United Liberty

Yesterday, President Barack Obama told compared the impact of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico to the terrorist attacks on 9/11. Yes, really:

President Obama says the Gulf oil disaster “echoes 9/11” because it will change the nation’s psyche for years to come, according to an interview with POLITICO, a news outlet.

“In the same way that our view of our vulnerabilities and our foreign policy was shaped profoundly by 9/11,” the president said Friday in the Oval Office interview. “I think this disaster is going to shape how we think about the environment and energy for many years to come.”

Um, no. In no way does this spill come close to the 9/11 attacks, a day where almost 3,000 Americans died at the hands of terrorists and caused billions upon billions in economic losses. Yes, the spill is horrible and is hurting the economies of the states in Gulf region. Yes, BP should be on the hook for the clean-up. But using 9/11? Not cool, and survivors of victims of the terrorist attacks aren’t happy.

The president needs something to get cap-and-trade off the shelf and he is using a page from Rahm Emanuel’s playbook to do it. Remember what he said shortly after Obama won the presidential election? “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.”

It’s also politically risky. If you’re going to use this sort of rhetoric and insert the imagery of 9/11, you don’t want to have pictures taken of you playing golf. I’m not attacking Obama here, I’m just pointing out the hole he is leaving open for opponents to take shots at him.