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InvisibleBlack -> RE: Gulf Oil Spill,ala McCain/Palin and Rolling Stone (6/14/2010 7:59:59 PM)
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Disclaimer: I've disliked BP for many years and have refused to purchase their gasoline for better than a decade.
It's obvious in retrospect that BP's safety record isn't anywhere near that of its competitors. Obviously insufficient diligence was done in making sure they were playing by the rules when they were starting up their operations in the gulf. However, in all honesty, I can't claim that I personally had any objections to deepwater drilling nor that I was against opening up the offshore fields. My knowledge of deepwater drilling was (like most I suspect) minimal, but it's now obvious that current technology just isn't up to snuff when it comes to working in the deepwater areas.
Neither party has any high ground in this area, though, since the Democratic Congress and the President were all for deepwater drilling just a week before the blowout and the Republicans have been for it all along.
The sad fact is - there's nothing the President can do and nothing the Congress can do and nothing anyone in the government can do about plugging the well except get out of the way. BP and Transocean are amongst the leaders in deepwater drilling operations and pretty much every scientific expert available is already involved in working towards a solution. A bunch of lawyers and politicans have nothing to add to the situation right now. About the only thing they have to offer is saying to BP "You guys devote all of your time to plugging the well, we'll handle the clean up".
Being angry at President Obama is like being mad at Richard Nixon for not doing anything while Apollo 13 was losing oxygen on the dark side of the moon. The President has no value to add to the situation at all. Everyone who can help is already working on the problem. The best you can possibly do to assist is leave them alone. Unfortunately, as in many things, some people cannot stay out of the way.
I would say the biggest mistake Obama has made in this is political. He's the one who said it was his problem now. He's the one who started acting like he could take charge and solve things. He's the one who's on national television every day making pronouncements and promises. When the oil kept flowing, week after week after week, it became obvious that for all his rhetoric, in this circumcstance he's not in control and can't significantly change things. Of course the Republicans and the Tea Partiers and everyone else who doesn't like him are taking advantage of this. He just about set himself up for it.
Some problems take time to solve. Some issues cannot be fixed in time for the evening news. Some situations require real work and real thought. Americans are too used to the TV show "fixed in an hour" mentality. When you're talking about solving a well blowout more than a mile undersea, there are a very small select group of people who have any value to add to the circumstance at all. Everyone else is a distraction. Give the few who can contibue every resource they ask for and let them work on the problem.
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