My parents always told me to choose my friends wisely. Who you choose to surround yourself with says a lot about you as a person. No, this isn’t a guilt by association charge, but rather judgment through choices. President Obama hasn’t done well by either measure.
I don’t think Mr. Obama is a stupid person; far from it. Unfortunately when you compare book smarts to judgment he doesn’t score nearly as well. Not all Mr. Obama’s personnel decisions have been bad, just most of them. No President has ever had as many Czars as Mr. Obama, a purely made-up position. He’s also had a miserable track history of vetting his chosen compatriots. Subsequently, many of his Czars and a number of cabinet nominees have been forced out or never made it in when their failure to pay taxes or their extreme positions came to light.
Now, apparently, his own White House staff has made but yet another huge error. In less than 48 hours since he announced his candidacy for re-election, the President showed up at a windmill manufacturer in Pennsylvania to talk about American energy independence. On its face it might now sound so bad, however when you realize that the plant, owned by Gamesa Technology Corporation, a Spanish company, the egg starts to drip from the President’s face.
Gasoline prices are soaring, the public is becoming very displeased, and the best the President has to offer is a trip to a windmill manufacturer, and one owned by a foreign company no less! Makes the President look mighty lame. What do you think windmills are going to do for what you’re paying for gasoline? No wonder the President’s right-track/wrong-track numbers are in free-fall.
I’m going to give the President more credit than he probably deserves and say his incompetent staff chose a Spanish-owned windmill manufacturer to talk about energy. Windmills aren’t bad things, but they’re not going to solve anything by themselves. Let’s take a closer look. A wind farm, on average, consumes 9 square miles and generates enough electricity to run 16,000 homes. A nuclear power plant consuming 6 square miles generates enough electricity (on average) to run 104,000 homes. Given these “rough” numbers, you’d need more than 6 wind farms to generate the same amount of power as a single nuclear power plant. Areas that can support a wind farm in the east are few and far between; they become more favorable in the mid-west and west. Wind generated energy isn’t consistent. Many areas of the country have variable winds, meaning one day the farms can output near 100% of capacity and the next less than 10%. A nuclear plant can generate 100% output day in and day out.
So, why wasn’t Mr. Obama at a nuclear power plant? He’s stated that he is in favor of nuclear power. Of course, saying something and believing it are two different things. Mr. Obama has done nothing to show that he’s in favor of anything other than wind and solar. Though he’s recently made sounds like he’d be in favor of an all-of-the-above strategy that is nothing more than political rhetoric. Actions speak louder than words.
When gas prices started to head north the President was quick to say that the United States produced more oil in 2010 than at any time in history. Unfortunately for Mr. Obama that had zero to do with him or his administration. Oil production numbers for 2010 are due to decisions made by his predecessor more than 6 years ago. In fact, due to Mr. Obama’s gulf oil moratorium production was far less than it could’ve been.
We are very likely to see gasoline prices at all time highs this summer and while I relish the idea that Mr. Obama is shooting himself in the foot, I, like most other people, really don’t need to be paying $6.00/gallon in this economy. If the President doesn’t take some immediate action we are certainly heading towards a double-dip recession. There is no way this weak economy can grow through gasoline prices above $5.00/gallon and we’re not very far from that right now.
It will be interesting to see if anyone falls on their sword for this windmill debacle, but don’t hold your breath. Mr. Obama needs to both clear the decks of the incompetents he put in place and take a hard look in the mirror at his own questionable judgment. I suggest you start looking for the Easter bunny, cause you’ve got a better chance of crossing his path than the President doing any introspection.
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