Obama accuses BP of recklessness in national TV address

Heh, just what the people in the Gulf region needs right now .... another speech by obama.

Who needs speeches? Take some action and leave it at that. This guy loves hearing his own voice.

why is he responsible? Must suck to be the president!

meloveulongtime - Obama is not at all responsible for what happened, but the U.S. right-wing nutjobs are so desperate to pin anything on him, they will make it all about him.

I don't understand at all why people are blaming Obama - it's BP and whoever they have in charge of stopping the leak. It is without doubt an appalling situation, but blaming Obama is low and completely wide of the mark.

It was revealed the other day that BP had virtually no plan whatsoever for a major disaster. None!

thepro: Who needs speeches? Take some action and leave it at that. This guy loves hearing his own voice.

Take what action?

In other news today, Obama failed to find a cure for cancer, to solve the problems in the Middle East and to find a magic economic solution which will put Americans back to work in the face of competition from lower wages elsewhere.

June 14 2010 USA Today/Gallup survey (+/-4%):

71% of the public says Obama hasn't been tough enough in dealing with BP

20% saying the president's response has been about right

3% saying he's been too tough

6% unsure

Bad news for BP.

I saw a recent interview with business owners in the gulf on BBC.

Most of the guys are against BP being fined as it would reduce funds to clean up the beaches.

One guy said they haven't even recovered from Katrina and now this. All they want is a big cleanup so that their businesses don't get hurt to badly and possibly have to close down.

Found them very down to earth and with little bad feelings towards BP and Obama.

BP might have been reckless, but there are people in the gulf that need help NOW.

First, Obama was criticized by the "right wing nutjobs" (hoserfella's term, not mine) for not taking a more active role in the crisis, now he is being criticized for taking an active role in the crisis.

And of course it was "Obama's Katrina" before it actually became, uh...Obama's Katrina. Personally I think he is handling the situation badly, the soundbite tough-talk does nothing to get a solution, and it was a big mistake in this speech to start going on about long-term energy policy instead of just sticking to the immediate problem. But nobody knew he was going to botch things when they started shouting the Katrina comparisons - just a case of a broken clock being right twice a day.

So the entire Gulf Coast of the USA has been destroyed, and who knows how much more before it stops, but hey it's great news for the red team.

All of you pundits clamoring for "small" government suddenly criticize the federal government for not doing enough to plug the leak and clean up a small ocean.

The United States of america was a political system serving the interests of coporations soley! There were many americans has the stakes of BP! So what can you do.....? Trail these people of 'treasons' or elase,Mr obama?

While BP is surely at fault here, so is our desire for cheap oil. Let's face it, someone must have written a paper or presented something about the threat of such a spill. I mean studies are done about these things and it is clear that not enough study or action was taken to offset a real world problem.

While BP is at the center of this, it could well have been any other company with a drill platform.

Why do we always wait until a disaster to finally look at the risks? We need to do a much better job of looking at the risks long before a real world problem develops.

yeah Obama's fault, right? And I suppose it was Bush's fault that terrorists rammed jets into the White House. GET REAL! The action is not their fault, but the response is their responsibility.

Obama's response seems slow, but in all honesty I don't see how it could have been better. Ban BP from all future business in America.

paulinusa - "All of you pundits clamoring for "small" government suddenly criticize the federal government for not doing enough to plug the leak and clean up a small ocean."

ha ha, good point. For Conservatives, small government is cool until they need big government. Then big government is cool. :-)

"A government panel of scientists determined that the well is leaking even more oil than previously thought, as much as 2.52 million gallons a day — or enough to fill the Oval Office where Obama sat more than 22 times."

Who writes these articles? OK so I'm on the metric system, but does the writer really expect us to believe the oval office can hold 115,000 gallons of oil? 2300 barrels?

Heh, there been some bullshit stored in there over the years, but the writers desperation to use the Whitehouse in the story seems a little ridiculous....

Pretty sure nobody is saying its Obamas fault. However like everything else, great speech...way to get tough. What next gonna make the CEO of BP go and sit in time out? Do something already.

He rushed through a public healthcare bill without having all the details worked out, in the same manner have some of your masterminds figure out a way to plug a hole since BP sure as heck cant do it. Then give them a bill and a hefty fine.

Just as Bush was not responsible for a hurricane, Obama is not responsible for an oil spill. As leaders of America they are responsible for America, and both their responses are abysmal.

