Obama and the Oil Spill: Can He Make Us, the Media and the GOP Happy?

Greg Sargent noted at the top of his May 25 “Morning Plum” - “… there’s been a palpable shift in the tone of the media coverage of Obama’s handling of the Gulf spill, with the big news orgs slowly shifting their news operations into a more aggressive mode.” Indeed, since Sargent’s posting, media calls for the president to do something more about BP’s deepwater gusher have only increased in frequency and volume.

The criticisms of the Obama administration’s handling of the spill vary in scope and quality. Sarah Palin’s assertion on Fox Sunday May 23 broadcast – suggesting the president’s reaction to BP’s mess was somehow tempered by contributions to the Obama campaign — was decidedly lacking of the latter:

If there’s any connection there to President Obama taking so doggone long to get in there, to dive in there, and grasp the complexity and the potential tragedy that we are seeing here in the Gulf of Mexico — now, if this was President Bush or if this were a Republican in office who hadn’t received as much support even as President Obama has from B.P. and other oil companies, you know the mainstream media would be all over his case in terms of asking questions why the administration didn’t get in there, didn’t get in there and make sure that the regulatory agencies were doing what they were doing with the oversight to make sure that things like this don’t happen.

Frankly, Palin has no business using the word “complex” or any variation of it.

First, as this Media Matters timeline indicates, the administration’s response was immediate. The presence of the U.S. Coast Guard and government scientists have afforded a much clearer understanding of the disaster than we would have otherwise had.

Additionally, Palin’s representation of BP’s “support” for Obama is, to be kind, questionable. Her assertions about the “mainstream media” hypothetically reacting differently “if [it] were a Republican in office” is probably right, but to assess the regulatory lapses which contributed to the Deepwater Horizon explosion as the sole responsibility of the present administration is a ludicrous notion.

Palin’s finger pointing, posited for simple short-term political gain, says nothing of the fact that the failure of government to conduct proper oversight of offshore drilling is truly a tragic bipartisan farce.

Consider the Ixtoc oil spill which flowed into the Gulf of Mexico for nine months beginning July 1979. Rachel Maddow did an excellent segment comparing the 31 year old disaster with the present spill during her May 26. broadcast. Highlighting the numerous similarities between the two, the MSNBC host remarked:

[T]he stuff that did not work back then is the same stuff that hasn’t worked now. Same busted blowout preventer, same ineffective berm, same underwater plumes, same toxic dispersants, same failed containment domes, same junk shot, same top kill – it’s all the same technology.

The Ixtoc well, which couldn’t be plugged for nine months, was in roughly 200 feet of water. Now, in 2010, we’re using the same exact techniques to try to plug a well that leaking in 5,000 feet of water…

Watch the Maddow segment (The Ixtoc is treated around :50 – More after the clip)

Certainly, I’m stating the obvious, but the regulatory regimes under both, Democratic and Republican administrations, should have required oil companies to demonstrate the ability to deal with a relatively shallow accident before moving on to deeper waters. To be sure, the uniquely Republican impulse to soften government regulation of such endeavors — particularly during the George W. Bush years — is condemnable, but the present lack of preparedness required complicity from Democratic politicians.

So, what can the Obama administration do? Media outlets have largely moved beyond the comical criticisms of Palin excerpted above, but more recent treatments, while more articulate, haven’t been any more constructive. David Brooks’ May 31 opinion piece, “The Oil Plume,” is a prime example.

Brooks posits, “In times of crisis, you get a public reaction that is incoherence on stilts… They know there is nothing a man in Washington can do to plug a hole a mile down in the gulf.”

Brooks continues imparting the tone of a growing media sentiment that what Obama needs to do is to show more emotion:

On the other hand, they demand that the president “take control.” They demand that he hold press conferences, show leadership, announce that the buck stops here and do something. They want him to emote and perform the proper theatrical gestures so they can see their emotions enacted on the public stage.

Certainly Brooks is not alone in this false assumption regarding what “the public” wants, but the Times columnist’s piece inspired a series of thoughtful responses. The Washington Monthly‘s Steve Benen and TIME‘s Michael Crowly take issue with the unrealistic expectations propped up by beltway pundits. But it was the above mentioned Greg Sargent who summed it up best:

…Surely the public does look to the president for some kind of reassurance amid crises. But my bet is the public will judge Obama’s performance almost exclusively based on the substance of his response: Whether he holds BP meaningfully accountable. Whether the administration does what it takes to exert real control over the response to the disaster. Whether Obama uses this crisis to push for a larger solution to the vast underlying problem that produced it.

