Frugal Café Blog Zone

Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on May 27, 2010

Screenshot of the live video feed of the BP oil spill, from 5,000 feet under the sea

In his flip-flopping press conference today — the first he’s had in six months where the press is permitted to ask him questions — Pres. Barack Obama unabashedly took full credit for his team supervising all the actions of remediation of the oil spill, saying that he has been on top of it since “Day 1.” That unless his people give British Petroleum permission, it won’t be done (and yet, this GMA video below conveniently slams BP, not ever POTUS). And that everything possible is being done by his team.

Does “everything” include this “toxic soup” shown in the GMA video below, or just the good news (of which, there is little)?

From the press conference, we know one thing for sure: Obama has blamed BP for everything and painted his team as noble knights in shining armor… yet his Director of the Mineral Management Service, S. Elizabeth Birnbaum, resigned today. Hmm. Or was she fired?

First, video footage of what the Gulf looks like underwater… it’s bad.

Good Morning, America: Cousteau Jr.: ‘This Is a Nightmare… a Nightmare’ – Philippe Cousteau Jr. and Sam Champion take hazmat dive into Gulf’s oily waters

Here’s a portion of what Obama said in today’s press conference:

The American people should know that from the moment this disaster began, the federal government has been in charge of the response effort. As far as I’m concerned, BP is responsible for this horrific disaster, and we will hold them fully accountable on behalf of the United States as well as the people and communities victimized by this tragedy.

We will demand that they pay every dime they owe for the damage they’ve done and the painful losses that they’ve caused. And we will continue to take full advantage of the unique technology and expertise they have to help stop this leak.

But make no mistake: BP is operating at our direction. Every key decision and action they take must be approved by us in advance. I’ve designated Admiral Thad Allen, who has nearly four decades of experience responding to such disasters, as the national incident commander. And if he orders BP to do something to respond to this disaster, they are legally bound to do it.

And now this surprising news, as reported by ABC New’s Jake Tapper, Obama Administration Official Resigns in Wake of BP Spill:

S. Elizabeth Birnbaum is the latest Obama administration official to resign in the wake of the BP oil spill disaster. In a short letter addressed to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, the now former Director of the Mineral Management Service takes an apparent dig at Bush administration, writing, “I’m hopeful that the reforms that the Secretary and the Administration are undertaking will resolve the flaws in the current system that I inherited.”

Birnbaum took the job in July of last year. Since the spill in the Gulf of Mexico, her agency has been under fire for what critics call lax oversight over the energy leases they approve and managed.

“I inherited.” Again with the Bush blaming, eh, Barack?

When asked in today’s press conference about Birnbaum’s resignation, Obama said he knew nothing about it until today. So the press knew about it about the same time as, or even before, POTUS claims he knew about it? Pul-eeeeze.

Didn’t he previously say he was on top of everything going on with the oil spill? If we’re expected to believe that, why would we believe that the resignation of one of his key people involved in this oil spill disaster, the head of the MMS, totally escaped his detection?

Why, indeed?

Ah, more tap dancing and under-the-bus-tossing predicted from Team Obama in the days ahead… here’s the transcript snippet of Obama’s response to the question posed about Birnbaum resigning:

Well — well, let — let me just make the point that I made earlier, which is, Salazar came in and started cleaning house, but the culture had not fully changed in MMS. And absolutely, I take responsibility for that. There — there wasn’t sufficient urgency in terms of the pace of how those changes needed to take place.

There is no evidence that some of the corrupt practices that had taken place earlier took place under the current administration’s watch, but a culture in which oil companies were able to get what they wanted, without sufficient oversight and regulation, that was a real problem. Some of it was constraints of the law, as I just mentioned. But we should have busted through those constraints.

Now, with respect to Ms. Birnbaum, I found out about her resignation today. Ken Salazar had been in testimony throughout the day, so I don’t know the circumstances in which this occurred.

I can tell you what I’ve said to Ken Salazar, which is that we have to make sure, if we are going forward with domestic oil production, that the federal agency charged with overseeing its safety and security is operating at the highest level. And I want people in there who are operating at the highest level, and aren’t making excuses when things break down, but are intent on fixing them. And I am confident that Ken Salazar can do that.

From The Washington Post, First thoughts on President Obama’s oil spill press conference:

The difficulty of Obama’s political positioning on the oil spill was made plain when MSNBC and CNN went to a two-shot — showing both the President as well as the punctured pipe continuing to spew into the Gulf Coast. On the one hand, Obama was asserting that he and his government were doing absolutely everything to solve the problem; on the other, the picture of the pipe served as a stirring reminder that the problem still isn’t fixed.

On Jake Tapper’s question to POTUS, here is the transcript… Obama’s response is typically verbose:

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Okay. Jake Tapper.

JAKE TAPPER: Thanks, Mr. President.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Yeah.

