President Barack Obama tried to strike an upbeat note on his latest tour of the oil stricken Gulf Coast on Monday.
But it’s something he said before his trip that has some 9/11 victims’ families upset.
The president arrived with his sleeves rolled up, wanting to convey an optimistic message to skeptical Gulf Coast residents.
“We are going to do everything we can 24/7 to make sure that communities get back on their feet and in the end I am confident that we’re going to be able to leave the Gulf Coast in better shape than it was before,” President Obama said.
He even ate local seafood for lunch hoping to ease fears about safety.
“Seafood from the Gulf today is safe to eat, but we need to make sure it stays that way,” the president said.
But it was his words from a recently published oval office interview that have angered some 9/11 victims’ families.
Attempting to describe the impact of the oil disaster he said: “In the same way that our view of our vulnerabilities and our foreign policy was shaped profoundly by 9/11, I think this disaster is going to shape how we think about the environment and energy for many years to come.”
Charles Wolf, who lost his wife on 9/11, found the comparison offensive.
“It shows that the president has an insensitivity to the fact that 3,000 people were killed,” Wolf said.
On Monday night near ground zero some agreed with Wolf.
“It might still be a little too early to talk about 9/11 like that,” Manhattan resident Jane Miles said.
Others thought the analogy was right on the money.
“Sept. 11 was a milestone in American history and this is a milestone in American history,” Jan Ross said.
Wolf and other victims’ families said they understand the president’s point, but they’ve grown tired of their grief being used in political rhetoric — no matter what the subject.
(Source: WCBSTV)
On Tuesday the pres will address the nation. On Wednesday he will talk to BP executives.
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25 Responses
Those remarks were definitely offensive and insensitive. September 11, was an attack on American soil by evil terrorists seeking to kill, while this spill is about an innocent mistake by a company that simply wanted money in their bank account.
As Rahm Emanuel once revealed as his strategy, to take advantage from disasters. A perfect example is to push a cap and trade bill now, so out of touch…
exactly Dave!
Obama wants to make this gulf oil spill his 9/11 (a time when bush jumped in the polls) the problem is Bush responded right away after 9/11 unlike this doofus that took a month to respond so everyone realizes this is Obama’s Katrina
maybe he wants to destroy the gulf so he can blame right wing for damages.
If Obama wanted to make a comparative point, he should have compared it to the colonialists bringing Africans to America.
yaakovg – You are totally out of line.
The quote at issue, “…In the same way that our view of our vulnerabilities and our foreign policy was shaped profoundly by 9/11, I think this disaster is going to shape how we think about the environment and energy for many years to come…” is plainly true on its face and insults noone.
You ideological pedantics are just like the feminists who twist and distort “…shelo asani isha…”; You relish your interpretation because it fits into a negative preconceived notion. A potch on both of you.
2,
I wouldn’t even compare it to Katrina. Katrina was a storm that hit the right place. Don’t forget it was the LIBERAL DEMOCRAT MAYOR of New Orleans as well as the LIBERAL DEMOCRAT GOVERNOR of Louisiana that absolutely REFUSED to move people out of the way even when they knew with as absolute certainty that you can get with the weather, that N’awleans was in trouble.
It was after President Bush gave Mayor “Chocolate City” Nagen a few days time to save face, which Mayor Nagen didnt do, that he stepped in to do whatever the Federal Govt could do. Unfortunately in the meantime, the Socialist Liberal Democrat Workers Party turned it against the President.
It was just a plain and stupid remark.
mark levin:
I’m not sure your claim that Ray Nagin “REFUSED to move people out of the way” is entirely accurate. According to this article, he ordered a mandatory evacuation the day before the hurricane reached land.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/28/national/29katrinacnd.html?pagewanted=print
some_jew – you are a polite fellow, or gal – as the article in fact totally debunks levin’s comment.
Well, Yonason, as the saying goes, “You catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar.”
Or, to put it a slightly more negative and Elizabethan way, “The lady doth protest too much, methinks”–the more emphatically I state that I am right, the more it seems likely that I am not.
That said, some_jew – be not too bashful lest you be misunderstood. Halevi beineni here too.
8,
so why didnt they go? remember the busses that were waiting to take people out of the way? remember the amtrak trains that were available. why didnt they go?
nagin BLEW it!
mark levin,
I’m sure you’ve read the article I posted, in which it was stated that:
“Gov. Kathleen Blanco said Interstate 10, which was converted Saturday so that all lanes headed one-way out of town, was totally gridlocked, according to The Associated Press.”
