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Subscribe to RSSThe New York Times has an interesting take on the Obama White House's extraction of that $20 billion fund from BP, as well as Joe Barton's criticism of it. "With that display of raw arm-twisting, Mr. Obama reinvigorated a debate about the renewed reach of government power, or, alternatively, the power of government overreach. It is an argument that has come to define Mr. Obama’s first 18 months in office, and one that Mr. Obama clearly hopes to make a central issue in November’s midterm elections."
"To Mr. Obama, this is all about rebalancing the books after two decades in which multinationals sometimes acted like mini-states beyond government reach... When Representative Joe L. Barton, the Texas Republican, opened hearings Thursday about the gulf oil gusher by accusing Mr. Obama of an unconstitutional 'shakedown' of BP to create a “slush fund,” he was giving voice to an alternative narrative, a bubbling certainty in corporate suites that Mr. Obama, whenever faced with crisis that involves private-sector players, reveals himself to be viscerally antibusiness. The reality, not surprisingly, is more complex."
"The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee says the Senate likely will vote in July on confirming Elena Kagan to a seat on the Supreme Court," AP reports.
Peggy Noonan, who must have filed her Friday column on Wednesday morning, calls Obama a "snakebit" president and compares him to Jimmy Carter. "The president is starting to look snakebit. He's starting to look unlucky, like Jimmy Carter. It wasn't Mr. Carter's fault that the American diplomats were taken hostage in Tehran, but he handled it badly, and suffered. He defied the rule of the King in 'Pippin,' the Broadway show of Carter's era, who spoke of 'the rule that every general knows by heart, that it's smarter to be lucky than it's lucky to be smart.' Mr. Carter's opposite was Bill Clinton, on whom fortune smiled with eight years of relative peace and a worldwide economic boom. What misfortune Mr. Clinton experienced he mostly created himself. History didn't impose it."
"But Mr. Obama is starting to look unlucky, and–file this under Mysteries of Leadership–that is dangerous for him because Americans get nervous when they have a snakebit president. They want presidents on whom the sun shines."
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President Obama has done exactly what his critics have asked him to, provide leadership and take charge of making sure that BP Oil cleans up it's massive mess and make the afflicted people of the Gulf red states whole from the economic havoc wrought by private industry. Barack should be getting praised for shaking down corrupt BP Oil, and those red state connies who have been whining to be made whole should be praising Obama for making sure that will happen.
We know that Corrupt Oil Man Bush or Crash Dummy McCain would have shown too much empathy to BP Oil and would have let it skip out with only a $75 million dollar legal liability now on the books. They would have forced the American taxpayers to bail out BP Oil to make the Gulf red state "small people" whole because they would have had some empathy for BP Oil than their own base of voters.
President Obama is the Hero for Shaking Down Corrupt BP Oil!
Eric,
Great work. Did you notice that they refer to our President as Mr. Obama. What a bunch of disrespectul clowns. President Obama laid out what he was going to do and did it. He got hammered because he was not emotional enough for the Pundits. Bottom line he prduced and that is all I care about.
Eric,
Great post and I agree with you wholeheartedly. I think where you go wrong is in expecting any of the supposedly liberal MSM (which interestingly, is all owned by some of the largest and most conservative corporations in the country) will do anything to aid or support the President. With the right wing echo chamber working overtime to paint BP's criminal negligence as Obama's Katrina, how could you possibly expect a positive spin job for a President that has done an amazing job of remaining calm, marshaling the necessary brains and resources, and has succeeded in getting this criminal corporation to put up the money where others are too busy bloviating for ratings...
Obama's problem is I don't think the Gov't is equipped to handle the spill. The gov't does military really well. They are supposed to be adept at regulation. They don't do well repairs.
BP is supposed to do well repairs really well, but the gov't didn't enforce/craft the regulations good.
Once again, the author of this refers with respect to the 'Representative' by his title but refers to our President as "Mr." Articles that show such blatent disrespect should be classified as petty drivel unworthy of reprinting.
Lyn, KCMO,
That was the first thing I noticed when I read this article this AM. Totally disrespectful to our President. President Obama is trying to weed out the corruption, hate and greed that has brought this nation to where we are today. He is getting no support from the repugs who compalin that we are leaving them out. Are they not the ones who said NO hell No to everything that President Obama is trying to do? The NYT is just a rag. I do not put much stock in anything they or Peggy Noodle says.
us navy, oboama dont desearve any respect . as for weeding out corr. geithner no tax paying idiot ,chalie rangle no tax paying liar.cant rmember how muc propert he owns ,pelosi charging tax payers 18,500 dollars rent for one office. no transparency, rember how he promisec to have everything on c-span ,another lie. more corr.-look at his freinds /bill ayers who hates amer. blows up buildings . rev wright who publicly admitted hateing amer. but obama through him under the bus. the whole chicago trio. and lets not forget him admitting to smokeing crack. mabe thats why he is spending our country into the poor house but dont woory he will apologize for america this is a fine man for our children to look up to.
Well Miss Peggy Noonan, Indeed, we have snakebit president and still he is a snake oil salesman, which he has been selling all along. No one believe the critics.