He is still community organizing and agitating instead of acting like a president. What a disaster.

The response to Katrina would have been to mobilize relief. What would be the response to the oil spill? Who better than oil companies engaged in off-shore drilling to engineer solutions to the problem?

Yes, we would like Obama to do something, much as if an asteroid were hurtling toward the earth and Bruce Willis was unavailable. Some things, however, are out of our immediate control. This appears to be one of them.

I'm fairly sure that if anyone has cogent suggestions as to what to do, the administration will have someone who is ready to listen. What I have seen so far here, though, is that Obama should do something. Clean-up crews have been deployed, the oil is being siphoned up, various solutions have been attempted to plug or stop the leak. Exactly what should Obama do?

I agree with WILLIB any other president would have had this sorted in a jiffy. If only John McCain was in the chair he'd have know what to do, hell he'd probably have had a Nam moment, donned a wetsuit, dived down there and filled the hole with the corpses of BP's board of directors, obviously after bombing BP's headquarters (and for some strange reason another third-world muslim country)....

Containment proceedures are one thing, having sufficient equipment is another and I seriously doubt FEMA or any other government org or any org the government could procure such equipment from, has them. Futher, a spill from an oil tanker is a far, far, FAR cry from a runaway undersea gusher.

"A new Associated Press-GfK poll even indicates as many Americans disapprove of his handling of the crisis — 52% — as felt that way about President George W Bush’s handling of the Katrina aftermath."

And I bet you the majority of those people are simply angry about the former President being rightly criticized for his response to Katrina and so are simply pulling a kind of even-Steven and blaming Obama for this; not at all taking the extreme differences into consideration, and how much Obama has done and is doing to try and combat the mess.

It's also funny to watch the Right-wingers on here flip-flop; say he's not doing anything, then when he DOES do something they criticize him for something else. If he weren't making speeches they'd be asking why he won't say anything. And seriously, what 'action' beyond pushing BP to fix the gusher and clean up should the man take?? Should he put on a wetsuit and dive down there to block the hole himself?

Give it a rest, guys... if anyone loves to 'hear himself speak (or herself)', it's you guys and all your complaining. Some of you during the course of this disaster have come on here and said it's no one's fault (ie. not blaming BP), and yet somehow still say it's Obama's!

Exactly what should Obama do?

Suspend the Jones Act as the Bush Administration did after Katrina. Never happen though with this administration, Unions come first before country.

Yes sailwind what should he do since Obama isn't the cause of the problem and the worlds best engineers don't have a tangible solution?

I'm with you guys. Let's just jump up and down, shout and scream and blame Obama.

Unless someone on the foaming-at-the-mouth-extreme-right has a solution as to how to cap the flow of oil, or anyone else for that matter, then everybody should just shut up. There will be time for recrminations and rightly so. Stop the freakin leak first....

Madverts,

He can suspend the Jones Act in two minutes with a stroke of a pen on an executive order.

Here ponder this if he had done that early in this disaster. He can't plug the leak he is not superman but he damn sure could have done this.

Three days after the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico, the Dutch government offered to help.

It was willing to provide ships outfitted with oil-skimming booms, and it proposed a plan for building sand barriers to protect sensitive marshlands.

The response from the Obama administration and BP, which are coordinating the cleanup: “The embassy got a nice letter from the administration that said, ‘Thanks, but no thanks,'” said Geert Visser, consul general for the Netherlands in Houston.

Now, almost seven weeks later, as the oil spewing from the battered well spreads across the Gulf and soils pristine beaches and coastline, BP and our government have reconsidered.

U.S. ships are being outfitted this week with four pairs of the skimming booms airlifted from the Netherlands and should be deployed within days. Each pair can process 5 million gallons of water a day, removing 20,000 tons of oil and sludge.

At that rate, how much more oil could have been removed from the Gulf during the past month?

The uncoordinated response to an offer of assistance has become characteristic of this disaster's response. Too often, BP and the government don't seem to know what the other is doing, and the response has seemed too slow and too confused.

Federal law has also hampered the assistance. The Jones Act, the maritime law that requires all goods be carried in U.S. waters by U.S.-flagged ships, has prevented Dutch ships with spill-fighting equipment from entering U.S. coastal areas.

“What's wrong with accepting outside help?” Visser asked. “If there's a country that's experienced with building dikes and managing water, it's the Netherlands.”

