Yes, after six weeks of of disastrous gushing, the infamous BP oil spill is still, well spilling. The disaster hasn't just flooded our waters either, it's inundated the media - which is right for a catastrophe of this scope. Recently, however, press coverage has shifted away from personal testimonials, pictures of birds covered in brown crude oil, and the safety practices of BP to focus instead upon President Obama's role in this mess. 

Some have suggested that this is, "President Obama's Katrina." Well not exactly. Katrina was a natural disaster, a catastrophe which the government should have been able to handle - after all, they had organizations like FEMA specifically mandated for that type of incident. Former President Bush's lack of presence was felt both in a physical sense and in an administrative sense as the government agencies which he oversaw failed to handle the situation. In this case, the disaster was the direct result of a company. As an independent investigation recently found (and BP's poor safety history backs up) the spill was largely BP's fault as the company ignored warning signs of possible danger. Even if you don't buy that, if you see it as pure misshap, shouldn't the company still have a responsibility to clean up its own mess? Not only do they employ the brightest and best specialists in the industry and possess the technology and machines to do the job, but at some point there also has to be a certain amount of accountability.

Of course, on the other hand, there should have been better government oversight and, as a disaster which affects millions of Americans, it is the government's job to make sure everything is done to ensure that hole is stopped. To address these criticisms and others, the White House recently held a conference so that the President could speak to some of these issues. At the press conference, Obama stepped up and said, "I take responsibility. It is my job to make sure that everything is done to shut this down." I believe that this is what the public wanted to hear - but what does it really mean? It's a play, a farce, an act of political showmanship in which he points his finger and talks tough and we the people feel reassured and the oil keeps spilling. I'm not saying that I think the President could be doing more, the government and people at BP are still running blind in their efforts to plug the hole; what I'm wondering is, with everything else that's going on should we really care that the President has stepped up to play scapegoat? It's just a formality.

The press conference was more or less purely political as Obama's favorability in the polls took a hit. Whatever his level of accountability in this situation, it has put Obama in a tight spot politically.To quote Chris Good from this article from The Atlantic, "In the past week, the oil spill has generated some of the most intense and prolonged questioning of U.S. government performance to date in the Obama era, second only to the scrutiny that followed the Christmas Day bombing attempt. It's fair to say that the Gulf oil spill is the biggest psychic event having to do with American government and public opinion since the passage of health care reform." 

On the one hand, the President has an opportunity to insist on corporate responsibility - to insist that a company pay for its own mistakes. On the other hand, if Obama admits that BP is holding all the clean-up cards, it makes him look weak as a leader (and weak ideologically as he ran on the idea that government can be an effective problem solver). Indeed, many have accused Obama of not being hard enough on BP, not pressing enough for answers. I don't really understand how more political pressure would make the minds at BP come up with an answer to this unprecedented problem any quicker, nor do I believe they've been lackadaisical on the "trying" front as they faced large financial losses, anger from their consumer base, and a massive PR crisis, but who knows? 

Regardless, the press conference in which President Obama stated in no uncertain terms what everyone wanted to hear: We care. We're working on it. We're in charge. Was meant to qualm these criticisms. But at this point, I'm much less interested in playing the blame game than I am in playing the lets-stop-the-spilling game.

Further Reading

Deepwater oil spill effect - Obama loses face, BP loses credibility, International Business Times