…it seems like the magnitude of this crisis demands an equally large response from our opinion makers.

Amen to that!

As for what Obama can or should do about BP’s disaster, Yes Magazine‘s Sarah van Gelder lists six suggestions within her June 1 post. Follow the link for the constructive details, and be sure to check out the extensive Care2 coverage of the BP spill and The Petition Site‘s opportunities for action, listed below.

Related on Care2:

The above links are just the most recent – Find full Care2 Coverage of the Spill here.

Related Care2 Actions:

Image via Infrogmation of New Orleans by way of Wikimedia Commons

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Vanessa S.

5:07PM PDT on Jul 3, 2010

Kelly B.
It absolutely sickens me that you are suggesting that any of the BP oil spill has anything to do with the color of someone's skin. Please do not post things that are hurtful.

send a green star

johan l.

10:45PM PDT on Jun 17, 2010

The tone of any article about the oil spill should not be about the "potential" disaster.
How much more has to happen before the whole of the US wakes up to the fact that this disaster will eventually engulf the whole of the American population and beyond!
The resultant mess of the oil spill will not be cleaned up for the next 50 years!

Sir Walk F.

9:31PM PDT on Jun 13, 2010

want to know why the havent plugged the leak yet?

because the entire well-head is damaged beyond repair and may collapse on itself at any point.

The only solution is a reliefe well that is months away.

if this well head does indeed collapse, potentially billions of gallons of oil, gas, and methane will be released into the sea, and will partially collapse the sea floor, destroying most of the region for human habitation.

I expect a major announcement soon. the fact that no one is telling us ANYTHING about this should raise everyone's flags.

if 'they' arent talking, its because they are hiding something BIG.

http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread582892/pg1

Erica D.

3:52AM PDT on Jun 8, 2010

The only things that would make the GOP happy is a ban on women's voting rights and a return to Jim Crow laws. Sad, but true.

SL L.

6:40AM PDT on Jun 7, 2010

To Kelly B. and all blind republicans: it was Bush and Cheney who made the political deals with the oil companies and they deregulated oil drilling. They are the scum bags responsible for no regulations and laws on oil. They put us in this situation, not Obama. You are so stupid and full of hate, that is why republicans are poorly viewed. Obama needs to make sure this never happens again. I don't agree with all his liberal views; but on this one I certainly do. Further, I blame Bush and Cheney as they are the real culprits here.

6:35AM PDT on Jun 7, 2010

Obama did inherit one mess from Bush and Cheney who made secret deals behind closed doors with oil companies and the price is now being paid for their corrupt presidency. Obama will ultimately be held responsible as it happened under his administration and it is up to him to regulate the oil industry appropriately and stop the devastation to the gulf coast from the tragic oil spill. I hope he really does have the best scientists in place. Ludicrous to mention Hollywood producer from the Titanic James Cameron, where are the leading minds from MIT and other engineering schools in the country???

6:12AM PDT on Jun 7, 2010

His job is not to make anyone happy. It's to look out for what's best for this country. But integrity, honesty, hard work and looking out for your neighbor fell by the wayside a long time ago. Everyone wants their gas guzzlers, central air conditioning and all the luxuries they have become accustomed to but they don't expect to have to earn them and accept the costs of having them. And that's called whining.

Frank P.

7:42PM PDT on Jun 6, 2010

Obama will not make anyone happy because he has not kicked BP out of here and used U.S. engineers and specialists. There has to be some smoe out there who can cap this leak, if not why are we allowing drilling anywhere? You don't drill for oil if you can not stop a worst case scenerio in a spill situation, which is why Arctic drilling should never even be considered because Oil Companies have already said there is no known way to clean up a spill on the ice, yet here we were on the cusp of letting Shell begin exploratory drilling in the Arctic this July !!!!!!! Only the current spill and activist and environmental supporters have made Obama do the obvious and stop those pland, TEMPORARILY. And Sarah Palin needs to just shut her ignorant pie-hole permanantly because she is Cancer to this country. Obmama needs to asert himself, but he is just a puppett like all Presidents. Lobbyists, Money, and The Bilderbergs run this country.

9:57AM PDT on Jun 6, 2010

The only people he has to make happy are the Bilderberg Group. About 135 people. The heads of banks, oil companies, car companies, the usual suspects.