JAKE TAPPER: You say that everything that could be done is being done. But there are those in the region and those industry experts who say that’s not true. Governor Jindal obviously had this proposal for a barrier. They say that if that had been approved when they first asked for it, they would have 10 miles up already. There are fishermen down there who want to work, who want to help, haven’t been trained, haven’t been told to go do so. There are industry experts who say that they’re surprised that tankers haven’t been sent out there to vacuum, as was done in ’93 outside Saudi Arabia. And then, of course, there’s the fact that there are 17 countries that have offered to help, and the — it’s only been accepted from two countries, Norway and Mexico.

How can you say that everything that can be done is being done, with all these experts and all these officials saying that’s not true?

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, let me distinguish between — if the question is, Jake, are we doing everything perfectly out there, then the answer is, absolutely not.

We can always do better. If the question is, are we, each time there is an idea, evaluating it and making a decision is this the best option that we have right now based on how quickly we can stop this leak and how much damage can we mitigate, then the answer is yes.

So let’s take the example of Governor Jindal’s barrier islands idea. When I met with him when I was down there two weeks ago, I said I will make sure that our team immediately reviews this idea, that the Army Corps of Engineers is looking at the feasibility of it; and if they think — if they tell me that this is the best approach to dealing with this problem, then we’re going to move quickly to execute. If they have a disagreement with Governor Jindal’s experts as to whether this would be effective or not, whether it was going to be cost-effective given the other things that needed to be done, then we’ll sit down and try to figure that out.

And that essentially is what happened, which is why today you saw an announcement where, from the Army Corps’ perspective, there were some areas where this might work, but there are some areas where it would be counterproductive and not a good use of resources.

So the point is, on each of these points that you just mentioned, that the job of our response team is to say, okay, if 17 countries have offered equipment and help, let’s evaluate what they’ve offered, how fast can it get here, is it actually going to be redundant or will it actually add to the overall effort — because in some cases more may not actually be better; and decisions have been made, based on the best information available, that says here’s what we need right now; it may be that a week from now or two weeks from now or a month from now, the offers from some of those countries might be more effectively utilized.

Now, it’s going to be entirely possible in a operation this large that mistakes are made, judgments prove to be wrong; that people say in retrospect, you know, if we could have done that or we did that, this might have turned out differently — although in a lot of cases, it may be speculation.

But the point that I was addressing from Jennifer was, does this administration maintain a constant sense of urgency about this? And are we examining every recommendation, and every idea is out there, and making our best judgment as to whether these are the right steps to take, based on the best experts that we know of?

And on that answer, the answer is yes. Or on that question, the answer is yes.

Still awake?

Must know… when did Obama care about the cost of anything?

Related:
The New Ledger, Big Government: White House Failure: On Markets, Corruption, and the Oil Spill
ABC World News: BP Oil Spill: Gov. Jindal Asks for Permission to Build Barrier Islands
Quin Hillyer, American Spectator: What the Oil Spill Means
Gateway Pundit: Shameless… Obama Takes Swipe At Sarah Palin During Oil Spill Disaster Press Conference (Video) and Coast Guard Says BP Plugged Oil Leak in Gulf and Jindal Furious: Rips Obama For Dismal Response to Oil Spill Disaster and Dem Congress Jumps Into Action… Will Quadruple Gas Tax After Gulf Oil Spill and Gross. Naked Code Pink Wackjobs Slathered In Crude Oil Protest at BP Headquarters (Video) and Kirsten Powers: Obama Administration’s Response to Gulf Oil Spill “Is Not About Campaign Donations, It’s About Incompetence” (Video) and Thick Blobs of Tar Begin Washing Up on Alabama Shore – Obama Goes Golfing and Scientists Find Giant Plumes of Oil Under Gulf… Obama Shoots Hoops and Breaking: BP Successfully Inserts Mile-Long Pipe to Siphon Oil From the Disastrous Spill and Leaked Report From April 28 Shows US Government Believed Gulf Spill Could Become “Unchecked Gusher” and It Begins… GOP Reps Call for Investigation into Obama Administration’s Slow and Weak Response to BP Gulf Oil Spill
Nice Deb: Psssst…Chrissy – Don’t Give Him Any Ideas…
Tom Russo, Big Government: Louisiana Coast — Last Line of Defense?
Motor City Times: Video: All Hands On Deck from Day One
Frugal Café Blog Zone: Do or Die on the Gulf: Carville’s Oil Rant Against Obama, Dowd on Illegal Immigration (video) and Priorities: Oil Spill Help or More AZ Bashing? Obama Thrilled with Phoenix Suns Pro-Illegal Alien “Los Suns” Jerseys in NBA Interview, Drags Feet Responding to Jindal’s Pleas for Help with Louisiana Oil Spill Crisis and Louisiana’s Gov. Bobby Jindal Fed Up, Won’t Continue to Wait for Team Obama’s Help with Oil Disaster — Won’t Wait for Permission, Will Start Building Sand Booms to Save Coast and The Gulf & Golf: Oil Continues to Gush & Contaminate Louisiana Coastline, Bureaucrat Commission Named in Lieu of Actually Getting Involved, & Obama Golfs… Again (video)
Michelle Malkin: No wonder finger-pointing Obama wants oil spill finger-pointing to stop

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