Is Obama Really Kicking Ass?

It was the ass heard round the world. During an interview with the "Today" show's Matt Lauer, which aired on Tuesday morning, President Barack Obama, in an unguarded moment (or a moment of calculated outrage), shrugged off his cucumber cool and said: "I don't just sit around talking to [oil spill] experts because this is a college seminar. We talk to these folks because they potentially have the best answers, so I know whose ass to kick."

Because I grew up in a family where four-letter words were as common as three-letter and five-letter words (that is to say, pretty common), it was less the mention of the word "ass" and more the fact that the president of the United States was uttering it. Beyond the question of whether it was presidential or not, it seemed kind of . . . awkward? Obama, with his dorky jeans and even dorkier Blackberry holster, is not the guy you think of when you think of an ass kicking. Rahm Emanuel? Sure. Joe Biden? Yeah -- big f****ng deal. But Barry Obama, not so much. I see him as more of a "stern talking to" or "give 'em a piece of my mind" kind of dude.

Of late, the White House has been trying its hand at ad hoc populist profanity to demonstrate the myriad ways in which it's sticking it to The (proverbial) Man. In this case, The Man is BP. For the last 45 days, we've seen these periodic bursts of meat-headed rage come at boiling points. On May 3, when the first wave of outrage over the spill began peaking, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs started talking tough, saying, "We will keep our boot on the throat of BP." This provided much fodder for questioning from the White House press corps: Was depending on BP for assessment, cleanup and containment really "boot on the throat" behavior? Wouldn't "boot on the throat" behavior entail something much more violent or extreme? Or was the White House just wearing soft-soled shoes?

More Gulf Oil Spill Coverage:

- Thad Allen BP Oil Spill Update
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- BP's 'Ass Kicking' Angers Brits
- Gulf Oil Spill on AOL News
- Donate to Relief Efforts

By May 25, national outrage over apparent government inaction on the spill had reached an apex. Americans questioned whether Obama was even angry about the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. In response, the White House delivered this choice nugget: The president himself had ordered officials to "Plug the damn hole!" Plug the damn hole? I suppose the vaguely PG-13 outburst was supposed to convey a commander in chief storming the barracks of the Coast Guard, waving his club at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration minions, compelling them into action. Personally, it fell a little flat, channeling Crotchety McGee more than General MacArthur.

But mostly, the problem with this series of inflated threats is that they ring just a little bit false. Primarily because the relationship that the White House has -- and is forced by circumstance to have -- with BP is essentially one of cooperation. BP has the expertise and technology to attempt maneuvers like top kills and bottom kills and containment caps. The federal government does not. As we've been reminded since the beginning of the whole mess, BP will be the one that pays for the cleanup costs and claims that result from the spill. Having an antagonistic, boot-on-throat, ass-kicking relationship with the oil giant won't actually solve this problem any faster, and might just cost the American public more time and money. The White House knows this, but the profanity sure does help to convey the impression that someone up there is mad as hell and not gonna take it anymore. When progress is particularly stagnant, it's a convenient tool to ease national frustration.

The other issue is that every time White House officials throw down the gauntlet with one of these classy turns of phrase, they open themselves up to a sharp line of criticism. On Wednesday, the dominant question at the White House press briefing was whose ass, precisely, Obama was kicking. In response, Press Secretary Gibbs said that the president was kicking the ass of "us in government and those in BP." Neverminding the impossibility of kicking one's own self in the ass, when prodded for who at BP, specifically, was getting his ass kicked and how, Gibbs replied, "The president asked [Coast Guard Admiral] Thad Allen to meet with [BP CEO Tony Hayward]." Dude, that's an ass kicking?

Presidents -- as my colleague Carl Cannon points out -- from Jack Kennedy to Ronald Reagan to George W. Bush have used profanity and f-bombs aplenty throughout history. Some have even done it with a modicum of success. So this isn't to say that that there should be a moratorium on blue language, even at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. But Obama has proven himself to understand, keenly, the power of language. He also grasps the realities of the BP catastrophe. Given this, there's no excuse for his brand of bravado not to be much more compelling, considered -- and honest.