WaPo: Obama struggling to show he's in control of oil spill

[spanone]

FUCK the media

A defensive President Obama sought Thursday to quell doubts about his handling of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, insisting that his administration has been "in charge" from the moment it began and bristling that critics who accuse it of being sluggish to react "don't know the facts."

But at times during a 63-minute news conference in the East Room of the White House, the president seemed to undercut his own argument. He enumerated a litany of fumbles and lapses: that the government lacks resources and "superior technology" to respond to the disaster; that he personally had assumed oil companies "had their act together when it came to worst-case scenarios"; that his administration "fell short" with its acceptance of BP's inaccurate estimate of the size of the gusher; that reforms of the corruption-plagued government agency that oversees offshore drilling "weren't happening fast enough."

At one point, Obama said he did not know whether Elizabeth Birnbaum -- the director of the Minerals Management Service he blamed for allowing the oil industry to overrule environmental and safety concerns -- had resigned or been fired hours before.

The news conference marked a sharp departure in tone from the first days after an oil rig explosion caused the spill, when the White House seemed determined to fix the blame and keep the public outrage directed at the oil company involved. "In case you were wondering who's responsible, I take responsibility," Obama said Thursday. "It is my job to make sure that everything is done to shut this down."

This is the familiar Obama: resolute and in charge. But six weeks after the spill began, those words seemed to highlight the difficulty he has had in convincing the country that he is on top of the situation. As oil continues to foul the gulf, the conflicting signals coming from the president and his team have imperiled his reputation for competence and coolness in the face of crisis.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/27/AR2010052701172_pf.html

[tavalon]

1. One of Obama's achilles heels is his occasional defensiveness

but the scenes I saw were of a resolute and determined bent, not defensive. Doesn't matter though, the media is corporate owned and they will say what the corporations tell them to say.

[dennis4868]

2. No matter how much control Obama has....

over this situation, it does not make a difference....the problem will remain the same.....getting BP to plug the fucking hole which is an almost impossible thing to do because of the circumstances.....

[rocktivity]

11. And it's not so much that BP lacks the competence to stop the leak

it's that they don't have any experience or knowhow with a well at such a depth. EVERYONE involved is making it up as they go along, and Obama is the easiest scapegoat.

One of Keith Olbermann's guests compared it to putting a man on the moon without bothering to figure out how to get him back to earth.

:headbang:
rocktivity

[freddie mertz]

3. I'm glad that he has become more visibly engaged.

But I have to agree with this analysis.

I had hoped for more yesterday. I hope today goes better

[babylonsister]

4. I wonder why they didn't lead with "Obama Takes Responsibility"?

That would have been breaking news for the WaPo, but as usual, they're invested in trashing him.

[spanone]

5. i know why, they have an agenda...destroy this President.

[dipsydoodle]

6. Exactly

:(

[saltpoint]

7. Agree. The bias is right there in purple polka dots and red stripes.

The Republican stench wafting off the Washington POST these past several years has been disheartening.

[redqueen]

15. But it's so trendy right now...

I saw the first few seconds of the 700 club by accident the other night... their lead story was how liberals are dissatisfied with our weak president.

I doubt anyone in the M$M is going to be jumping off this bandwagon anytime soon.

[FLPanhandle]

8. IMO Obama did screw the pooch on this one.

His first news conference on the oil spill wasn't until almost a month into it!

The Coast Guard is still parroting whatever BP tells them to say.

The Government is running interference with the media and citizens.

Sorry, Obama, yes, Bush dismantled the regulations, but you had your people in charge for a year now. Why weren't the regulations improved in that time?

Where are the teams of independent government scientists? The ones you did get involved weren't until WEEKS later.

I live on the Gulf Coast and I'm PISSED at BP and the Government response. It's been pathetic.

[spanone]

9. i guess he should have known the scale of this disaster before anyone else. after all he's the prez.

:sarcasm:

[FLPanhandle]

12. You mean he didn't know this was a disaster for 4 weeks?

I give him more credit than that.

[spanone]

14. not sure anyone knew the scale of it....except bp

[FLPanhandle]

17. Well, if the government was really in control from the beginning as Obama claims

Then why weren't they independently assessing the situation and not relying soley on a company trying to decrease their liability.

If ONLY BP knew, that's a condemning statement against what Obama claims.

Frankly, this shit went on with minimal government involvement for WEEKS when it was painfully apparent after a few days this was a major problem. How major, we didn't know, but everyone knew it was bad early.

[FSogol]

10. The GOP wrote that piece. n/t

[Kahuna]

13. The writer, karen tumulty is a hack and a bushco lover. nt

[KharmaTrain]

16. Empty Symbolism...The Chattering Class Demands It...

Why be level-headed or work quietly to get results...the corporate media demands "answers", "heads" and a "bullhorn moment". It's not designed to solve a problem or end this disaster...it's what they "expect"...and the corporate media will not be denied.

Even if we put every one of Tweety's Supertankers in the Gulf...recruited 10 million people to scrub beaches and strung up every BP executive in sight, that still would be enough. Rather, they'd like to see President Obama, waist deep in oil shaking his fist at the clouds and ready to declare martial law. And then that wouldn't be enough.

Inversely, had the President nationalized BP like many clamored for and the oil continued to gush, we'd hear howls about "socialism" on one side and "they're covering up" on the other. It's a no win situation only made worse by those posturing for their own purposes and a corporate media that demands answers...ignoring facts on the ground and going on pure ego and emotion.

[Demstud]

18. Of course he's struggling

Of course he's struggling to show he's in control of the spill. That's because he's not in control, or I should say, he has about as much control as anyone would when they have to rely on a giant corporation for everything. There are certainly some things he's guilty of. He let the status quo remain in place in regards to regulation, and was fooled like a large majority of us Americans into thinking offshore drilling would help us in our energy problems. As president with access to more information and expert advisors he should have taken some pro-active steps in regards to regulation and safety even if he still would have allowed the drilling to take place. Also, the Federal government has been pretty slow in allowing some other protective measures to be taken. As for the rest of the response, we're pretty much at the mercy of BP. Hopefully, Obama will take this as a wakeup call after the disaster has been stabilized. A lot of my opinion will be riding on how he deals with this afterwards.