New York Times' Friedman to Obama: Use BP Oil Spill like 9/11, Only Better than Bush Did

In a recent op-ed in The New York Times, columnist Thomas Friedman suggests that thus far the president's handling of the worst oil spill in history, tragically still unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico, has not been adequate. Friedman likens the situation to two significant moments in the past when great policy could have been shaped in the wake of tragedy, but instead the moments were squandered.

Along with the terrorist bombings of the Twin Towers and Hurricane Katrina, the sinking of the Deepwater Horizon, though sorrowful, are “rare seismic events that create the possibility to energize the country to do something really important and lasting that is too hard to do in normal times.”

It is up to the White House to lead at moments like these, and not play second fiddle to the chambers of Congress. This is even more so the case as when there are so many respected experts on the president's team who can help move the country along the right course, such as seen in EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, and Director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy Carol Browner.

Friedman ends with an open question of the president, which we'd also like answered: “Americans are craving your leadership on this issue. Are you going to channel their good will into something that strengthens our country — 'The Obama End to Oil Addiction Act' — or are you going squander your 9/11, too?”

- Submitted by Mark Neisler.

- Photos courtesy of CNN and AP.