Even if, three days after the rig exploded, it seemed as if the Dutch equipment and expertise wasn't needed, wouldn't it have been better to accept it, to err on the side of having too many resources available rather than not enough?

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/steffy/7043272.html

The Jones Act is nothing more than a Union protection racket codified by Federal law, Obama would never in a million years actually do the right thing by suspending it so we could really had all the assets we needed to try to limit as much damage as we could while they are trying everything they can to cap this thing.

Thank you sailwind. Finally something concrete. But let us remember that Obama himself might never have heard of the offer until much later. Somebody fumbled, and it may have been Obama himself or some pompous schmuck in his administration. Someone has some serious atoning to do.

Sail, the root of the problem is the gusher; the result is the spilt oil killing and polluting. Having a few Dutch ships to aid with a gusher this size would be like using a bandaid on a gaping head wound. Conservatives seem hellbent on pinning this disaster on Obama whereas, as Madverts rightly said, there's nothing Obama can do - this is in BP's hands.

Why aren't conservatives crying out for their man Michael 'Hekkuvajob' Brown? Brownie knew how to fix stuff...

Does anyone even listen to Obama anymore?

Obama doesn't need this aggravation.

Having a few Dutch ships to aid with a gusher this size would be like using a bandaid on a gaping head wound

You should look at the size of just one of those 'band-aids'. Just one on station would have made a huge difference. Imagine about ten of them working twenty four seven on this thing. Why did we turn the Dutch down? Monumental stupidity by this administration. They put politics first country second and that is a fact.

http://www.koseq.com/

"Obama offered no immediate remedies for a frustrated nation."

We ain't seen nothin' yet.

"Obama offered no immediate remedies for a frustrated nation."

sarge, not all of us are young/stupid and/or religious enough to believe in miracles.

The only remedy is plugging the hole. No one, including the Dutch have a solution. It's a catastrophe.

Sailwind,

I'll accept your point, and the time for finger pointing will come. Had you been so vocal in the aftermath of Katrina, I'd be more ready to accept your critisism.

Katrina was bush's baby.

I'm afraid Madverts has misunderstood my post. What "We ain't seen nothin' yet" means the frustration level of the people affected not only by the oil gusher, but by Obama's policies, is going to get a lot higher.

"What "We ain't seen nothin' yet" means the frustration level of the people affected not only by the oil gusher, but by Obama's policies, is going to get a lot higher."

We're used to the mindless droning from people that frankly don't have a solution. At least Obama hasn't invaded anywhere or pooped from a high height on age-old alliances for the time being.

"a battle plan"

This reminds me of Home Alone, heh heh.

SushiSake3 - the root of the problem is the gusher; the result is the spilt oil killing and polluting. Having a few Dutch ships to aid with a gusher this size would be like using a bandaid on a gaping head wound. Conservatives seem hellbent on pinning this disaster on Obama whereas, as Madverts rightly said, there's nothing Obama can do - this is in BP's hands.

The explosion was an accident but the disaster was set up by BP and the companies BP hired to drill the well. As I understand it, the blow out preventer contains 5 shutoff devices and none of them worked. Was it tested, as required, before it was sent to the gulf floor? I guess we'll find out later - during the court cases.

The aftermath and cleanup is President Obama's responsiblility. He is supposed to taking the leadership role in protecting the shoreline, fishing grounds and hundreds of thousands of jobs (voters?) that depend on the Gulf to make a living.

Saying that Obama can't do anything about it is absurd. If BP can't get the job done, then get someone who can. BP has been lying about the situation from day one so there is no reason to leave this in BP's hands.

The Dutch were kind enough to offer their considerable expertise and oil recovery vessels to suck up the oil and lessen the looming ecological disaster and Obama IGNORED them.

The federal agency that oversees deepwater drilling says that BP is doing what they tell them to, that the feds are in-charge of the recovery. More lies. Obama's guys have no idea what is going on in the Gulf and no idea how to find out.

hehehe, if the president was a republican, the role would be just inversed on this forum.

Obama and BP got themselves in a big mess where Obama tries to save his ratings and BP its share price.

The right and the left have been shooting themselves on their respective feet for so long.

arrestpaul - "Saying that Obama can't do anything about it is absurd. If BP can't get the job done, then get someone who can."

That's the fatal flaw in your argument. Who can?

There isn't a company out there who has practical experience at plugging a gusher a mile deep.

