PRUDEN: Playing The Bully Is Fun

Since he doesn't know what else to do about the Gulf oil spill, Barack Obama plays the schoolyard bully. By throwing sticks, stones and the occasional grenade at British Petroleum, the president diverts public attention from his own considerable shortcomings.

It's working, sort of, but only for the short run, which is sometimes enough to get a politician out of a rough patch. The public, being as frustrated as Mr. Obama, dutifully joins the mindless din of threats, imprecations, insults and other affronts to the only people, bad or not, who know how to cap runaway oil wells. Seeking relief in the short run is tempting because presidents, like fake messiahs and other con artists, come and go. The consequences of presidential calamities and catastrophes, like the destruction of the American health care system, stay with us well into the long run.

Anyone who listened to the president Wednesday night (his numbers were down considerably) could see and hear frustration in his voice. No one, not even a messiah, can watch his approval numbers plummet so dramatically and not feel frustration, and maybe even a little fear. Mr. Obama has never given evidence of seeing himself as others see him, but even he must be aware that he is in a job requiring different skills than he has. Making pretty speeches, as entertaining as pretty speeches are, just doesn't get the job done. Oil wells just won't listen. Why wouldn't he feel the growing fear the rest of us do?

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