Even by the standards of the 58-day-old gusher in the Gulf, it was a rollercoaster 24 hours for US President Barack Obama. Breakfast TV shows saw the president widely criticized for failing to rise to the occasion of his first Oval Office address and failing to take full control of the oil spill disaster.
By lunchtime in Washington, when news broke that the White House had wrested a US$20 billion downpayment from BP for an independent claims fund, Obama was on his way back, but it will be a difficult climb.
“That’s fine, but we asked for a six-month payment and they started to nickel and dime us to death,” Byron Encalade, leader of Louisiana’s oystermen, told MSNBC television on Wednesday in reaction to the deal. “We have to now make sure this fund is there. We have to make sure we have oversight of these funds.”
The deal itself came after three hours of discussions in the White House. It was the first time Obama had sat down face to face with the much-maligned BP chief executive, Tony Hayward, and chairman, Carl-Henric Svanberg, despite the president having made four trips to the Gulf. The oil bosses were permitted by the White House to enter by a side entrance, allowing them to keep the media — and any awkward questions — at a distance.
However, Obama did not go so easy on them in extracting the US$20 billion from BP, which even the most ferocious critics in the Republican camp had to acknowledge was a win for the president.
“Absolutely BP ought to be paying,” Republican Congressman Eric Cantor said.
However, he said the federal government continued to fall short in deploying resources to fight the spill on the coastlines of the Gulf.
The rebound is crucial for Obama, who is struggling to assert his command over events in the Gulf nearly two months after the oil spill began.
Tuesday night’s strategy of devoting his first Oval Office address to his plan was widely criticized for failing to give the sense of occasion demanded by the environmental catastrophe.
The reaction from Washington commentators to Obama’s take-charge speech was brutal.
“He looked awkward and robotic,” said Lynn Sweet, a writer for the Chicago Sun Times who has chronicled Obama’s rise since the early days. “Obama said the right things for the situation — but deeds and accomplishments matter, not words. For starters, the underwater gusher is either contained or it is not. And right now it is not.”
Even fellow Democrats said Obama had failed to rise to the occasion.
John Dingell, a veteran member of Congress from Michigan, said in a statement: “I was disappointed President Obama did not call for an increase in the liability cap.”
From the Gulf states on the frontline of the oil spill, there was a qualified welcome to Obama’s characterization of a battlefield approach to the crisis.
“I certainly want to see that translated to the federal response on the ground,” David Vitter, a Republican senator from Louisiana, told CBS television. “Unfortunately ... there’s not the absolute sense of urgency among many of the federal agencies that is clearly required.”
Some suggested the White house may have inadvertently set Obama up for the negative response by relentlessly promoting the speech and his swing through Gulf states as a turning point.
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