The torch

Almost as if New Orleans is some wicked black hole that eats presidencies, President Obama is floundering because of another mess that is ruining New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. Why do our presidents refuse to learn somethings about public relations and leadership?

Bush failed in New Orleans because people were suffering while the president golfed. It was unnerving to see a president who was already regarded as removed and aloof to be viewed in terms of some sort of social retardation. Obama is stuck with a man made fiasco, but he has been hands off for over a month while the liars and greed heads at BP just stand there with their hands in their pockets and wonder what to do.

Look, I have no clue how to stop the oil from coming up from the bottom of the ocean, but one thing I do know is I expect leaders to lead.

Oh, a side note. When I was a very young reporter I once sat in a bus with presidential candidate Jesse Jackson, interviewing him on a hot day in New York. He wanted to control the conversation we were having, but at the time, all I wanted to know was what sort of qualifications did he have that would make him a good president. See, at the time, Jesse Jackson had been the leader of some sort of non-profit, had given years of poetic speeches and had not done much more. This did not make him a bad man, or even a bad candidate for president, but my assumption was a president has to do more than talk. When I repeatedly asked Jackson what sort of qualifications he had to be a president, he continually repeated, "leaders lead and I am lead." I asked him a few times, in a variety of ways, and every time I got the same answer, "leaders lead and I am a leader."

Jackson did not win the democratic nomination.

Some 30 years later, we have a president who is, I think, a much better president than Jackson could have ever imagined, but again, he gives some great speeches. But here we are, 30 something days into this tragedy, the worst oil spill in American history and we have a president who has basically let the criminal corporation that caused this mess be in charge of the cleanup.

Leaders lead Mr. President, and your time to take a leadership role is quickly vanishing.