Clean Up Speech News Today

In hurricane katrina we were fallible. yes. world war ii we succeeded. first year and a half was a disaster. it isnt as if government automatically gets it right. i wont have expected its complicated. the government uncoordinated so whats happening is what youd expect to happen. >> all right. so president is putting a happy face on a situation there? >> exactly. they always do. yeah. >> bill: charles, thank you very much. and now, tomorrow, ladies and gentlemen, very interesting day. dick norris...

Point in that speech? go. >> stop, stopping the gusher is the number one priority of the nation. >> bill: nobody knows how to do it. >> making sure technology sk thrown at this problem. we havent had that assure yens by the president that that has been his top priority and instead what his top priority is, bill is, capping tax. its using this crisis not letting it go to waste but to use this crisis to increase the costs of energy. oob if that happens there is going to be an outcry. are you telli...

He wants to git into clean energy but as i said in my opening comments, you just cant throw billions of dollars, hundreds of billions bens the wall and hope something works. the country is going to be bankrupt. were not going to be able to buy oil. >> i agree with you. >> bill: were going to suck it in a straw and put knit a volkswagon. >> here is a guy i think said the right stuff tonight. he has to be specific but the speech was about informing the american people about what has been done and ...

These actions and hes still not doing it is absurd. >> bill: youre presuming one phone call, theyre here. shouldnt he explain why he didnt take the saudi action? or norwegian and dutch? >> if he were to address every action. >> bill: those are big. not every action. >> there would be no time. >> bill: those are big. >> there are key points about where we are now and that is what he needed to do. that is is what he did tonight. >> bill: okay. coming right back with john stossel. he does not want ...

>> bret: major, thank you very much. now lets get reaction from our panel. steve hayes senior writer for "the weekly standard." juan williams news analyst for "national public radio." erin billings deputy editor of "roll call," and syndicated columnist charles krauthammer. steve, thoughts. >> what surprised me most is that he spent more than a third of this speech focused on the new policy. focused on what he is going to do next. i think thats a hard sell. he did this following on his admission ...

>> bret: juan. >> he said there is going to be a cost to any transition we make in the course of our energy strategy. he thinks we have to pay that cost rather than remain dependent on the oil producing states sometimes as senator lieberman said earlier today about the bill that he is now sponsoring with senator kerry, a bill that the oil comes from people who are not our friends. overall, i thought this was a very effective speech. i really liked the idea. -- there is the coast guard, thad alle...

Country cannot afford not to act now. adding that even if we dont yet know how precisely how to get to energy independence, quote, we know well get there. for some perspective now, lets go to senior white house correspondent major garrett standing by on the north lawn. good evening, major, what perked your ears? >> good evening, bret. two war like metaphors from the president of the united states. one describing battle plan to address the oil spill itself. the most memorable line of all for thos...

>> bret: not a lot of specifics here. there is a lot that folks at home dont really know about climate change bills up on capitol hill. >> exactly. when i was listening to the speech, this was so reminiscent of how he teed up the health care debate to congress. and we all just went through 18 months of health care reform. there is such an exhaustion, such a fatigue on capitol hill. and i think in america right now to take up such a massive endeavor. so, you know, everybody is going to walk away ...

>> bill: did he succeed? >> well, barack obama given a lot of speeches and probably another one tonight this, is not an oil clean up speech. it was a pr clean up speech. if youll notice over eight weeks since this rig blew up, his first and continuing reactions have been to call in lawyers and raise taxes on the american people. he had a real opportunity here to focus on the immediate acute crisis which is the oil spill, working in partnership with bp rather than as governor palin points out con...