Barack Hussein! Why hasn't you stuck your finger in the hole yet?

[devil-ad-vocate.livejournal.com]

Nearly two weeks after the oil rig exploded, Obama appears at the site of a disaster not yet under control. Heckuva job, Mr. President.
http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=532122

Rush Limbaugh, conservative pundits call Gulf Coast oil spill, 'Obama's Katrina'
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2010/05/03/2010-05-03_rush_limbaugh_conservative_pundits_call_gulf_oil_spill_obamas_katrina.html

Is Oil Spill President Obama's Katrina?
In the past few days, some of the focus has shifted to the White House and whether it sprang to action soon enough to make a difference. Some critics are calling this "Obama's Hurricane Katrina."
http://amfix.blogs.cnn.com/2010/05/03/is-oil-spill-president-obamas-katrina/

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The three articles above are just a sampling of the current "Obama ain't sprung to action fast enuff" bullshit. This is a wonderful opportunity for the right-wing media, left-wing media, environmentalists, and a host of others to milk a story and bend it to their advantage.

Unfortunately, most of what I've heard in ALL the media - other than comments by people actually IN the oil business - is pure BS. BP is the only non-BS so far. They've accepted responsibility (but not blame) for this god-awful mess, and are doing everything they can to fix it.

This is the fault of a blow-out preventer not working. It was either faulty equipment, wasn't installed properly, or was trashed by tons of platform landing on it. Making the disaster political is asinine.

Comments

[ytterbius.livejournal.com]

Your title sums it up beautifully, actually.

Obama basically did what he could. Get the best people on it that he can, Coast Guard, Military, Civilian, and then put the onus on BP to do something about it.

No matter how many Obama beach pictures are posted on the internets, he is completely unable to actually do much of anything about the situation (Ok, maybe Putin could swim down there...).

The righties that are jumping on Obama's initial response are ignoring the fact that even if Obama had jumped up and down alot on day one, and brought the entire US Government into focus on this problem, the same amount of oil would still be floating towards shore right now. This is not like Katrina. There was a HELL of alot of support that could have been usefully provided in the early days that would have made a real difference to the overall results, but wasn't. In this case, the Government simply doesn't have the tools required to do the job, and are dangerously dependent on Private Industry to fix their booboo.

Obama is at risk, though. This thing isn't as ugly as it's going to get. Cross your fingers that this dome solution works, because if we have three months more of this, the gulf coast is going to be close to dead. If BP fails, then Obama could get blamed.

[mrbogey.livejournal.com]

'There was a HELL of alot of support that could have been usefully provided in the early days that would have made a real difference to the overall results'

Such as?

Coast Guard? Naval support? Those were there. FEMA is not a rapid response force and are meant to help recovery. They failed in that regard but the shear magnitude of Katrina was the reason why people needed to be airlifted out.

[ytterbius.livejournal.com]

GW watched as a major city went into anarchy. Gee, that didn't seem to work out too well. Who'd have thought... GW was a fucking idiot.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Yes, because those hundreds of functional schoolbuses being completely forgotten by that dipshit of a governor and a mayor are entirely the President's fault? Oh, and should I mention that we were told all those deaths and mass rapes in the stadium (which just so happened to have a lot of poor black refugees), the ones that were non-existent? And that my half of the state got our shit together in half the time it took New Orleans to wake up?

[debergerac.livejournal.com]

too bad bush didn't think to evacuate all those people beforehand. he could have used, i dunno, schoolbuses....

FTW

[geezer-also.livejournal.com]

Except that the Bush Bashers either won't get what you were referring to, or deny it would of made a difference. And don't forget all the initial reports of all the people who were dying in the stadium, oh wait, they didn't.

Re: FTW

[debergerac.livejournal.com]

i'm not about to let bush off the hook, but huge mistakes in were made at all levels of government. any fair person would have to admit this.

[dukexmachismo.livejournal.com]

i see what you did there

[gunslnger.livejournal.com]

On Star Trek, it's always the captain who's the most capable...

[allhatnocattle.livejournal.com]

I know people are concerned about the coast, but the entire gulf is in danger of suffocating. The entire gulf.