Failure to get control of the relief effort and contain the environmental challenge could pose the same kind of political threat to Mr. Obama’s popular standing that the much-criticized handling of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina did for former President George W. Bush. And unlike Katrina, it is likely the federal government will be the clear lead authority in dealing with the BP spill.
But Mr. Obama only Thursday dispatched Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lisa Jackson to help coordinate the federal response to the potential environmental disaster.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/apr/29/expanding-oil-slick-poses-political-peril-obama/
11 Responses
“Within a matter of hours of the report of the explosion, the Coast Guard had dispatched three cutters, four helicopters and a plane to the scene, helping to save 90 workers, including three critically injured ones who were sent by helicopter for emergency care.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/01/us/01gulf.html?pagewanted=2&sq=united%20states%20coast%20guard&st=cse&scp=2
http://www.flickr.com/photos/whitehouse/4543910823/
“President Barack Obama meets with Admiral Thad W. Allen, Commandant of the United States Coast Guard, and other senior administration officials in the Oval Office, April 22, 2010, regarding the situation in the Gulf of Mexico. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)”
obama thinks his job is to give speeches.
Tuesday, April 20th A Transocean rig called the Deepwater Horizon explodes and catches fire. United States Coast Guard is on the scene almost immediately.
Friday, April 23rd Coast Guard state no oil appears to be escaping from the well head on the ocean floor.
Friday April 23th The Minerals Management Service (MMS), a bureau in the U.S. Department of the Interior is also on scene.
Saturday, April 24th With remotely operated vehicles, officials discover the oil is escaping from two leaks in a drilling pipe about 5,000 feet below the surface. Leaks appear to be releasing 1,000 barrels a day.
Sunday, April 25 U.S. Coast Guard Rear Adm. Mary Landry, Minerals Management Service Gulf of Mexico Regional Director Lars Herbst and representatives from the Department of Fish and Wildlife, BP, Transocean and the State of Louisiana issue a press conference.
Thursday, April 29 The US Government’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientists realized the leak was five times larger than they had been led to believe.
Thursday, April 29 Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal declares a state of emergency
Thursday, April 29th President Obama designates the spill of national significance allowing personnel and equipment from other regions to be more easily mobilized and transferred to the scene.
The federal response stated long before President Obama issued a public speech.
Maybe sooner or later you people will look at the facts and not the rhetoric. I made sure I did not use any source that people can claim are liberal.
He was busy being an “Arizona Activator”.
Actually he didn’t. Good job on your source with the right wing bias of the Washington Times. What’s your next source, Faux Noise? The oil spill was a private sector mess. Let the private sector clean it up.
Dereliction of duty.
Bush took 2 weeks to do anything about Katrina, I hear his brother Jeb is running in 2012, maybe we can vote them back in office.
you Obamahaters are just wetting your pants with the hope that somehow, someway, Obama will be just as big of a moron as Bush was-keep hoping
He didn’t ‘take until Thursday’ -you are lying and I would never click on a link to a Moonie-ran snoozepaper-they lie worse than you
Liberal bias, You truly don’t know jack squat about anything do you. The Coast
Guard response was as you said, immediately on scene to rescue and begin
a body recovery, That was what the initial contact was involving, However what
the Coast guard and NOAA did not do, Which they should have done unilaterally
was assess the degree of the damage done to the rig, and the under the water
line flow pipes. Which they DID NOT DO, They allowed BP to take the lead
position in the clean up. Which has now proven to be the biggest blunder of the
century. BP short sold the magnitude of the spill and the amount of fuel belching
its way into the gulf. Until it became so obvious we were headed for environmental
disaster as we are now dealing with. So please don’t show your ignorance for
what you think Obama did right. Deal with what was not done at all.
Lol at Liberal has a Reality Bias post he is such a spamming tool
He was too busy trying to take over the financial sector and bashing the Tea Party opposition for such a trivial matter.