Crude noises: Obama’s deepwater blowout

Now, whose ass am I gonna kick?

Perhaps within the next 2 years – before the next US election-  we will look back to June 2010, and say, “That’s where Obama lost it.”

There is a lot on the President’s plate these days: oil spill, health care, Iraq, Afghanistan, off-shore drilling, property bubbles, unemployment, Guantanamo, financial crises, Greek crises, falling support for Democrats, the rising Tea Party types. A long list, topped by oil and the economy. In a sense, the two are synonymous and are unlikely to change soon. So why is Obama playing every populist card up his sleeve while crude washes up on America’s southern shores?

He has come down hard on BP – they deserve it. With a recent track record of ignoring safety measures, the Deepwater Horizon explosion was perhaps, just waiting to happen. Obama has said he is looking for ‘ass to kick’. Great, he needs to do that, say that, and be seen to be saying and doing it. But really, whose ass? Not just BP, for sure, but the four other American contractors including the Halliburton home-boys who have quietly slipped under the radar as Obama rails against those pesky, toffish, buck-toothed Brits who simply can’t run a rig. Never mind BP is a massive oil company with decades of experince, and a track record for corporate nastiness and untransparency. For those two last reasons, let BP pay, heavily for its rotten management of the crisis.

The blast is said to be an accident. But ultimately, it was Obama’s legislators who okayed off-shore oil drilling. Obama himself hurt millions of supporters, who voted him in on a green ticket, by rubber-stamping the expansion of off-shore drilling. Sure he has now ordered a 6-month moratorium. Oh, great! Six months? And after all that talk about “reducing our dependency on dirty, imported crude”? Utter window-dressing. And now saying BP has to pay salaries of those poor sods laid-off work thanks to the moratorium. Utterly absurd. A man as intelligent as Obama, with the kind of understanding he has of Wall Street and global finance, cannot honestly think this is possible or even legal. And he is an elite lawyer. So why even say it?

Media pundits have decried the move as ‘populist’. Yes, it is. It’s nationalist, it’s also quite reflective of his frustration and impotence. That leak is not plugged, his electorate is furious and he is seen to be ineffective. Worse, he is seen as aloof and stand-offish. However untrue these maybe, he can’t win. this is a natural disaster. Blasting BP, calling for its dividend payment o be withheld, calling for it pay for the cleanup and those fairytale wages, are all signs of anger, but also, fear, that this situation is out of hand.

However, most of these demands are probably illegal. How will the US stop the dividend payout of a UK company? What of the fact that 40% of BP stock is held by Americans: will they not want their dividends? And the US saying it will “not spend a penny” on the clean-up: what message does that send to the people at the centre of the crisis – the fisherman, wildlife conservationists, the tourism managers? They may think their government is being stingy, stupid or both.

But I’m probably most saddened by the nationalist rhetoric being deployed, and I say this despite being Indian – neither British nor American: the US needed and needs the UK, and vice-versa. Obama has cooled towards the Conservatives and Cameron, even though the latter acts like Americas lapdog (certainly a continuation of UK foreign policy in that respect). But the US can ill-afford to lose more friends, let alone it’s staunchest ally. What if the UK also ‘loses it’ and starts demanding action against US companies perceived to have exacerbated or promulgated the last financial crisis. While Europe roasts thanks to Greece’s profligacy, the spotlight is off America which until recently was stewing in Wall Street’s odorous juices…

Maybe President Obama will make angry noises now, and win the day after-all. Maybe it’s just a knee-jerk reaction to a hysterical US media demanding blood: BP’s, preferably. But that’s not how US presidents are expected to react. Certainly not this one. Please Mr President – don’t lose it now.