"BP has been lying about the situation from day one so there is no reason to leave this in BP's hands."

There is every reason to leave it in their hands. To prove my point, name one other company that has the expertise to plug this gusher.

"The Dutch were kind enough to offer their considerable expertise and oil recovery vessels to suck up the oil and lessen the looming ecological disaster and Obama IGNORED them."

Dutch boats with oil booms on the surface aren't going to stop a gusher a mile deep from gushing.

That's where your argument goes sailing off the cliff.

The only other option I can see is for the U.S. govt. to pick another oil major - let's say Texaco - and tell them to get the heck in their with their gusher-stopping technology.

But how long would that take? How many more millions of gallons of oil would leak before Texaco was anywhere near ready to plug the leak?

BP - despite their many obvious flaws - are on the job.

Replacing them would be idiotic to the max.

Did anyone notice he used this tragedy to push cap and trade? Obama won't stop until he bankrupts the country. As for his being tough with BP, well short of laying a lawsuit that will take 20 years to settle he is at the mercy of their good humor.

usaexpat -"Did anyone notice he used this tragedy to push cap and trade? Obama won't stop until he bankrupts the country."

Come on, quit the hysteria, will you?

Are you - somehow - implying that staying dependant on a finite polluting energy source - namely oil - is good strategy?

Who are you tryig to kid??

America has got to quit its addiction to oil - there's no two ways about it - unless you enjoy handing shiploads of cash to fun countries like Saudi Arabia, wrecking your country's balance of payments balance and creating ongoing pollution.

SushiSake3 - "Saying that Obama can't do anything about it is absurd. If BP can't get the job done, then get someone who can."

That's the fatal flaw in your argument. Who can?

There isn't a company out there who has practical experience at plugging a gusher a mile deep.

"BP has been lying about the situation from day one so there is no reason to leave this in BP's hands."

There is every reason to leave it in their hands. To prove my point, name one other company that has the expertise to plug this gusher.

ANY other drilling company could do a better job than the one that's been LYING about it's failing efforts.

Of course the Dutch boats aren't going to stop a gusher a mile deep from gushing. That's not what they do. They SPECIALIZE in collecting the oil that has escaped. The oil that is now covering the fishing grounds and the shoreline and has been for weeks. The oil that is damaging economy.

Texaco???

Sushi: I don't dispute that America needs to reduce its reliance on oil but cap and trade is not the way to do it. Why do you think Mr. Inconvenient Truth is such a fan? Certain people stand to make billions from a scheme that will not end oil dependence but merely raise the cost of energy for everyone. In addition any costs that manufacturers pay get passed along. In the end it's just another way to further degrade average (read non-wealthy) people's standard of living. Who pays for it in the end? Hint the same people who always do the poor and middle class. If you want to end America's dependence on oil then the government needs to fund research to make that happen. Wind and solar aren't going to cut it. Building nuclear plants and making viable electric cars should be the first step while we develop other technologies.

BP needs to be dissolved.

"Obama you are useless" and Lead now!" said two of several spray-painted signs along the president's motorcade route in Florida...

Sushi, I don't know if this is just revenge (fair) or if you truly don't realize how contradictory you are being. First you say that no one has practical experience plugging a well like this, which is an admission it may not happen for a long time. But from day one and up through tomorrow, and continuing, oil has been flooding into the gulf. Plug that hole or not, that oil still needs to be cleaned up somehow, and the more that gets cleaned up before washing ashore the better.

I believe the Bush team also turned down help from France and others after Katrina. And I bet the conservatives were taking pot shots at France with quips about wine and cheese. I am not going to be like them. I am not going to base my actions on theirs. In general, they pretty well disgust me.

I'm still waiting to learn which company is more capable than BP at plugging this gusher. In the absence of any suggestions, and despite BP's many managerial flaws, I still say BP is the best company for the job under the present circumstances.

