Asleep at the Switch
When the Deep Horizon drill rig exploded the White House relied upon BP to fix things, with the Coast Guard providing "all" assistance necessary. Mr. Obama's first instinct was to trust BP — to trust BP to honestly assess what was happening, to bring in whatever was required to stop the leak, and to stop the leak in good order. Mr. Obama's trust was misplaced. BP prevaricated, delayed, stonewalled. Perhaps worst of all, from various scattered reports there seems to be evidence that BP is putting corporate confidentiality ahead of containing the crisis. I'm not an engineer but it seems logical to me that the more people who know from independent, objective, and thorough observation and analysis, what exactly is going on right this minute on the Gulf sea floor, the more likely it is that good ideas will be developed for plugging the leak. From the get-go Mr. Obama should have taken the lead away from BP. He failed to do that. Now it's time for him to declare a national emergency, seize control of relevant BP assets, and put U.S. government officials in charge. There's no longer a serious excuse for doing less. In retrospect, this will seem self-evident but by then the price of inaction for Mr. Obama probably will have become the presidency.
Posted by George Kenney on May 17, 2010 9:10 AM 
« Word Power | Main | Good Riddance, Arlen! »
Comments
Run your car off the road and knock over a light pole and you can expect a letter from the government asking you exactly what your "level of commitment" is to paying for the damages, right?
Probably not. Expect a bill demanding payment, with criminal penalties if you try to duck out.
That's not the way it works for corporations in Obama's America. Here's Obama "getting tough" with BP:
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Interior Security Ken Salazar noted in the letter to BP chief executive Tony Hayward that the firm has publicly pledged to assume all costs associated with the containment and clean-up of the Gulf of Mexico spill.
But they said the public has "a right to a clear understanding of BP's commitment to redress all of the damage that has occurred or that will occur."
Raw Story
[The longer Mr. Obama waits to seize control of the situation, the more likely BP is to get ideas about how to profit from it. g.]
Posted by: Butch in Waukegan | May 17, 2010 1:04 PM
How long and How many bad reports before we learn the lesson — We need to form oppositional non violent coalitions Using Obama's own words that can move policies for real... www.bailoutmainstreetnow.com this will take some hard work but people have to start by adding positive contributions so that we can effect real change.
Posted by: maciej | May 17, 2010 3:14 PM
Hi all!
I am far from a protector of corporate interests but to have the "government" seize assets and take over the crisis seems even worse! How about the government pays the Norwegians to handle it like the Russians did to get to their sub that went down a few years ago.
Posted by: Don | May 22, 2010 1:05 PM
Personally, I didn't find Obama's inaction surprising. I think it is evident that the US has been effectively taken over by corporate interests, whether you look at Wall St., or Bechtel, or Cargill, or Big Pharma, or Halliburton, or Blackwater, etc. Obama is nothing less than the man in charge of protecting corporate interests. The idea of the public interest has truly vanished from the scene. The great fact about American psychology is their great capacity to kid themselves and then get self-righteous about it. We're really not a very attractive people — slavery, American Indian genocide, over 200 invasions of other countries, a military of nearly a thousand overseas bases, corporate destruction of the world eco-system. We're about money and business and guns to back it up. Smedley Butler had it right decades ago. It's just gotten worse, all-pervading. Pretty soon we'll start paying the horrendous price — and deserve every bit of it. The BP gusher is doubtless just for starters. How about WWIII? "God's mills grind slow" — but they do grind.
Posted by: Alex | May 26, 2010 8:25 PM