{"id":547666,"date":"2010-04-29T21:53:00","date_gmt":"2010-04-30T01:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/deepwarter-horizon-obamas-katrina-2010-4"},"modified":"2010-04-29T21:53:00","modified_gmt":"2010-04-30T01:53:00","slug":"hello-the-gulf-oil-spill-is-obamas-katrina-bp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/547666","title":{"rendered":"Hello, The Gulf Oil Spill Is Obama’s Katrina (BP)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Barack<\/p>\n

It’s been argued that Hurricane Katrina was one of George W. Bush’s biggest organizational failures, for the tragedy was allowed to fester on for way too long before his much-vaunted homeland security apparatus sprang into action.<\/p>\n

Will the oil spill in the gulf — which some suspect could be worse than Exxon Valdez — be the equivalent for Barack Obama?<\/p>\n

Today the story got elevated to national emergency level, but the explosion on the rig happened eight days ago!<\/p>\n

Will numerous investigations will no doubt be launched into the companies behind the rig (BP, Transocean), will anyone ask what the DHS and The White House have been doing for 8 days<\/a>, while an ecological disaster was unfolding in such a sensitive region?<\/p>\n

We’re guessing that unlike Bush, Obama will largely get a pass. Katrina played into a narrative of Bush ignoring the plight of the poor and African-Americans. Nobody is suggesting that Obama is bad on the environment. Also, just generally, an ecological disaster won’t elicit the same kind of emotional response as a human tragedy (for good reason).<\/p>\n

Let’s at least acknowledge the obvious opposite, that if we were currently in a Republican administration that had just okayed offshore drilling in America, and they had gone eight days without serious action, they’d be getting absolutely pilloried in the press.<\/p>\n

The fact that the oil slick is lapping up against the Gulf Coast now and over the next several hours is just a cruel, but meaningless, Katrina-related coincidence.<\/p>\n

For all the details of the spill see here ><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Join the conversation about this story »<\/a><\/p>\n

See Also:<\/b><\/p>\n