Anne Applebaum is completely correct in stating that President Obama should not be blamed for the BP oil spill – either that it happened or that the leak hasn’t been stopped. I think Republicans look stupid when they attack Obama for what is happening, though I can sympathize with the “payback” impulse since Democrats attacked Bush for Hurricane Katrina – a debacle that occurred largely because of the incompetence and corruption of the state government of Louisiana and the city government of New Orleans (though I also blame Bush for acting as if the federal government somehow was responsible for hurricane response and relief – and thus added federal government bungling to the mix). Applebaum also echoes the point I made about BP having the greatest expertise and incentive to solve the problem:
Here is the hard truth: The U.S. government does not possess a secret method for capping oil leaks. Even the combined wisdom of the Obama inner circle — all of those Harvard economists, silver-tongued spin doctors and hardened politicos — cannot prevent tens of thousands of tons of oil from pouring out of hole a mile beneath the ocean surface. …In truth, the organization most likely to have the phone numbers of the “experts” is BP. The organization that will get them to Louisiana fastest is BP. I am writing this not because I like, admire or even have an opinion about the company formerly known as British Petroleum but because BP’s shareholders have already lost billions of dollars and BP’s executives are motivated to find solutions faster than anyone in the White House ever could. Bashing BP or seeking to punish BP is pointless.
While Obama is not to blame for the oil spill, there are four things worth adding to the discussion. First, the leftists in the Administration and elsewhere are demonizing BP and claiming that this is evidence that more regulation is needed of evil companies, but perhaps this demagoguery is a way of distracting people from paying attention to the fact that Obama was a top recipient of largesse from the company and that BP institutionally is very left-wing. Second, the White House, because it has refused to waive a protectionist piece of legislation known as the Jones Act, actually does bear a bit of blame for the slow reaction and clean-up efforts. Not surprisingly, the reason for his failure to act is that the unions have him on a very short leash. Third, everyone should take a deep breath and not make a bad situation worse by overreacting and passing misguided legislation. Last but not least, the White House moratorium on drilling was an example of pointless overreaction.
[…] Yes, prices would be a bit lower if the crowd in Washington wasn’t blocking pipelines and hindering exploration, but those policies presumably don’t cause sudden price spikes. So I’ll mostly let Obama off the hook, just as I’ve sometimes defended him in the past. […]
[…] Yes, prices would be a bit lower if the crowd in Washington wasn’t blocking pipelines and hindering exploration, but those policies presumably don’t cause sudden price spikes. So I’ll mostly let Obama off the hook, just as I’ve sometimes defended him in the past. […]
LOL? WTF? When did Obama ever say the government owned everything? grow up then fuck off 🙂
Don’t blame Obama? But his OWN philosophy of government blames him! The government is in charge of everything, right?
So, either blame him, or use this as an example of how wrong he is at the most fundamental level.
I mostly agree with you, but I don’t think if has to be the “payback” impulse, but rather the “this is the rules YOU made, let’s play by them” impulse. The best way to get bad rules changed is to enforce them vigorously and EVENLY.
Hi Dan,
I read your post, “Don’t Blame Obama for the Oil Spill”, not only do I agree, but I liked that you addressed some concerns from republicans such as how the Jones Act hasn’t been waived and that there has been some policies which seem a bit rushed such as the moratorium on drilling which has been a point of contention for residents who need their jobs. I thought you might be interested in this video, http://www.newsy.com/videos/president-obama-s-oil-outlook/, which looks at Obama’s handling of the oil spill. The video looks at several sources and I thought you might be interested in what the New York Times editorial and Fareed Zakaria say about Obama. I hope you consider embedding it in your post.
Thank you for your time,
Leslie