Pundits on the left blast Obama's Speech

President Obama has not had it easy lately with his co-politicos on the left much less with the right. 

Prior to Obama's speech from the oval office, pressure had been mounting on Obama from his own party to show some leadership in responding to one of the worst environmental crises on American soil.  James Carville, the former outspoken Clintonite, has been out there in recent weeks blasting Obama  for not coming down to the Gulf sooner. He notoriously quipped in an interview  on ABC "People are dying out here and the President looks like he is not involved in this [referring to the oil spill]."

Carville's unusual spat with a Democrat President could come from the fact that Obama went on vacation at the height of the oil spill which enraged the native Louisianan.

The onslaught of criticism from the left convinced Obama that he needed to return to the Gulf which he did over the weekend and assert the Administration's position on how to respond to the oil crisis in a prime time speech from the Oval Office.

Surprisingly, liberal pundits have been some of the most vociferous critics of the President's speech.

Chris Matthews, who went ga ga over Obama during the campaign, now says "I do not sense any executive command."

Huffington Post asks "what was the point of that terrible speech?"

Obama supporter Keith Olbermann opined "“It was a great speech if you were on another planet for the last 57 days.”

These sharp critiques from the left is not good news for the Obama Administration who hoped that a Presidential speech could mollify the criticism.

Obama could easily brush aside attacks from the right as partisan politics. He can not ignore similar attacks from his own party.  When the left is critical of a Democrat President,  there has to be validity to the claim that President Obama has not shown himself to be capable of responding forcefully and quickly to the oil crisis which is a blow to the message presented during the campaign that Obama is fit to respond to any crisis of any magnitude.

Whether or not it is true that Obama has failed miserably in responding to the oil crisis, that is the perception of an overwhelming amount of the American people which is all that matters in an election year.

But you should always be the judge.

Here is President Obama's speech to the American people. Do you think Obama lacks executive command?

Let me know what you think.

Pundits on the left blast Obama's Speech