I watched the President as he has handled BP and the current crisis with confusion. I couldn’t understand his lack of anger. Why his demeanor was so calm, why he merely pointed out BP’s responsibility instead of calling for heads on a pike.
I watched his address from the White House. I was dumbfounded. How could our great leader sit there and talk as if describing a Sunday afternoon picnic while I was almost sick with anger? Slowly my anger began to turn to this man who refused to be as angry as I was. Who had the nerve not to demand the heads of BP’s top executives. I went to bed disappointed and angry at the man I had expected to be my voice.
The next afternoon I saw the news. BP agreed to set up a 20 billion dollar fund just as a start. Not only that, they agreed to a 100 million dollar fund to help the laid off oil workers due to the drilling moratorium!
Suddenly I understood.
My President hadn’t let me down. The man I expected to be my voice instead chose to be my guardian.
To understand the genius of his tactics you have to realize that by our own regulations, BP was limited to only 75 million in damages. Sure they were saying they would pay all costs but that could have stopped at anytime and there wasn’t much we could do about it.
Had the President set out like a head hunter out for BP blood, you can bet they would have turned it over to their legal department and it would have been many years before anyone saw a dime.
Barrack Obama had the forethought to stay calm; to firmly place responsibility and liability on BP’s shoulders while keeping care not to crucify BP.
You can bet in private BP saw a different face. I could just see our President informing BP that if they didn’t match action with words, things could get much worse for them. That not only would he publicly make them the face of evil incarnate, he would call for criminal charges for their top executives.
Instant cooperation!
I should have known better than to lose faith. I have seen his calm genius before and I am sure we will see it again.
Paul
