In the past week or so, there has been much discussion about President Barack Obama's level of anger and his attempts to appear suitably enraged over the Deepwater Horizon explosion and the ongoing catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. But like most things Obama, this manufactured issue is merely a diversion meant to distract the American people from the real issue...and it's working.

Continued...

Filmmaker Spike Lee garnered the most attention on the anger issue when he said that the president should "go off" but there have been plenty of other comments regarding Mr. Obama's anger, or lack thereof, over the spill. Questions about his outrage have led to contrived and controlled displays of presidential wrath such as his telling CNN's Larry King that he is "furious" and his much publicized Today Show appearance in which he said he was trying to find out "whose ass to kick."

These performances (along with considerable air time devoted to whether or not a sitting president should use 'the a word') lead to the inevitable injection of race by the mainstream media. Articles with headlines like Why Obama doesn't dare become the 'angry black man' began to pop up and before you know it - presto change-o - everyone is talking about Barack Obama's personality, emotions and race and no longer talking about how, if he had done his job competently in the first place, whether or not he's showing anger now would be a moot point.

Remember, it has been over 50 days since the explosion that killed 11 crewmen and started spewing oil into the Gulf at an almost immeasurable rate. Even if we give Mr. Obama the benefit of the doubt that figuring out whose ass to kick means finding out who is responsible for each element of the disaster/cleanup and using the power of his office to force the quickest possible action, should that take 50+ days? Was he really saying that after all these weeks he still doesn't even know who he should be pressing for answers and action?

Whether it was caused by a lack of focus on the issue in the early days or a systematic lack of competence on the part of the administration, such a failure should be prompting outrage in the American people, especially those directly affected by the spill. But instead we are universally concentrated on President Barack Obama's feelings. As usual, he and his media accomplices have tried to make it all about him...and it's working.