There is something profoundly bass ackwards in the way Obama is reacting to the disaster in the Gulf.
Obama keeps focusing on legal liability:
President Obama will use his first Oval Office speech Tuesday night to outline a plan to legally compel BP to create an escrow account to compensate businesses and individuals for their losses from the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, administration officials said on Sunday….
As critics continue to fault Mr. Obama less for his administration’s overall response to the spill than for what they say has been his own slow and reactive leadership style, the ultimatum to BP and the president’s use of the solemn setting of the Oval Office escalate his personal engagement to a new level.
Birds are dying, marshes are being swallowed whole by oil, and communities are crumbling.
And Obama’s presidential address will focus on an escrow fund for liability claims?
Even Obama’s supporters now realize that he has bungled the federal response, and that he may be incapable of acting in time of true emergency.
Just think how many claims could have been avoided had the full weight of the federal government promptly been brought to bear in the early days, when the administration knew, or (here’s some legalese for you) in the exercise of reasonable diligence should have known, the potential magnitude of the disaster.
If Obama focused on (more legalese) mitigating the harm, there would have been less need for legal claims.
There will be time to hold BP to account; what we have needed and still need is action, someone in charge who can do more than point fingers and wag his tongue.
We need a President, not a Claims Adjuster in Chief.
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Related Posts:
The First Victims of Obamacare
Is It His Katrina Yet?“
Eight Days In April,” by Paul Krugman
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Comments
It seems as though the only emotions Obama can display are negative: anger, hate, bitterness, and, of course, schadenfreude.
Shaking down companies for money is what community organizers do. He is Al Sharpton with better hair.
The media seems to be buying in to the "BP is bad, BP is going to pay" meme that has been the main administration response since day one. The response has NOT been facilitating oil containment and prevention. Whining and blaming others is a sure sign of not having a plan and being incapable of coming up with a real plan. I don't believe the government and BP could stop all the oil, but they surely could reduce the impact.
That is what bugs me most; the President's response (lack of). It was BP's rig, it did experience a blow out and 11 workers died. The president had the authority and resources to try to prevent further damages to other Americans. He is guilty of not trying, not in failing to stop the leak.
I'm sure he does feel bad, but that doesn't help anyone who is paying the personal price of this disaster who did not have the authority or ability to try to prevent the damages. Now we are talking mitigation. For a lawyer perhaps money is a substitute for a way of life, or a life, but for those of us who like what we do, and the people and animals we live with, it is a poor substitute.
Everything seems to be about money to him, spending it as he would like, not how it is needed. It didn't take him this long to push a $750 billion stimulus package through: the villians were less obvious and identifiable, and the solutions more contested.
From the instant he was elected. "Hit the ground running", remember that crap during his transition. All they did was dream up the figure for the the money grabbing bailouts and stimulus bills. Every calculated step they take is towards the money grab. Every second of every minute, of every day in office, they have done nothing else but spend and get money.
Every word he speaks sincerely involves someone elses money. Money, he has to have now. Like as in yesterday.
He never gets bored with the money stuff. Everything else justs sits there.
I'd go on about what a shame he is on so may levels but reality seems be the new "racism"
US turned down Britain’s offer to help clean up BP oil rig spill
Oil Boom Manufacturer: We Notified Government 4 WEEKS AGO That We Have Product (Video) …Update: Team O Learns of Maine Company in Live Interview
Oil Slick, What Oil Slick?… Feds Ban Flights Over Affected Gulf Coast Region
In the meantime, Barry goes golfing and talks about kicking ass.
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Kitty, Don't forget the Dutch offer of oil skimming boats 4 days after the accident.
It's almost as if the administration did everything they could to prevent help from coming.
Actually…that's a bad and totally inaccurate premise. YOU, ABSOLUTELY, WANT A CLAIMS ADJUSTER "IN CHIEF" HANDING THE SPILL.
I'm a Catastrophe specialist who sub-contracts to the major carriers when a Cat. loss occurs (oil spills, hurricanes, plane crashes etc). Our first point of business is limiting and mitigating the loss. That means stopping the leak…
What you have is a president who represents the mind thought of an attorney (and a lazy one at that).
Cheers…
@Gormless Worm – I meant no offense to claims adjusters.
"YOU, ABSOLUTELY, WANT A CLAIMS ADJUSTER "IN CHIEF" HANDING THE SPILL."
More information, please. Why? You sound like an insider, so provide some inside information.
"Our first point of business is limiting and mitigating the loss. That means stopping the leak…"
So, he hasn't done this, nor would I expect a claims adjuster to do this. You totally lost me. It sounds like a joke but..
Q. How does a claims adjuster "in chief" stop an oil leak?
What we need are constitutional lawyers to sue the corruptocrat in chief, and do so before he has any more chance to loot our country.
Obama wants this escrow fund, so he can raid that as well, plus use the funds to pay for his "independent third party" board of friends and contributors.
Obama is the same sort of monster that Robert Mugabe is, and he's going to do the same here, that Mugabe has done in Zimbabwe.
Love the way you put it in perspective!
Don't forget, he also sad the gulf will be better than before!
http://edgeoforever.wordpress.com/2010/06/15/today-in-magic-obama-well-leave-the-gulf-better-than-before/
The Empty Suit Who Cried Wolf hears a wolf at the door.