How snakebit can President Obama be? Barton and Hayward are the gifts that keep on giving! The only thing keeping the Republicans from being their own worst enemy is that I'm still alive!!
Yeah, that snake oil salesman you are so fond of hating is blessed with having to do nothing more than stand back and allow the likes of Barton and Agent Orange to show their true colors to the American people that are hurting from the actions of your beloved multi-billion dollar conglomerate. Should be some easy pickin's this season. I thought all you rednecks frowned on shooting captive game in those prissy little preserves. This is like the same thing. Just let the bastards talk about how they feel bad and want to protect poor old BP from the likes of those savages on all those shrimp boats. Yeah, life is good again...
BP has enormous liabilities here, and they know it. If BP has shown one thing in the last 60 days is that their #1 prioity is looking out for BP. If they didn,t think this was good for them they would not have done it. They tapped out pretty fast, it didn,t seem to take to much arm twisting. Personally if I was one of these people on the coast who are losing everything, and would have nothing to look forward to but class action lawsuits for the next ten years I would be grateful as hell that the President of the United States of America twisted these guilty bastards arms on my behalf to secure an upfront down payment on the damage they have caused. Damn grateful, and damn proud.
I agree Forrest, but those poor people in the Gulf are too busy working to re-elect the same bastards that will make sure BP does not abandon the Gulf and continues to kill the rest of their tourism and fishing industries because they are all in bed with big oil. How can the gulf survive without the generosity and malevolence of BP to continue raping the natural resources without regard to delicate ecosystems, cultures, or a way of life that has existed for hundreds of years. Well, until now.
Thank you Mr. Barton! Please continue to champion for our Savior BP along with all your GOBP caucus members. We cannot allow this President to extract from BP in one day what would otherwise take decades!
I hear you disgusted. But you have to hope some of them will figure it out, one thing I think people remember is who helped them when they needed it. President Obama is smart, and he surronds himself with smart people, he is not going to intentionally put BP out of business, but he is going to and already has to a large degree, holding them responsible. It has to be done you can't have an oil industry at the expense of everything else you stated. You can't let the oil business destroy every other business on the coast. They are going to have to find a way to coexist. That's a big problem for some of these republican governors, who's side are they on, or appear to be on. All in all the republicans are going to have a hard time making this look bad for the President because most fair minded people think it is about time the president "twisted some arms" on behalf of the small people. But best of all any republican that takes a dime from that fund can be accused of being a big government socialist, bleeding heart liberal, commie, marxist, ect. ect.
The best thing about the escrow account concept is that it SCREWS the ambulace-chasing tort lawyers out of their vulture-like 1/3 contingency fees. If this catches on, there's are going to be a lot less clogging of the courts with meritless "hope I hit the jackpot with the jury" lawsuits. The country will be a better place if these lowlifes are in the unemployment line. That's "Change I can believe in".
Obama gives the republicans tort reform and now they don't seem to want it anymore.
And we wonder why no jobs are being created!!!! Bash and strong arm everyone and expect them to help you out Mr.OBAMA... Sorry but it doesnt work that way these so called Fat-Cats are CHOKING you OUT and you watch the employment numbers say around November.. I hope you and some of these Tree-Hugging LA Fairy Left-Wing goons on this post are the next ones on the un-employment line and we'll see what tune your singin then LOL!!! Oh by the way HOWS THAT HOPEY CHANGY THANG workin for YA!!!
It is working great for me! I got back $200,000 I lost in the market while the guys who know all about big business were in charge.
SCOLE: The last thing I am is a lefty. There are no jobs being created because Obama and the Congressional Dumbs are pursuing an anti-busines agenda that makes businesses leery of hiring and expanding their business.
And seeing lowlife ambulance-chasing trial lawyers in the unemployment line is a GOOD thing.
The previous created an enormous amount of jobs unfortunately they are in China! But I agree with you 50 bucks a week is business friendly, and it does make a job at Wal-Mart look better.
Scole, the only reason that the financial recover has lagged is because all of those Big Corporate 'Banks' have refused to loan to the small businesses that need it. They are INTENTIONALLY keeping the recovery from gaining ground for their own, arch-conservative, republicon agenda. Instead they have been plowing their interest free Fed loan money, that is supposed to be loaned out, into savings bonds and making huge profits. Money for free, with no chance of default. We need to put in place the death penalty for financial fraud, manipulation or malfeasance above $1m, monetary fines don't do it as they have a tap on the money. It won't happen though, too many of our politicians would be sitting on Death Row, right along with half of Wall Street and the other Corporate Leaders.
Lol!! She is the most self-indulgent witch who has ever appeared before a camera. The hostage situation. President Carter handled it wrong?
They all came home, alive. You freakin' idiot.
Of course the Republicans would rant and rave about what President Obama did with BP. They are of the belief that big business should be able to do whatever they want with the environment going to hell in a handbasket. Cheap labor, maximum and obscene profits at any cost must be had. That is what they support. People see this and that means the Democrats and, more specifically, President Obama will look better for it.