<We will fight this spill with everything we’ve (that is BP have) got for as long it takes,>

<he declared to his prime-time television audience, “We will make BP pay.”>

BP secured the rights to the seabed for drilling for oil. They then contracted three (or more) American companies to do the actual work. One, Cameron International designed and built the failsafe valve that should have but didn’t stop the blow out. An other was Halliburton that did the foundation work for the rig on the seabed and finally there is Transocean who were contracted to do the actual drilling and extraction. BP had 8 administration people on the rig out of a crew of 126. Yes BP are the owners and therefore the liable party when something goes wrong. But they are not the company that made a useless blow out valve, they are not the company that was actually doing the drilling. So why are the America people both in the US and here on this site only talking about BP’s guilt? I accept that given that BP are the owners they should be held responsible in law, but the American press and Obama are not the law and have avoided in every way possible looking at who actually was responsible for the original accident. We have seen the other oil companies being made to face some serious questions about what they are doing. But we have not seen any of the 3 companies involved being put before the American people to answer for their actions and their failures. If I fault BP for anything at this time it is that they are still using Transocean in the effort to stop the oil. My own hope is that BP sues all three of these companies for every penny they have (in the American courts) and destroys them. Them the wonderful Obama can try and explain why all these poor oilmen have lost their jobs.

It is really wonderful reading how so many Americans are pointing the finger at BP and asking why they are taking so long to stop the oil. Why are they not asking why BP, Transocean, Halliburton and Cameron International are taking so long to stop the oil? Why does Obama only talk about BP, why is only BP being made to sit and listen to this talking head?

BP is 40% owned by US shareholders and we have above a silly person talking about America not doing business with BP again, would this not seem like many people have no idea what they are talking about? Galileo proved that the Earth was not the centre of the universe so why do the Americans still believe they are?

SushiSake3 - I'm still waiting to learn which company is more capable than BP at plugging this gusher. In the absence of any suggestions, and despite BP's many managerial flaws, I still say BP is the best company for the job under the present circumstances.

I thought you picked Texaco as your choice to replace BP.

cptmendoza: So why are the America people both in the US and here on this site only talking about BP’s guilt?

Because they are the ones who are ultimately responsible. They were going to get the profits from the rig and they have to step up and take responsibility when things go wrong. Add to that the fact that you can't seem to get a straight answer out of them which makes them look both incompetent and untrustworthy.

SushiSake: I'm still waiting to learn which company is more capable than BP at plugging this gusher.

I'm still waiting to learn which company could actually do worse. Maybe with a different company there wouldn't have been as many lies and coverups. The result could be the same, but at least we'd have some level of trust with a different company. Personally, I think BP should be out of business and perhaps they will be.

On top of that, BP's lies have put Obama in a bad spot. I think he's being criticized for his initial reaction which didn't appear to be strong enough. But initially the reports were for a much, much smaller leak. That's not his fault.

I'm sure you know that others will criticize Obama and place 100% of the blame on his shoulders. When you see them you should realize what it's like being on the other end of one of your mindless anti-Bush tirades.

Stop the well nobody has a good idea so obama is ok. THAT IS HIS JOB. Yours might be sell burgers at MC but his is to fix problems in america. However, he does NOTHING. Talk gets nothing done.

Should be canned like anyone would be for his performance.

I'll tell you why people in America are focused on BP. These are what appear to be the facts. This was a leased rig, but BP had control and made all important decisions regarding the operation of the rig. BP decieded NOT to follow safety protocols that are standard in the industry which would heve PREVENTED this incident. Instead, they went ahead with a risky process to save money that led to this major economic as well disasteroius incident that killed people, destroyed peoples livelihood as well as the wildlfe in the gulf. This is like you renting a house, allow someone to get hurt in the house by your negligence, then saying, "duh, I'm just the renter". One of the minor investors and BP's partner for the rig(can't remember their name, starts with an A- but looks like they are lawyering up" said today BP acted in a manner which looks like "gross negligence". The more I see of this, BP is going to have to go into bankrupcy. If gross negligence is involved, lawsuits won't be limited to property damage, but punitive damages will be awarded. US courts have awarded vey high punitive damages amounts in the past for agregious cases such as this. So we may be talking about much more then clean up costs and reembursement of the fishermen for lost wages. There are now 250 cases filed against BP in US courts. And some of the 40% of US shareholders are considering filing a lawsuit against BP. That was on the news today.

That cap and trade bill will bankrupt America end of point. Every other country that has instituted that kind of a scheme has had their economy go down the crapper. America has the worlds largest economy and it wont be powered by solar panels or a few wind farms.

And yeah obama might have a point if oil rigs blew up left and right but this is like the third or fourth one to blow up in the entire history of oil drilling worldwide.

Its like attacking Boeing every time a plane crashed.

The community organizer president is still agitating instead of acting like a president. What a pathetic show.