Obama is an embarrassment

I don't believe it! Do I laugh or do I cry? Maybe it's laugh at Obama and cry for the "small" people of the Gulf States. (Can you believe BP Chairman of the Board Carl-Henric Svanberg calling folks that?! See http://www.jacksonsun.com/article/20100620/OPINION02/6200308)

The next day after the nothing speech from the Oval Office on the BP Deepwater Horizon well gushing oil into the Gulf of Mexico and onto the shores, marshes, and estuaries of the Gulf States ... Obama touts his jawboning a $20 million escrow account from BP to cover the costs of the oil spill. (See http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2010/06/obama-bp-compensation-fund-/1) Then we learn it is $5 million a year for 4 years. Quoting from the above link:

Obama said BP is committed to ensuring that economic claims will be processed and paid out in a timely manner. According to a White House fact sheet, BP will contribute $5 billion a year for four years into an escrow account. BP is providing assurance that their financial obligations will be met by setting aside $20 billion in U.S. assets.

My god! BP's gross profit from the latest reporting period prior to the spill was $212+ Billion. (See http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ks?s=BP+Key+Statistics) $5 Billion a year is walking around money for BP aka chump change. (Walking away money?) They must be laughing all the way to the next shareholders' meeting. We won't know what BP's $5 Billion a year means until we add up the annual damages.

What we do know is that BP has promised reform before and failed to deliver. Read BP Ignored the Omens of Disaster by JOE NOCERA in The New York Times on June 18, 2010.

That should have given Obama more than enough ammunition to wrest the command of the cleanup away from BP. But he obviously doesn't know how to command and Obama received the most from BP in the way of their campaign donations. (See "Obama biggest recipient of BP cash", http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE64420A20100505 )

And the person Obama did put in charge of the Federal Government's efforts is proving to be a master of bureaucratic oversight but weak on actually getting the work done. You have to read BP Oil Spill: Against Gov. Jindal's Wishes, Crude-Sucking Barges Stopped by Coast Guard then watch and listen to the accompanying video at the link.

I keep saying it: Obama does not know how to command the large-scale effort like the containment and cleanup of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Thank god we had Eisenhower for the D-Day invasion. (See my two earlier posts: Why Obama is incompetent! and I am getting tired of Obama.