"Unprecedented" disaster
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Fixing oil disaster my responsibility, Obama says
By JENNIFER LOVEN and TOM RAUM, Associated Press Writers Jennifer Loven And Tom Raum, Associated Press Writers – 7 mins ago
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama defensively and sometimes testily insisted on Thursday that his administration, not oil giant BP, was calling the shots in responding to the worst oil spill in the nation's history.
"I take responsibility. It is my job to make sure this thing is shut down," Obama declared at a news conference in the East Room of the White House. The Gulf of Mexico oil spill dominated the hour-long session.
He called the spill, now in its sixth week, an "unprecedented disaster" and blasted a "scandalously close relationship" between Big Oil and government regulators.
Obama announced new steps to deal with the aftermath of the spill, including continuing a moratorium on drilling permits for six months. He also said he was suspending planned exploration drilling off the coasts of Alaska and Virginia and on 33 wells under way in the Gulf of Mexico.
The president's direct language on being in charge of the spill, which he repeated several times, marked a change in emphasis from earlier administration assertions that, while the government was overseeing the operation, BP had the expertise and equipment to make the decisions on how to stop the flow.
Taking control carried its own political risks for Obama, because any failure to stop the gusher would then belong to the president. But Obama could suffer politically if his administration was seen as falling short of staying on top of the problem or not working hard to find a solution.
"The American people should know that from the moment this disaster began, the federal government has been in charge of the response effort," Obama said. He was reacting to criticism that his administration had been slow to act and had left BP in charge of plugging the leak.
Obama said many critics failed to realize "this has been our highest priority."
"My job right now is just to make sure everybody in the Gulf understands: This is what I wake up to in the morning, and this is what I go to bed at night thinking about. The spill."
As he spoke, oil BP worked furiously to pump mud-like drilling fluid into the blown-out well.
It was an untested [ but not unprecedented
] procedure to plug the blown-out oil well. It seemed to be working, officials said Thursday, even as new estimates showed the spill has surpassed the Exxon Valdez in Alaska as the worst in U.S. history. -
It looks like he was referring to the spill itself as unprecedented. Which it is. There has never been a spill of this magnitude.
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I don't really get the bolded parts. I watched the press conference.
"The president's direct language on being in charge of the spill, which he repeated several times, marked a change in emphasis from earlier administration assertions that, while the government was overseeing the operation, BP had the expertise and equipment to make the decisions on how to stop the flow."
I heard him say the latter again - the government was overseeing the operation, but that BP had the expertise and equipment to make the decisions on how to stop the flow. All he was saying was that they assisted in that decision-making process, like when they made them drill two relief wells instead of one.
Here's the thing: I don't think there's much more they could be doing on a substantive level. On that level I think they've performed pretty well. On a political level, I think it's been a huge whiff.
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I don't really get the bolded parts. I watched the press conference.
"The president's direct language on being in charge of the spill, which he repeated several times, marked a change in emphasis from earlier administration assertions that, while the government was overseeing the operation, BP had the expertise and equipment to make the decisions on how to stop the flow."
I heard him say the latter again - the government was overseeing the operation, but that BP had the expertise and equipment to make the decisions on how to stop the flow. All he was saying was that they assisted in that decision-making process, like when they made them drill two relief wells instead of one.
Here's the thing: I don't think there's much more they could be doing on a substantive level. On that level I think they've performed pretty well. On a political level, I think it's been a huge whiff.
Here's the thing: I don't think there's much more they could be doing on a substantive level. On that level I think they've performed pretty well. On a political level, I think it's been a huge whiff.
I don't disagree, Heck.
IMHO, Obama is sensing a political hit on this and has decided to become more visable.
I did get a kick out of his standard, "unprecented" description though.
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Why? It is unprecedented. This type of disaster has never happened before. This type of plug has never been attempted before at this depth. Hence, unprecedented.
Seems a strange thing to ding him for.
I would ding him for not owning it publicly, and earlier. People are going to get that the spill isn't your fault, but they want to know what you're doing about it.
Now, they were doing lots of stuff, but no one knew. And that's their fault. As someone recently said, everyone viewed him as a great communicator, but an inexperienced policymaker. It's actually been more of the reverse - he's governed fairly competently and made some tough decisions. It's the inability to explain what those decisions are and why he's made them that have hurt him so far.
