Opinion: Obama as Crisis Communicator in Chief

(June 16) -- There he was, addressing America for the first time from the Oval Office: President Barack Obama, trying desperately to convince a nation disgusted by his government's ineffective response to the Deepwater Horizon spill that he has the right stuff to manage the levers of power as commander in chief.

But whether or not he succeeded in that quest, the president was certainly also working overtime pushing all the buttons as crisis communicator in chief.

Button No. 1: Adjust expectations. "Dudes, I got a lot on my plate. A recession. A war. And not just any oil spill, but the biggest and deepest ever. Not to mention a corrupt regulatory system and the remnants of a hurricane. (Do those remind you of my predecessor's problems?) This is gonna take a while. And of course, nobody's perfect."

Button No. 2: Nevertheless, be resolute. "'We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight' ... oops, wrong script. We will fight this spill with everything we've got for as long it takes ... do whatever's necessary to help the Gulf Coast and its people ... offer whatever resources they need. If there are problems, we will fix them. We must make sure a catastrophe like this ... everyone together now ... never happens again."

Button No. 3: Show you've got a team and a plan. Better yet, two plans ... and rattle off a long list of actions against them, no matter how inconsequential their effect. "Looky here: Government scientists to the left of me, private-sector experts to the right, even a Nobel Prize winner. (Did I mention I have one, too?) A really experienced admiral. A former governor and now secretary of the Navy. A tough onetime inspector general. And we got a plan -- clean up, make everyone whole, prevent a recurrence -- plus a Gulf Coast Restoration Plan. Already, we've gathered lots of people and lots of ships, and we're skimming, booming, burning, berming, banning, directing, informing, urging, appointing, regulating, reforming. Are you impressed yet?"

Button No. 4: Name a commission. Or better yet, once again, two. "I'm asking my secretary of the Navy to put together a Gulf Coast Restoration Plan with states, local communities, conservation groups, rich men, poor men, beggarmen, thieves, doctors, lawyers and Indian chiefs. Not to mention appointing a national commission to look at this mess and come up with recommendations for more Big Government regulations, programs and solutions."

Button No. 5: Find and beat up on a villain ... and make some heads roll. "Even ahead of the commission, I've already determined that BP was guilty of 'recklessness.' So I'm directing them to speed up their efforts, as if they weren't throwing everything but the kitchen sink at the problem already, and 'informing' their CEO that they will set aside billions to pay for all the damage, even though I have no authority to do so and they've already promised to pony up. And did I mention that I'm cleaning house at the regulator ... and throwing my Interior secretary under the bus in the process by suggesting he failed to get the lead out?"

Button No. 6: if you can't change the situation, change the subject. President Obama slammed hardest on the biggest crisis communications button of them all. "So even if all this doesn't work -- and so far it hasn't -- my own ineffective response to this disaster is all the more reason we should consider a cap-and-trade bill most Americans rightly fear ... and from which Congress is backpedaling faster than the Detroit Lions' defensive backfield against Peyton Manning. Not to mention a green energy agenda that can't substitute for fossil fuels for decades under the best conditions and will cost many more trillions of dollars we can't afford. But then again, reintroducing a far-left energy and environmental policy -- even if it doesn't push BP out of the headlines -- may at least serve to get my suddenly critical liberal base off my case and back on my side."

PS: If all else fails, reach for Button No. 7: Invoke God. This time in the form of "The Blessing of the Fleet:" "(N)ot that God has promised to remove all obstacles and dangers, (but) that he is with us always, a blessing that's granted even in the midst of the storm."

One senses that Obama, crisis communicator in chief, is counting on that particular blessing a lot these days.