{"id":1890,"date":"2010-06-16T02:37:49","date_gmt":"2010-06-16T09:37:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=1890"},"modified":"2010-06-16T02:37:49","modified_gmt":"2010-06-16T09:37:49","slug":"obamas-oval-office-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2010\/06\/16\/obamas-oval-office-speech\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama’s Oval Office Speech"},"content":{"rendered":"

After watching and rewatching Obama\u2019s speech, my feelings are mixed.  While he spelled out what is being done quite well, took the proper tone about BP\u2019s obligation to pay for all the damages, and pointed out the need for clean energy, he missed the opportunity to present a clean energy plan himself.<\/font><\/p>\n

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\"16speech\"<\/a> President Obama vowed last night to make BP pay for the damage its oil disaster has wrought on the Gulf Coast\u2019s people and environment, using a national address to assure an angry public that the victims will be compensated and the ravaged area restored.<\/p>\n

In his first address from the Oval Office \u2014 an event that marked the gravity of the situation and Obama\u2019s desire to show leadership on it \u2014 the president said he would insist that compensation be awarded by an independent entity, not controlled by the multibillion dollar oil company whose rig explosion killed 11 people, injured 17 others, and caused widespread economic and environmental damage to the coastal region.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will meet with the chairman of BP and inform him that he is to set aside whatever resources are required to compensate the workers and business owners who have been harmed as a result of his company\u2019s recklessness,\u2019\u2019 Obama said, jabbing his finger in the air. He is set to meet chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg and chief executive Tony Hayward for the first time at the White House today.<\/p>\n

\u201cMake no mistake: We will fight this spill with everything we\u2019ve got for as long it takes. We will make BP pay for the damage their company has caused. And we will do whatever\u2019s necessary to help the Gulf Coast and its people recover from this tragedy,\u2019\u2019 he added.<\/p>\n

As part of that effort, the president named Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, a former governor of Mississippi, to lead efforts on developing a plan to \u201crestore the unique beauty and bounty of this region.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

The president also announced a new head of the agency charged with regulating the oil industry, naming a former Justice Department official, Michael Bromwich, to revamp the Minerals Management Agency. The government entity has been attacked for being too cozy with the industry it is supposed to oversee, effectively letting oil companies monitor themselves and develop their own emergency plans for handling spills.<\/p>\n

And Obama acknowledged that his decision a few months ago to expand offshore drilling may not have fully addressed concerns on safety, as he said he had been assured.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was obviously not the case on the Deepwater Horizon rig, and I want to know why. The American people deserve to know why. The families I met with last week who lost their loved ones in the explosion \u2014 these families deserve to know why,\u2019\u2019 Obama said\u2026<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <Boston Globe<\/a>><\/p>\n

You be the judge.  Here is the speech in its entirety.<\/font><\/p>\n

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Part 2<\/font><\/p>\n

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Where I have a problem is that stating his willingness to listen to all ideas from all parties sounds very much like his approach to health care.  Bipartisanship will serve him no better now than it did then.  The GOP is already sucking the oil tit too greedily to let it go.  They will make a big show at bipartisanship, but every time an agreement looks close, they will move the goalposts.  Instead of this approach, Obama should have presented a fully formed energy policy to serve as a starting point.  Then those who would weaken it, whether Republican or DINO, cannot do so without going on the record and exposing themselves to the wrath of a public sick to death of watching the oil destroying the Gulf and it\u2019s wildlife.<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After watching and rewatching Obama\u2019s speech, my feelings are mixed.  While he spelled out what is being done quite well, took the proper tone about BP\u2019s obligation to pay for all the damages, and pointed out the need for clean energy, he missed the opportunity to present a clean energy plan himself. President Obama vowed […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1890\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}