News

Scottish Review : Alan Fisher

Alan Fisher 21 June 2011

Listen to this article

The unpresidential president

Monday 21 June
The US papers this morning are full of the attack by White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel on BP’s chief executive for going sailing at the weekend.
     Tony Hayward appears to have made one gaffe after another. The worst was undoubtedly on 30 May. When asked about oil from the Gulf of Mexico spill washing up in Louisiana, he said: ‘We’re sorry for the massive disruption it has caused. There’s no-one who wants this over more than I do’. Given that 11 men died in the explosion which started the disaster, it was an incredibly self-centred and insensitive thing to say.
     Giving a TV interview Mr Emanuel – often described as the second most powerful man in Washington – pointed out the trip to go sailing was ‘just part of a long line of PR gaffes and mistakes’.
     The comments are, however, a bit of savvy PR from the White House. Obama has been strongly criticised for his lack of action. He has ordered a commission to look into the disaster. For the tens of thousands of people whose livelihoods are threatened by the spill, this means nothing. And so with criticism from press and public mounting, the White House needs an enemy. It is a maxim of US politics that ‘if you’re not on offense, you’re on defense’. And so by going after British Petroleum – a distinction that’s constantly made – it’s another news cycle where the White House isn’t getting hammered for lack of action.
     Incidentally, President Obama, in what some considered very unpresidential language, said he wanted to get to the bottom of the disaster so that he knew ‘whose ass to kick’. This was just over a week after he said that he took full responsibility for what happened. That will be an interesting photo-op.

Tuesday 22 June
In the days after the oil rig disaster in April, Obama ordered a six-month moratorium in all deep water drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. Now a federal court has said it can’t be done. It banned the ban on the grounds that it was ‘invalid’ as the negative impact on local businesses would be too great.
     The Deepwater Horizon was drilling in 5,000 feet of water. There are current plans to carry out deep water drilling in the west of Shetland, in depths much greater than the rest of the North Sea. The Laggan gas field is in almost 2,000 feet of water while Chevron’s Rosebank discovery is in 3,700 feet of water. The deeper the water the harder it is to carry out repairs and put things right. The new UK government says there’s no need to look again at the plans to exploit these fields because the ‘regulatory regime is robust and has kept drilling operations safe in the North Sea, most of which is in relatively shallow water’.
     The oil industry in the US – not surprisingly – opposed the ban. They argued the world needs oil – the technology exists to get to it in deep water and therefore drilling would be good for the world. The White House says it will appeal against the decision.

Wednesday 23 June
The general who pushed for a troops surge in Afghanistan has been sacked by Obama. He goes because of critical comments about senior officials in ‘Rolling Stone’ magazine. The top US military commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, has been dismissed by Obama after critical comments about senior US officials in a magazine. Although the official statement says that General Stanley McChrystal resigned it’s clear he has been given the push. He’ll be replaced by General David Petraeus, who led the surge strategy in Iraq. General McChrystal said that he stepped down out of ‘a desire to see the mission succeed’. Obama says there may be a change in personnel but not in policy.
     The wide-ranging article called ‘The Runaway General’ quoted McChrystal openly criticising senior members of the administration. He mocked vice president Joe Biden, described the national security advisor as a ‘clown’ and said he felt betrayed by the US ambassador to Afghanistan. The article also appeared to be critical of the president himself.
     Obama took the action to uphold civilian control of the military but no doubt his critics will insist he did what he did out of vanity and that it will hurt the war effort.