I heard Bill Maher going on about how the oil just keeps leaking and how terrible it is that Obama hasn’t done anything about it yet. Over in this threadMarley23 said
while over on 538 there’s a discussion on the extent to which the disaster is affecting Obama’s approval numbers.
I confess myself baffled. What is it that Obama is supposed to be doing to plug the leak? Does he have magic powers? Does the government have alien leak-plugging technology that he’s holding back? Can he, like Aquaman, telepathically command a school of tuna to swim into the pipe and block it up?
Or, as it appears to me, are BP still the most knowledgeable people to deal with this sort of event (despite their fuck-up), and is Obama’s best approach to do what he is doing, which is to continue to press them to make utmost haste to fix the situation (although one would think their falling share price would be incentive enough)? AFAIK the Army Corps of Engineers are not experts in this sort of thing, so putting in a government team to deal with it wouldn’t help any.
Seriously - what exactly is Obama supposed to be doing that he’s not doing now? And can we blame him for the Icelandic volcano next?
I’ve read that the booms BP were laying down were put down incorrectly, and therefore entirely failed to stop the spread of oil. Whilst many have decried the idea of mobilising the Army Corps of Engineers to plug the leak itself, I think mobilising them to actually try to contain the leak, by laying booms, would be a good idea.
Though I think Obama’s walking a tightrope, and handling it pretty well from a political viewpoint. Too much Administration intervention and the result of the catastrophe will eventually get put on him. Keeping clear and letting BP take the brunt of the blame is a good idea (at least politically).
He is supposed to be looking more presidential. He is supposed to be standing on the shoreline, pointing his finger outward at this or that, and issuing orders to a bunch of admirals and bureaucrats.
Seriously.
He doesn’t appear engaged. He should have an oil spill czar who briefs the press every single day.
He should develop and announce several action plans for different aspects of this tragedy. A plan to protect wildlife. A plan to protect the shores. A plan to save all the Gulf businesses that are being hit hard. A plan to get the oil that has already spilled out of the water. A plan to kick BPs ass around for the next 20 years.
Your suggestions about planning are fine. This stuff about pageantry and photo ops, though - come on. People might respond to it politically because I think there’s a sense he just ought to be able to do something, but the truth is that it does not matter how engaged he looks. The press doesn’t seem to be having any problems getting news on what is going on so they can tell us all about BP’s new plan for plugging the leak (which took five minutes to come up with and three hours to name), so I don’t think more press briefings will help anyone. And frankly it would probably look bad for Obama if appointed another czar and foisted it off on him or her. It would make it look like the situation is not a priority for Obama.
Let’s face it…most of the government is beholden to big business right down to their toenails. Economic catastrophe, mine disasters, oil disasters and such have shown this and yet it is still barely enough to do more than get in place some toothless reforms that merly look good.
But it does matter. Not that it should matter, but it does.
In the same vein, people don’t want to be hearing about BP’s latest ideas. They want to hear about the United States’s, or the gold-plated government panel of experts latest ideas.
I think he just needs to manage this better from a PR perspective. He should be on the ground there at least once a week talking to business owners, fishermen, etc. While I don’t think there is much they can do to plug the leak, they certainly should try to appear to be treating it as more of an emergency.
In fairness, when part of your campaign is criticizing the party of the current administration’s handling of the Hurrican Katrina disaster, it would seem that when you come into power that you should be handling your own natural disaster in a more proactive manner.
The BP well exploded over 40 days ago. Oil is now reaching the coastlines of our country, 30-40 days AFTER the well explosion. In my opinion, they have had more time and done less than what the then adminstration did during Katrina.
You were replying to a suggestion that “prosecute the deconstructors of the Mineral Management Service.” He already punished them–by winning an election.
The Houston Chronicle is a good source for news about this disaster. But it’s also a good source to see anti-Obama sentiment. Which is not new. The problem is that he’s a non-White Democrat & was elected President. (Without a brother being governor in the swing state.) I don’t really see how he could have handled it better–but I’m not motivated to hate him.
