Rich Galen (Mulling.com)
Wednesday May 5, 2010
On March 31, President Obama announced a new policy toward offshore drilling off the Mid-Atlantic and Florida coastlines. Three weeks later the BP oil platform blew up and sank in the Gulf of Mexico and Obama had to reverse himself.
That wasn't Obama's fault, of course, but it is the kind of thing that happens when Administrations are looking a little shaky. The fact that the broken well is pouring some 5,000 barrels of oil per day into the Gulf isn't Obama's fault, either, but that means some 70,000 barrels of crude are fixing to begin washing up on someone's shore in the next couple of days.
The Administration's insistence that it has been involved in the oil spill "since day one" is coming under some scrutiny. According to the AP's Erica Werner, when Homeland Security Secretary, Janet Napolitano said on "Meet the Press" Sunday that,
"We had (Defense Department) resources there from Day One. This was a situation that was treated as a possible catastrophic failure from, from Day One,"
may have been a bit hyperbolic.
Three days earlier, according to Werner, Napolitano had specifically said that "the Defense Department was not yet involved in responding to the spill: 'If and when they have something to add, we'll certainly make that known,' she said."
White House Press Secretary, Robert Gibbs, appeared to be pretty sanguine about the whole situation three days after the spill (well beyond what most mathematicians would consider "Day One") when he "seemed to dismiss" suggestions the spill might "affect Obama's plans to open up new areas of the coast to offshore drilling," quoting Gibbs as saying:
"I don't honestly think it opens up a whole new series of questions, because, you know, in all honesty I doubt this is the first accident that has happened and I doubt it will be the last."
The Administration is not slick enough to cover its lack of concern at the front end of the BP oil leak.
With apologies to Oscar Hammerstein, "When do you spell an oil spill like 'Katrina?'"
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On the Secret Decoder Page:
In Old Town Alexandria, VA on Sunday. The guy caught me trying to peel the bottom one off his back bumper. ~ Rich