He's too detached.
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It was a tongue in cheek statement, not a 'Ding' per se.
EVERYTHING, it seems, is unprecendented since Obama took office. His pet description. Maybe he should go to a thesaurus. Just making light of it.
He probably took an unprecendented leak when he got up this morning.
PS You are right about his ability to communicate effectively. What was perceived as a strength has been somewhat of an achilles heal to him. The Healthcare Bill, is an example of him unable to effectively articulate.
He is human, you know.
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No, he's the Messiah, and we worship him on Sundays and sing Obama songs we learned off YouTube. Haven't you heard?
As for unprecedented, I'll say he's overusing it when he uses it incorrectly. So far, the financial crisis was unprecedented, as were the recovery efforts. And so was the oil spill, and the effort to stem that. So I think it's fine.
I'm still waiting for one of you to comment on that graph I put up. I guess it's kind of inconvenient to your arguments, so no one did.
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which graph?
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I don't want to sidetrack the thread, especially since it's gone eight posts without being invaded by crazies, which might be a record, but it's here.
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I don't quite understand how he is in"charge" of stopping it. The fact gov't thinks they have the expertise to stop such a disaster is laughable and completely out of their area of practice.
I guess in "charge" means footing the majority of the cleanup bill.
I thought Obama and the administration has handled it well so far. There is only so much they can do in an incident like this.
The fact they made them drill two relief wells is kind of redundant and of questionable (not to mention costly) field practice.
Heck: Why is it a total whiff on a political level? I'm not following here.. I think any President / office would respond in the same way ..am i wrong?
-Lambdo
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I don't quite understand how he is in"charge" of stopping it. The fact gov't thinks they have the expertise to stop such a disaster is laughable and completely out of their area of practice.
I guess in "charge" means footing the majority of the cleanup bill.
I thought Obama and the administration has handled it well so far. There is only so much they can do in an incident like this.
The fact they made them drill two relief wells is kind of redundant and of questionable (not to mention costly) field practice.
Heck: Why is it a total whiff on a political level? I'm not following here.. I think any President / office would respond in the same way ..am i wrong?
-Lambdo
I don't quite understand how he is in"charge" of stopping it. The fact gov't thinks they have the expertise to stop such a disaster is laughable and completely out of their area of practice.
I guess in "charge" means footing the majority of the cleanup bill.
I thought Obama and the administration has handled it well so far. There is only so much they can do in an incident like this.
The fact they made them drill two relief wells is kind of redundant and of questionable (not to mention costly) field practice.
Heck: Why is it a total whiff on a political level? I'm not following here.. I think any President / office would respond in the same way ..am i wrong?
-Lambdo
Exactly like Bush handled Katrina. He did everything possible. Right? What was he supposed to do, stop the hurricane? You libs are delusional.
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I don't quite understand how he is in"charge" of stopping it. The fact gov't thinks they have the expertise to stop such a disaster is laughable and completely out of their area of practice.
I guess in "charge" means footing the majority of the cleanup bill.
I thought Obama and the administration has handled it well so far. There is only so much they can do in an incident like this.
The fact they made them drill two relief wells is kind of redundant and of questionable (not to mention costly) field practice.
Heck: Why is it a total whiff on a political level? I'm not following here.. I think any President / office would respond in the same way ..am i wrong?
-Lambdo
Exactly like Bush handled Katrina. He did everything possible. Right? What was he supposed to do, stop the hurricane? You libs are delusional.
Exactly like Bush handled Katrina. He did everything possible. Right? What was he supposed to do, stop the hurricane? You libs are delusional.
Um, I don't believe we thought he could stop the hurricane, no. Thinking we thought that might be delusional.
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I don't quite understand how he is in"charge" of stopping it. The fact gov't thinks they have the expertise to stop such a disaster is laughable and completely out of their area of practice.
I guess in "charge" means footing the majority of the cleanup bill.
I thought Obama and the administration has handled it well so far. There is only so much they can do in an incident like this.
The fact they made them drill two relief wells is kind of redundant and of questionable (not to mention costly) field practice.
Heck: Why is it a total whiff on a political level? I'm not following here.. I think any President / office would respond in the same way ..am i wrong?
-Lambdo
I don't quite understand how he is in"charge" of stopping it. The fact gov't thinks they have the expertise to stop such a disaster is laughable and completely out of their area of practice.