ETA: Yes, they are calling it “his Katrina.” Did Rush invent that phrase?
I think he’s doing a fine job and I’ve been impressed by the approach he’s taken (which is unlike what most politicians would be doing). He’s staying out of the way, letting the experts get on with the job of fixing the problem, and not trying to micromanage the situation or squeeze it for political points.
No, it really and truly doesn’t matter except from a political standpoint. In terms of helping people or the region it does not matter if he looks busy or not. Obama could stand around and look busy but that would be bullshit and it would probably get i nthe way. Photo opportunities don’t help people. Remember when Bush gave his ‘we will do what it takes’ speech a few weeks after Katrina? It was dismissed as a photo op because that’s what it was. What people remember is that he appointed an unqualified fuckwit to lead the agency that should have been in charge of the aid and rescue efforts and that neither of them realized anything was wrong. And yes, they remember the fact that Bush didn’t get off his ass and deal with the problem for several days. Nobody would have felt better if he’d been down there pointing at stuff.
Which is not to say that Obama chouldn’t be doing anything else. Your other ideas were good. I’d say they also need to start studying the oil plume issue and figuring out the effects of the chemical dispersants. I’m sure there are already oceanographers looking into some of the environmental aspects but we need to know about the effects on the food chain, for example.
And then a lot of agencies need to be restructured so this does not happen again. That’s something to deal with after the spill is contained, but the fact that this happened and BP’s improvised plugging ideas are the only way to fix it illustrates a lot of major problems.
Yes, but what do you think the administration should be doing? It’s all very well to flap about and shout “Why haven’t they fixed this yet?” but that won’t plug no oil wells, as they might say. If you think Obama isn’t doing enough, you ought to have some idea what he should be doing.
Agreed. If anyone wants to criticize the administration for not doing enough, which they are of course entitled to do, they should also at least have some suggestions as to what they should be doing. Otherwise I’d suggest shutting up.
Just yelling ‘DO SOMETHING’ isn’t a valid criticism.
I think leaving the fixing of the leak to the experts has been the right strategy. But to sit idly by and basically watch the oil that’s already in the water slowly drift toward the coast lines has been the wrong answer. Get every fucking boat you can to “skim baby skim” The Federal government has those type of resources. Every gallon they skim up before it gets to land is a gallon that doesn’t need to be cleaned up off of the beaches and marshlands.
As the miles of beach line along the gulf coast become more and more coated with oil, this story will continue to get bigger. Especially as millions of American’s summer vacation plans are ruined. We start seeing more birds and sea creatures coated in oil.
The current administration will villify BP and criminal charges will be brought against the company and executives. Probably rightly so, if it is discovered that corners were cut and regulations were not followed.
But that doesn’t excuse the government from doing nothing as waves of crude lap the shoreline. This will further solidify Obama’s defeat in 2012.
Being president in a crisis, when your practical power is extremely limited, is pretty much all about politics.
There is a pretty decent chance this oil will still be flowing in November during the mid-term elections. I hope it’s not the case here, but I have read that often 3 or 4 or even more relief wells need to be drilled before the gushing stops. If that’s the case, he better BE SEEN leading a massive national effort to deal with the consequences. You can be damn sure that Republicans will be doing whatever they can to smear the Democrats with the Gulf oil spill.
The other thing he needs to do, if he hasn’t already, is get better control of his own bureaucracy. A couple of weeks back, after he had announced a virtual moratorium on new drilling, the government was still handing out permits. There was a NYTimes story about it. I hope that has already been fixed.
“But that doesn’t excuse the government from doing nothing as waves of crude lap the shoreline.”
Let me ask you this, if you feel so strongly about it, and its just a matter of getting down there and rolling up the sleeves, then why aren’t you down there right now helping with cleanup yourself? Personal responsibility and all that, right? Why rely on the nanny state government to solve our problems? I don’t know your political bent, but from your comment it seems pretty obvious. I apologize if I’ve misinterpreted your comments.
