The White House is worried: The Libyan crisis and the general instability in the Middle East have led to spiraling gas prices. The president wanted to show the American people he knows it’s a problem.
So he staged a press conference yesterday, and he basically said he’s going to do . . . nothing.
He’s not going to tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. He’s not going to authorize more drilling to reduce American dependency on foreign oil because, first of all, we’re already doing more drilling — and, second of all, we can’t drill our way out of the problem.
And, by the way, he said, what he could do he already did. He supported legislation at the end of the year that extended the Bush tax cuts. That deal put more money in the pockets of Americans, and now they can spend those extra dollars on gas!
And what about doing something to help resolve the Libyan crisis in a way that might calm the oil markets? Oh, we are, we are! For example, we got our embassy personnel out of there. And we are making it clear to Khadafy that the “world is watching,” because, as we know, the Libyan maniac is very concerned about his global Gallup numbers.
Khadafy must be quaking in his boots to hear that the president “has organized a series of conversations about a wide range of options that we can take.” A series of conversations — now there’s something to strike fear in the heart of a merciless, murderous, monstrous dictator out to crush a rebellion.
But not to worry, America, we are “slowly tightening the noose” around Khadafy. This must be coming as news to Khadafy — since militarily he’s in better shape than he was five days ago. And not just militarily: Far from sounding more resolute yesterday, the president seemed to be signaling that he is prepared for Khadafy to remain in power.
Last week, the president said flatly that “Khadafy must go.” At yesterday’s press conference, he called Khadafy’s departure “the desired outcome from our point of view.” There’s a world of difference between those two phrases.
And by expressing support for his director of national intelligence, James Clapper, who said the other day that Khadafy “will prevail,” Obama made it clear to Khadafy that he doesn’t consider the Libyan leader’s downfall the central goal of our policy.
Way to tighten that noose!
Even better, NATO is going to meet on Libya . . . next Tuesday. Evidently, the crisis is not so pressing that the diplomats might have thought to gather a little sooner. They probably don’t need to, because they’re already having those wonderfully organized conversations.
Besides, who knows? Some Libyan rebels may even still be alive by Tuesday! And if they are, they might get somewhere, apparently, since the president offered the observation that “the rebel groups are just now getting organized.”
Oh, really? Seems like the rebels had control of large swaths of the country last week and are on the verge of losing the ground they gained, owing to the Khadafy onslaught we have done nothing to forestall or prevent.
This was not a good press conference for the president. It was pointless. His responses in the Q&A were endless — in transcript, one answer was 1,385 words; another, 1,114.
In their proxility and lack of clarity, his minifilibusters revealed something deeply troubling: an incapacity to formulate and execute policy in response to unforeseeable circumstances.
That glaring failure of leadership should be worrying even to those who believe he’s been a good president thus far.
johnpodhoretz@gmail.com