New Orleans isn’t exactly easily accessible, and many of the people who remained were not exactly the kind of people for whom it’s easy to simply pick up and go. I don’t think anyone who stayed in New Orleans did so knowing the extent of the catastrophe the storm would bring. As the storm progressed, road and tracks were flooded, making it impossible to leave via Amtrak, bus, or interstate. I’m not sure the blame for it can be placed entirely on Nagin (thanks for spelling his name right this time!).
Furthermore, you stated that “President Bush gave Mayor “Chocolate City” Nagen a few days time to save face,” and that “the Socialist Liberal Democrat Workers Party turned [his waiting] against the President.” I find this odd coming from you, considering the way you’ve criticized our current president’s supposed hesitation in acting in the Gulf. Why do you characterize Bush’s delay as a magnanimous display of deference to local authorities (or, reading between your lines, giving the LIBERAL DEMOCRAT MAYOR enough rope to hang himself with, because there’s no way a democrat can get anything done), while seeing only malicious intentions in Obama’s handling of the current disaster? Please use linked references in your answer.
Remember that, according to the article I linked, on the 28th, Bush said “We cannot stress enough the danger this hurricane poses to Gulf Coast communities,” before adding that everything possible would be done to help them. How does that affect your perception of federal responsibility in the matter?
Also, what exactly do you mean when you state that “Katrina was a storm that hit the right place”? If you answer any of my questions, please answer that one, because it’s the answer I’m most curious to hear.
The gloves are off, in a matter of speaking. I’m sorry, Yonason, but I’m afraid this might still be too polite for you.
During the Katrina disaster, the liberals constantly attcked Bush saying “he hates Blacks so he won’t help New Orleans”.
By that ‘logic’ they must now be saying that Obama hates Whites which is why they could say that Obama does not want the spill stopped in order to save all those “rednecks”.
hereorthere:
Source, please? Remember, Kanye West saying something dumb on television is not representative of “the liberals.” As our current (and according to some, extremely liberal) president has said, “he’s a j……”
some_jew.
First of all, it was all over every blog that discussed the subject, you could not find one where they did NOT make that claim.
Second, if Kanye West is not speaking for the rest of the liberals they could denounce him and they didn’t.
either way some_jew, the difference between Bush and Obama is Bush learned his lesson where he made a commision to find out what went wrong, where as Obama puts the blame on the republicains and has singers sing to him and his wife
hereorthere:
Which blogs, exactly? If it’s so hard to find one where they did NOT make that claim, then it shouldn’t be too difficult for you to produce a link. I have trouble accepting your claim that “liberals constantly attcked Bush saying ‘he hates Blacks so he won’t help New Orleans'” without substantive evidence.
Who should denounce Kanye, exactly? Is it the job of all people who subscribe to a certain political persuasion to publicly distance themselves from every dumb thing someone says? Even people who are not political spokespeople? By that logic, all conservatives should be held responsible for every goofy thing their fringe groups do or say.
By focusing your anger on the most outlandish criticisms of the response to Katrina, it becomes a lot easier to ignore the fact that their were substantial systemic failures within the Bush administration before and after the catastrophe.
Furthermore, while it did come a little late, Kanye has been “denounced,” so to speak, and by the de facto leader of the Democratic Party, the president, who called him a word that this website will not let me repeat.
some_jew How about every single Katrina story that AOL ever produced.
The comments below each story were full opf comments like that.
I can’t give links for two reasons.
#1 WYN does not allow links as far as I know.
#2 Even if they do those articles are not up anuymore.
You claim to have trouble accepting the idea that liberals attack Bush and tell lies about him?
If you accept that liberals will lie about Bush
Then why would they not tell THIS lie?
And if you claim that libs do NOT lie about Bush then lets see you produce that list of several hundred lies supposedly told by Bush.
Because I keep asking for this list and no one can produce it.
They cannot even produce a single lie Bush ever told.
And conservatives ARE ALL held accountable for every fringe liberal that calls himself a conservatve who promotes some lie.
It already happens all the time.
And what “failures” were there because of Bush?
Those who make THAT claim usually ignore the fact that democrats like Rey Nagen had thousands of school busses that he refused to use to get people out before the hurricane hit days before hand, even though they knew it was comming.
I would have know the full context of what
obama said about Kanye West and about what subject and in what context with full context to be able to accept yoru claim about Obama denouncing him for this specific claim he made about Bush.
And by the way do you really expect us to believe that he would be the only one to say that and none of his supporters or followers would say that?
