The BP Story So Far. . . Follow

Meh, for it's it isn't so much that BP is a British company. If it had been Chevron and thus Venezuelan, omg now THEN we'd have rioting in the streets.

We're way more annoyed that BP kept lying about how much oil was spilling than we are about them not being American. Dammit, we expect better of EU countries.

Naive much?

Nah, I'm sure ALL the GOP parrots feel the same as you do.

Jophed,


And all the liberal whack jobs have convinced you that shutting down all oil operations in the US must be done right now or we're all going to be buried under a mountain of oil.

If Obama had a degree in engineering instead of law, this argument might hold some merit.

I'm still not 100% sure what people expect Obama to do, or why anyone is blaming this on him.

Only pure ideologues would expect Obama to have the oil spill completely cleaned up on his own by now, or complain that he isn't actually in a divesuit with a skimmer. However, he could be demonstrating more leadership in this situation.

If I were President, I'd have immediately taken a group of experts in the field and traveled to speak with the governors of each state with a coastline on the Gulf. I'd get scenarios and assessments on what the impact of the oil spill would be, and then brainstorm and propose solutions on how best to handle the spill once it reaches the coast, or minimizing the damage. These may be different for each state, and I'd come out of each meeting with a list of prioritized tasks, which groups (federal, state, local, or a combination) are responsible for each, and a timeline of achieving them. I'd also leave a liaison there as a direct point of contact for status updates, relaying problems, etc. I'd have done everything possible to streamline the prevention and clean-up activities, and I'd have some clearly defined goals and strategies that I could hold certain people or groups accountable to if there were failures. If I didn't hear from a state or my liaison there in a couple days, I'd be calling to check in as to why I hadn't heard anything. I'd have met directly with BP's CEO and demanded his list of strategies for stemming or stopping the oil flow and what their timetables are on that, in addition to demanding weekly status updates to have all the details.

Obama seems more interested in campaigning than leading; he alternates between giving soundbites to the press about how bad BP is and traveling down to the Gulf simply to get some photo ops with a concerned look as he listens to local fishermen. These actions are only the appearance of leadership. I think this is really what is frustrating a lot of people; reasonable people do not think he can possibly cap the leak himself or magically make the oil disappear.

If he did just something along what I outlined, showing he has charge over the portion he could possibly have some semblance of control and that he and his administration are fulling supporting the states affected, I (along with probably millions of Americans) would be satisfied and believe he is doing all he can at the moment to handle the crisis. I think these are perfectly reasonable expectations of the President.

Edited, Jun 10th 2010 4:00pm by CountFenris

See, these are the things someone from BP should be doing, IMHO. But that's just me.

Not to apologize for Obama or anything, but I'd think that a deep-sea drilling company might be the best company to fix a deep-sea drilling accident/disaster.

I don't mean from BP; I'd use independent experts in this field to use their experience and knowledge determining what the possible scenarios were. Sure, BP would be involved, but they wouldn't be the only source.



Obviously you can't just put up a wall immediately along the entire Gulf coast, but maybe you could have used barriers to divert the oil flow to certain areas. Maybe there are alternative, creative solutions that don't involve berms.



Good thing I am not a GOP member. You don't believe the President should ever have a conversation with Hayward? I just think as President he has the pull to go straight to the source and get any information from the head of the company. I just think of it as cutting across lines; the CEO might have a little more info and the entire picture than his underlings. It's not even for accountability sake, the press is already taking care of that. I'll tell you what, if when this hullabaloo about not talking to Hayward arose the Obama administration came out and showed that in fact he had been in contact with Hayward, just not publicly, I would have been impressed. Very impressed.



I have no doubt he does. And what have those meetings yielded?

I kind of get the feeling that Nobby doesn't see BP as a grossly negligent company that hasn't continually racked up serious violations magnitudes greater than their competitors.

And you think Hayward would be better at answering this stuff than the actual technical guys the administration is speaking to?

No, I'm not claiming to have a solution and readily admit that I don't have even a slim fraction of the information I'd need to pretend to have one.

Edited, Jun 10th 2010 5:58pm by Jophiel