are trying to kill two birds with one stone. h=His lack of executive action and the lack of strength he conveys as Commander in Chief have been discussed multiple times and it is becoming a serious political problem. Unfortunately for the Administration, they do not have the aim, nor the skill, to pull off this maneuver.