Not Too Slick, Mr. President
May 27, 2010 - 2:57 pm
Brian Wingfield is Washington Bureau Chief of Forbes
No one really expected President Obama's press conference Thursday on the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico to resolve the problem. But the president's comments may have made the situation worse for the White House.
"From the moment this disaster began, the federal government has been in charge of the response effort," Obama told reporters in his opening remarks. BP, he said, is responsible for the disaster and "will pay every dime" for that damages they have caused, but the president added that the oil company "is operating at our direction."
The public outcry over the disaster has left the administration little choice but to take ownership of resolving it, but in doing so the White House has also boxed itself into a corner. For every day the disaster and the cleanup efforts continue--the spill happened nearly six weeks ago--the administration is squarely on the hook.
Another problem: Predicting that all will turn out well. Since the disaster began, the administration has been widely criticized for responding to the spill inadequately and too slowly--inviting comparisons to President Bush's sluggish response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005. When asked about the comparisons, Obama said he was more focused on fixing the problem, but he added this:
"I'm confident that people are going to look back and say that this administration was on top of what was an unprecedented crisis."
It may not amount to President Bush's Katrina-era soundbite, "Brownie, you're doing a heckuva job." (A reference to Michael Brown, the administration official in charge of the Katrina response). Nor does it compare to the "Mission Accomplished" banner that Bush spoke in front of while aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, less than two months into the Iraq war. But if the previous administration's experience provides any example, predictions are a dangerous thing.
Problem number three: Not being fully briefed on the daily events related to the oil spill. Hours before the president's press conference, news outlets were reporting that Elizabeth Birnbaum, the head of the Minerals Management Service, the agency that oversees drilling operations for the Interior Department, had either been let go or resigned. So which was it? Obama didn't know, and had to admit as much, adding that his Interior secretary, Ken Salazar, was busy testifying on Capitol Hill.
Problem number four: Talking about a culture of cronyism and corruption between the oil industry and regulators that has existed at the Interior Department for the last decade. The president said Salazar "came in and started cleaning house, but the culture had not fully changed at MMS." Why, then, did administration continue to hand out drilling permits, one reporter asked. The president didn't really have a good answer.
Of course, Obama did make a bit of news, leaked (no pun intended) long before the press conference began. The administration is suspending exploration off the coast of Alaska, canceling pending lease sales in the Gulf and off the Virginia coast, and it's suspending the issuance of new deepwater drilling permits for at least six months.
This midday press conference was unlike any other that this president has so far faced. In previous gatherings with the media in the White House's East Room, Obama has taken the dais to make the case for fiscal stimulus or health care reform. But this time he was on the defensive--in fact, at least one news channel showed live underwater footage of oil spewing from the leak while he spoke. At other press conferences, Obama has fielded questions on a range of subjects. With just a few exceptions Thursday, this press conference was about the public's outrage over oil in the Gulf.
Until the leak is plugged, expect that outrage to grow in proportion to the amount of oil in the Gulf of Mexico.
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