Obama Administration Fumbling the Ball with BP
President Obama Not Being Strong Enough with BP
President Obama and the The White House have stated repeatedly that BP needs to act swiftly and deliberately to stop the leak but to this point those directives have yet to be satisfied.
Many Americans, including this one, feel that the federal government moved too slowly in demanding action from BP.
Since the initial explosion and subsequent oil leak, BP's response to capping off the leak has been casual bordering on unconcerned.
While the Gulf of Mexico and now the Florida coastline are being soaked in oil, BP has displayed a cavalier approach to dealing with the problem and The White House has done little to light a fire under the oil giant.
Let me set the record straight, I voted for President Obama but right now I am not very happy with him.
The President has not exerted the kind of pressure that he should have to get BP to move with expedience to get the catastrophe in the gulf under control.
The White House and federal government sat back while BP dragged their feet as the gulf filled up with oil. They had too much confidence in a company that had already shown that it did not care about it's own employees safety or the environment in the gulf.
Not speaking with BP's CEO or COO was a monumental mistake made by president Obama. Even if he thought that they were going to give him lip service, meeting with them would have given the appearance of doing everything he could to rectify the nation's worst environmental disaster.
Instead he waited.
Waited for a company that had shown itself to be negligent, dishonest and untrustworthy leading up to the disaster.
It is only now, after public and media outcry, that President Obama and his administration are putting pressure on BP to be more aggressive in their efforts to cap the oil leak.
Understand, we need a President who is levelheaded and cool under fire but there is a difference between being cool under fire and unresponsive.
I applaud the President's willingness to give everyone a chance to do the right thing and try to work with others to reach an agreeable outcome but there are times that you have to take the bull by the horns and tell it what to do.
This was one of those times.
They were slow in getting there but it appears that The White House has finally arrived at the place where many Americans were several weeks ago...telling BP to get the lead out.
Published by Tony Daniels
B.A. Communications aspiring freelance writer;former television operations engineer,school teacher and insurance salesman.current high school basketball coach and small business owner. love to read, write... View profile
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2 Comments
Post a CommentAmen sister. I wrote this article before the meeting with BP executives and the White house. You are right. Many would have accused the President of "over-reaching his authority while at the same time many of those same people were begging the President and federal government to do something. Less government or more government? They can't seem to make up their mind.
If Obama had taken immediate control of this situation, the right would have accused him of a power grab. And now that Obama HAS gotten tough with BP, everyone's accusing him of making creating a slush fund! The man can never win. Exactly what did you want Obama to do? He is not an oil well safety expert, and neither, evidently, were the agencies charged with monitoring the oil wells. It was only when it became apparent that BP had NO viable plan to shut off the well that the administration became vocal. I, too, am not too happy that in his speech last week Obama didn't say more about BP's dishonesty and the outrageous way they are treating the clean up workers, threatening to fire them if they wear protective gear. But our govt's propensity for putting the foxes in charge of the henhouse (e.g., oilmen in the Energy and Commerce dept.) has led to this disaster just as much as BP's negligence -- because those agencies permitted this negligence to cause this disaster.