I guess in "charge" means footing the majority of the cleanup bill.
I thought Obama and the administration has handled it well so far. There is only so much they can do in an incident like this.
The fact they made them drill two relief wells is kind of redundant and of questionable (not to mention costly) field practice.
Heck: Why is it a total whiff on a political level? I'm not following here.. I think any President / office would respond in the same way ..am i wrong?
-Lambdo
I wouldn't think they'd all respond in the same way, no. And I'm not asking for a bunch of photo ops and empty gestures. But there are ways to reassure the public that the appropriate steps are being taken. They're not floating off in the middle of the Gulf. They don't know unless you tell them. And you don't seem like you're in control unless you've demonstrated that you are.
People want to know what their government is doing, and also what they're not doing. In a crisis like this, that should be explained by him just about every other day, not in one month intervals.
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No, he's the Messiah, and we worship him on Sundays and sing Obama songs we learned off YouTube. Haven't you heard?
As for unprecedented, I'll say he's overusing it when he uses it incorrectly. So far, the financial crisis was unprecedented, as were the recovery efforts. And so was the oil spill, and the effort to stem that. So I think it's fine.
I'm still waiting for one of you to comment on that graph I put up. I guess it's kind of inconvenient to your arguments, so no one did.
No, he's the Messiah, and we worship him on Sundays and sing Obama songs we learned off YouTube. Haven't you heard?
As for unprecedented, I'll say he's overusing it when he uses it incorrectly. So far, the financial crisis was unprecedented, as were the recovery efforts. And so was the oil spill, and the effort to stem that. So I think it's fine.
I'm still waiting for one of you to comment on that graph I put up. I guess it's kind of inconvenient to your arguments, so no one did.
What graph? I must have missed it.
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Exactly like Bush handled Katrina. He did everything possible. Right? What was he supposed to do, stop the hurricane? You libs are delusional.
Um, I don't believe we thought he could stop the hurricane, no. Thinking we thought that might be delusional.
Um, I don't believe we thought he could stop the hurricane, no. Thinking we thought that might be delusional.
Sorry dip, I thought maybe you might be semi intelligent enough to understand. The Liberals are saying that Obama couldn't stop an oil disaster. But when Bushy was president, they jumped all over him because he didn't respond quickly enough. Now how exactly is that different, dip? Understand Heck?
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Yes, I understand. That you don't understand.
You wrote, "What was he supposed to do, stop the hurricane? You libs are delusional." And I pointed out that, no, no one claimed that. Just like no one is claiming that Obama should have stopped the oil leak, or could have. Those are things out of their control.
We're talking about how they responded to the tragedies, and how they fulfilled their responsibilities. The complaint was about how the Bush administration responded to Katrina, and how they gutted the agency tasked with responding to Katrina, and staffed it with hacks, and how that ended up causing real harm.
I don't have similar complaints about how Obama handled this. I have political complaints.
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yeah, you hated Bush for being a Republican, so you
bought and exaggerated any outlet.
Want to tell us a thousandth time about how "Bush and Cheney"
outed Plame? (no, they didn't. did you ever sing the "I'm So Sorry" song,
like I suggested?)
Bush takes trip to Katrina - "it was just a photo op".
Obamao takes a trip to the disaster in the gulf, "it shows Obamao cares so much"
kinda like that from you libs - very, very politically expedient, but very, very dishonest.
You and Al don't seem to be very smart, or very honest. Maybe 50-50 split there...
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So now that we know the white house has been in charge of the operation since day one I wonder why the earlier efforts to stop the flow were unsuccessful.
I'd been hearing that BP wasn't as competend as they should have been.
On another note maybe we sould build these in shallower water so in case the rare leak occurs it'd be more easily addressed.
WSS
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I don't want to sidetrack the thread, especially since it's gone eight posts without being invaded by crazies, which might be a record, but it's here.
I don't want to sidetrack the thread, especially since it's gone eight posts without being invaded by crazies, which might be a record, but it's here.
The government, clearly, is spending too much money. Allowing people to keep a higher percentage of THEIR money should have been mitigated by spending cuts in other areas.
This chart assumes too many sacred cows, IMHO.
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Are we looking at the same chart, John? It shows the sources of the deficit going forward. And the biggest source, and by a wide margin, are the tax cuts, not the spending.
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