Sorry, but anybody who actually finds this offensive is completely irrational. I’d be the first one to call Obama out on insensitive comments, but his entire point was that this event is a turning point in history not that this is as bad or on the same plain of evil as 9/11. Use your brains, people, think like rational adults.
hereorthere:
I’m pretty sure links are allowed on this site. This one might be of interest to you:
http://news.google.com/
And a many blogs have searchable archives. Please link me to this supposed overwhelming liberal claim that “[Bush] hates Blacks so he won’t help New Orleans”
A lot of people say crazy things in aol comments. I find it odd that you would use those to demonstrate liberal insanity and then claim that conservatives who say nutty things are actually “every fringe liberal that calls himself a conservatve who promotes some lie.” By that logic, isn’t it possible that every wackadoo liberal nothing is actually being promoted by a secret conservative? And when has this ever happened? I’d like specific cases, please.
And to bring this back to Katrina, are you stating that there were absolutely no failures at the federal level that may have exacerbated the disaster? That the fault for the entire catastrophe lays in the hands of Ray Nagin, who didn’t evacuate quickly enough for you?
Remember, evacuating a city of 485,000 people is not something you do lightly, and Katrina very quickly intensified from Category 1 to Category 3 on the 27th, and then from Category 3 to Category 5 over the course of the 28, which is when Nagin ordered his mandatory evacuation. (Please see page 3 of the linked PDF; source for the date of mandatory evacuation is in the NYT article linked in my earlier post above)
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/pdf/TCR-AL122005_Katrina.pdf
New Orleans is built to withstand hurricanes of intensity up to but not including Category 5, which is why the evacuation order took so long to come. It was a mistake, and a costly one, but it’s not a liberal or a conservative mistake. It’s just a terrible, terrible mistake.
So when you say “democrats like Rey Nagen had thousands of school busses that he refused to use to get people out before the hurricane hit days before hand, even though they knew it was comming,” I find it a little bit absurd. As I have plainly shown, they did not know what was coming, and as soon as they did, an evacuation began. I think you may be exaggerating slightly about the number of busses available, and would like to see a source. “Thousands” is quite a lot of school busses. And even if Ray Nagin did have that many busses on hand, did evacuees have anywhere to go? Where the roads safe.
Lastly, why are democrats the only ones culpable? Do Democrats hold a monopoly on failure?
some_jew you never answered one of my questions.
OIdf you admit that Kayne West said it and we all know he has many followers and supporters on basis are you claiming that none of then would ever repeat bwhat he said, on a blog?
Further please tell mme how to link to the “war in Iraq” message board on AOL, I’d love to know.
So you find it it odd that those who by definition do things right woudl not say nutty things while those who by definition are the ones do things wrong are not suppsoed to be blamed for the things that are done wrong?
And Ray Nagin did not only not evacuate “fast enough” he didn’t do it at all.
Those school busses NEVER MOVED………..EVER.
And the Hurricane was bing tracked and the weather people were issuing warnings very early.
Even a catagory 1 is quite dangerous and Nagan had been warned years earlier that those levees needed serious work to get them ready for a strong hurricane and he did nothing to fix them.
No Democrats do not hold a monoploy on failure
but LIBERALS do.
That includes liberal republicans like Bush whos ever7y mistake was something he did just like a liberal, would have.
This in fact, MAKES him a liberal, anyway.
some_jew
Here is a youtube video of Kanye West saying wjhat he said which we agree on
but in the comments under the video (about 4 comments down, as of the moment I type this) , someone ELSE some poster is making the same claim thus proving that other besides Kanye West are saying it, you wanted a link?
Here it is;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIUzLpO1kxI
hereorthere:
You’re grasping at straws and descending into the irrational. Are you seriously suggesting that by definition, every so-called “liberal” act is the wrong one? How does one define “liberal?” So Bush was a liberal when he made mistakes, but a conservative when he didn’t? That’s a pretty convenient political ideology you’ve got there.
hereorthere:
Oh, and the list of Bush Lies you were asking for, here it is:
http://bushwatch.com/bushlies.htm
I found it by googling “Bush Lies.” It was the first result.
I’m still trying to wrap my head around your argument, which is why I’m not answering all of your questions (some of which I’ve already answered, but you obviously haven’t read all of my sources).
If what you consider “liberalism” is defined as everything that is incorrect, and “convservatism” is always doing what is right, then are you a liberal every time you make a typo? Am I a liberal if I confuse the ingredients in a recipe? Was Bush a liberal every time he mispronounced something, and a conservative when he spoke clearly? Please, enlighten me. I’d love to understand your thought process.