Mr. President, if anyone’s a** needs kicking, be sure to include your own

Federal response to the Gulf Oil Disaster

No, Barack Obama did not cause the disastrous leak that occurred on the ill-fated Deepwater Horizon oil platform, nor does anyone expect him to know how to plug it. Even so, he is being harshly criticized from all sides for his leisurely response to one of the worst environmental disasters ever, and for multiple failures by his administration’s regulatory inspectors to enforce deepwater drilling safety standards. Two examples, as reported by The New York Times:

• When oil company officials wanted to test the blowout preventer, a crucial fail-safe mechanism on the pipe near the ocean floor, at a lower pressure than was federally required, Obama administration regulators granted an exception.
  
• Regulators granted yet another exception when BP sought to delay testing of the blowout preventer because the company had lost “well control” weeks before the rig exploded.

Although President Obama claims that he has been “singularly focused” on the crisis from the beginning, Fox News reported that in the six weeks following the spill, his schedule included 7 days of golf and 6 days of vacation, as well as 6 sporting events, 3 days of fund-raising, and 6 days of campaigning. As oil spewed unabated into the Gulf, the man in charge of directing the federal response to the worst eco-disaster in U.S. history also found time to host two lavish White House parties at which he and his wife were serenaded by some of the world’s top-tier entertainers, including pop music icon Sir Paul McCartney.

 

DAY 54:
As Gulf states beg for more skimmer boats, administration sits on hands, apparently to avoid offending organized labor.
SLOW, INEPT, COMPLICIT

“A month ago, it looked like the White House was on top of the problem. But increasingly, it has become apparent that the federal government may be present but is not in charge.”
From Oil spill response out of control, an article by CNN Senior Political Analyst David Gergen

What happens when a community organizer with no executive
experience is elected to the most demanding job in the world?
A slow and inept response to a major crisis.