Reactions to Obama's press conference on the oil spill?

Slick.

Frankly I was surprised he took such a high degree of personal ownership of this spill was was emphatic that he was responsible for the response to this spill from day one! Even more curious was this comment he made which is made a more than a month after the fact….
“This is our highest priority and it deserves a response that is equal to the task.”

Ambiguous necessarily. The buck stop here, but we can’t take over because we don’t have the technology to resolve the problem. What a situation!!!

LOL @lloydbird… great!

I like that he took responsibility for the situation but was sure to place BP in their place. I like that he admitted to imperfections in their response as, frankly, we’ve never encountered a problem like this.

Would I like him to be more commanding and say, “We’ve got this covered”? Sure. But that would be a lie and I thnk we had enough of that in the previous administration.

So while I appreciate his honesty, the enormity of this disaster scares the hell out of me.

@cprevite well, it’s also a lie to say that he “took responsibility”, isn’t it? Sure, he fired one of his administrators. Whoopee. This is the same way that the Chinese ‘take responsibility’ for their various frauds and scandals. Minus the firing squads, for now.

@CyanoticWasp: Obama was aware of oil companies like BP being in bed with government regulators. He said he gave the order to put an end to it (seperating the regulatory and review commitees for example). He admitted that he didn’t act very swiftly on it as he didn’t see any immediate danger. He was sheepish when he said this. Clearly he was wrong.

Regardless, there’s no guarentee that swifter action against governmental/oil corruption would have prevented this disaster. The culture between the US govt. and big oil has been that way for a long time – wouldn’t have changed like magic anyway.

And comparing the US to China – come on.

@cprevite I only compared the Obama administration to China. That’s still a pretty apt comparison, from all that I can see.

@CyanoticWasp: Then you might want to open both eyes. I don’t claim to be an expert, but I’ve done my reading, have friends in China and spent about a month there myself.

I suspect your analysis is off base and a bit reactionary.

I should clarify: I didn’t mean to insult the Chinese with the comparison.

My point is that this Administration is doing what every administration does and always has done in every human government that’s ever been (or ever will be) set up. That is, they assign blame (or take credit) unduly, fire vitriolic broadsides at the wrong targets, or at selected scapegoats in the general area, while staying in bed with the truly responsible (and a good thing, too, or we’d have no oil and environmental disaster—at least for now we still have oil), promise one thing and deliver something entirely different and say it’s what was promised… or just deliver nothing at all and blame one’s enemies… yada, yada.

I could as well have compared Obama to Napoleon, King George III, Henry VIII… or G.W. Bush… as the Chinese. The Chinese should not feel singled out in this comparison. I’m so glad to have been allowed this chance to clarify.

@janbb

Here is the broadcase, both the video, and the transcript.

He was very articulate, as always. He did show empathy, respect for the environment and knowledge of the dynamics and the causes, and gave substantial detail. He did not pass the buck. He outlined specific actions already in place, as well as plans going forward. He seemed to be transparent. He definitely held the oil companies accountable, with words that I found to be very powerful.

Ppppppbbbbbbbsssssssttttttt!

@eden2eve I am sorry but a press conference full of empty empathy more than 30 days after the event just doesn’t cut it….No f’n way!!