Feb 23 2009

Secretary Clueless – Updated!

Published by at 9:13 pm under All General Discussions

As if we needed any more evidence that the Obama administration is woefully in over their heads and winging it (badly), we get some stunning comments out of Energy Secretary Chu, who seems to be admitting he has no clue what he is supposed to be doing:

Mr. Chu said Thursday he feels “like I’ve been dumped into the deep end of the pool” in confronting questions about oil policy, such as whether the administration would consider delaying scheduled deliveries of oil this spring to the nation’s strategic petroleum reserves.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu — whose agency has long taken the lead on global oil-market policy — said Thursday he doesn’t know what the Obama administration would urge the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to do at its meeting next month.

“I’m not the administration,” Mr. Chu said during a meeting with reporters Thursday. OPEC members are scheduled to meet March 15 to discuss the possibility of production cuts to respond to slumping prices. “I will be speaking and learning more about this in order to figure out what the U.S. position should be and what the president’s position is,” Mr. Chu said.

Mr. Chu declined to offer an opinion on whether OPEC should cut production, saying the issue was “not in my domain.” He later told reporters on a conference call that his response to the question reflected “more of my naiveté than anything else.

Chu is supposed to be advising the President on issues of energy, not learning what these issues are all about. Is he just a puppet, being pulled by a puppet master behind the scenes? I keep getting the feeling that we are dealing with people in the Obama administration who have a 3rd grade level of comprehension on how things work in these huge, complex arenas like energy and health care.

One thing Chu is sure about is the end of the world due to global warming (if it ever appears). Talking about living in a fantasy world.

Addendum: Maybe it would be best if Secretary Chu-less convened a meeting of the key industry representatives in the energy sector to collect and collate their ideas and recommendations. You know, like VP Cheney did when he helped craft the Bush energy policies which Congress neglected for 8 years. Or maybe he should just read up on the Bush energy policies to save himself a lot of time.

18 responses so far

18 Responses to “Secretary Clueless – Updated!”

  1. kathie says:

    “They are winging it” Karl Rove

  2. WWS says:

    How delicious – one of the biggest global warming, green energy promoters admits he knows nothing about actual real world energy policy.

    And yet he’s supposed to be in charge. This administration is a sick joke.

  3. Redteam says:

    3rd grade level of comprehension

    you may be giving them too much credit here. Sounds as if he’s admitting to starting at zero and has made no progress so far.
    but he seems to be on a par with the president.

  4. djl130 says:

    UNBELIEVABLE and scary –

  5. Neo says:

    Who anyone notice if Obama went Chu-less ?

  6. crosspatch says:

    My message to President Obama is “beware the Ides of March”. According to many of the tracking polls I have been looking at, the trends in the “Strongly Approve” and “Strongly Disapprove” should cross somewhere around the middle of March. Right now Obama is up 11 according to Rasmussen but most interesting was that he didn’t get his usual weekend “bounce” in the daily polling. The way things are looking now, “strongly disapprove” should overtake “strongly approve” in about 3 more weeks time.

  7. dave m says:

    I too am wondering when his poll numbers will drop.
    RCP still has him around 60% approval rating, which is ludicrous.

  8. gwood says:

    Since Obama never articulated specifics as to the policies he would pursue, we have to conclude that he was elected for reasons other than political ones. I believe white guilt put him in office, so his popularity has tenuous underpinnings. This is why his approvals are going south so swiftly.

    As we move forward, Obama has to seriously worry about an exponential drop in popularity, because already some of his more tentative supporters are beginning to feel a bit embarrassed, if not duped.

  9. tarpon says:

    Energy rationing ahead for America …

    How do we know that reducing the atmospheric CO2 is the right thing to do? Maybe it needs to be higher, since it was at least 10x what it is today.

  10. WWS says:

    The tax proposals he will be pushing this week are catastrophic for the economy.

    Herbert Hoover raised taxes sharply during what, up to that time, was just another recession. Obama Hoover is repeating all of his mistakes.

  11. lurker9876 says:

    For those that thought Bush’s foreign policies strengthened terrorism, they better think twice…Bill Roggio reports that Waziristan Taliban alliance declares support for Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar.

    http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2009/02/waziristan_taliban_a.php

    WWS, I got so frustrated last night after reading numerous posts documenting Obie’s decisions, acts, and actions.

    Obie has no desire for bipartisanship. Did you see what he said to Joe Barton? Imagine the look on Joe Barton’s face…

    I don’t trust Biden’s responsibility over the stimulus plan.

  12. WWS says:

    I wouldn’t trust Biden’s responsibility for getting a waffle house order strait.

  13. Good Captain says:

    The good news is that he’s probably a pretty honest academic who doesn’t yet realize that his position is one of leadership over the nation’s enrgy plan/development. The bad news beyond the fact that he has no idea of what he’s doing is the signals of passivity his approach suggests. There is no way he will be able to deal w/ the politican’s who “own” this area. They will eat him up. His only anchor appears to be his absolute belief in manmade global warming.

  14. TtheD says:

    Those are some pretty damning comments by Chu…so much for giving us mere commoners confidence in our government again. The people in charge don’t even know what they think…they have to defer to someone else to find out.

    And the Chu-Less comment gave me a good chuckle…thanks for that.

    ~T the D
    http://thedrunkelephant.blogspot.com/

  15. Wayne at Jeremiah Films says:

    I’ve linked to your post from Obama Picks Steven Chu for his Department of Energy Secretary

  16. Neo says:

    More people than not now have a 401(k) or such, so while I expect those who watch the markets will be dropping off the Obama approve side of the ledger, just wait until April when the statements come showing that Dow 1400 point loss since the beginning of the year. The disapproval side will jump, just as fast as McCain lead did.

  17. crosspatch says:

    “Mitch McConnell in the after-speech spin points out that in the first month of Obama’s administration Congress has spent more money than it spent on Iraq, Afghanistan, and Katrina relief over the past seven years.”

    The above noted on Gateway Pundit. My favorite quote so far.

  18. scaulen says:

    So that explains why the Evil Boosh was hiring all those corporate insiders, they knew what they were doing????