President Obama will address the nation tonight in a speech about the oil disaster in the Gulf Coast.  We can argue all day, and probably will, over whether Obama has done enough to stem the tide of this horrific event, but in a politically divided world such as the one we are currently in his options are limited.  There are some in Congress for whom it is more important to see Obama fail than to solve the problem in the Gulf, so Obama is left with little he can do other than wring his hands and express emotion over the devastation, something he is ill equipped to do.

Obama isn’t President Clinton, who with a Leo Sun and Libra rising was a born politician, making everyone feel that they were the most important person in the universe (Libra) and basking in the glory of his success (Leo).  In a disaster Clinton is the first responder, shedding tears with the people and being one with everyone.

Obama has Aquarius rising – a transpersonal sign that chooses reason over emotion.  Obama’s solution to problems is to avoid getting involved in the emotion of the situation so that reason can create a solution.  The US chart has an Aquarian Moon, so normally that would not be such a problem for Americans to deal with, but at the moment the US chart shows a “double whammy” Neptune/Moon contact with the progressed Moon conjoining Neptune in the chart,  and transiting Neptune conjoining the Moon in the chart.  

Neptune/Moon contacts blur the obvious and can distort reality – they create a desire for the ideal and a longing for something other than what we have.  The Neptunian longing is for ascension and transmutation of the ordinary world into something more magic – it’s a longing to be saved and to be delivered from tragedy.  

President Obama is an excellent orator and organizer – he’s practical and effective at building consensus and coming up with solutions.  But despite the fervor over his election, he’s not the savior that many hoped he would be.  It’s interesting that most of the criticism of Obama’s handling of the disaster has been directed to his emotional response rather than to his actual actions – this shows the Moon/Neptune influence that is permeating the emotional fabric of the country right now. 

When the Horizon oil rig first exploded I wrote of the conjunction of Pluto to Ceres and the environmental effects.  This event also occurred just as Chiron entered Pisces, wounding (Chiron) the ocean (Pisces) and adding to the environmental (Ceres) destruction (Pluto).  This destruction and devastation can offer a positive legacy if we take the lessons of this event to heart and recognize that we cannot continue damaging the earth in order to satisfy our unending appetite for oil.  

I just about dropped my teeth this morning when I heard Joe Scarborough, noted conservative, say on his morning program that the devastating events (Osama bin Laden, September 11, the Iraq war), of the past ten years were all the result of our addiction to cheap oil.  If certain other conservatives would put as much energy into helping to create a solution as they put into trying to ensure that Obama fails at everything he tries, we might be able to succeed as a nation.  We might have to wait for the conclusion of the Saturn/Uranus opposition in September for that to happen. 

Update:  Daily Kos has images of Obama’s trip to the Gulf disputing this image of Obama as the “cold president”.