BP may have fired its CEO, but the president still has to wrestle the beast. BP PLC has failed to deposit any money into the $20 billion fund it promised to create:
BAYOU LA BATRE, Ala. — Ken Feinberg said today he hasn’t been able to start writing claims checks because BP PLC has not yet deposited any money into the $20 billion escrow fund it promised to create. Feinberg, who was appointed last month to administer individual and business claims stemming from the oil spill, held an early morning town hall meeting in Bayou La Batre on Saturday before meeting with the Press-Register editorial board in downtown Mobile.
Bob Cesca wonders “how long this will go on”; the answer is that this president can never, ever go wrong fighting BP. It is an extremely convenient punching bag for November — but the president must be seen to take up the gauntlet.
The blogosphere has a reputation for impatience because an excited fringe is more profitable than a general audience when it comes to internet page loads. I make no profit from my moderation on all things Obama; indeed, no blogger has been more understanding of the Obama Doctrine. I have explicated its grounding in the principles of nonviolence here, here, here, and here. I understand it is precisely the mild-as-milk opposite of the right-wing caricature (while also not the corporatist-sellout of firebagger caricature). No blogger is more patient with this president than me.
But to the other side, politics is war; kulturkampf is the continuation of culture war by political means. BP’s inaction presents the White House with a golden moment to not only take strong action, but to be seen taking strong action, in a matter of Cultural Warfare. His base (the one he wants to excite enough to get them to the polls this November) desperately wants to see him take down an opponent.
In my first panel at Netroots Nation this year, I heard a panel of respectable green bloggers and NGO heads say there would be no “sixties demonstration” phase to the green movement in America. During question-time, I respectfully called bullshit: there hasn’t been a massive, green-energy and hold-fossil-fuels-accountable demonstration in Washington because the guys with the fancy websites and big organizations haven’t made it happen.
In an era when FreedomWorks can rent buses to turn 50,000 teabaggers into news, it should be easy for this vast, liberal media conspiracy to arrange a million-greens march on the National Mall against BP. It should be easy for this president to take strong, vital action against the intransigent oil conglomerate when he enjoys massive popular support. And if the minority party wants to apologize to BP? Fucking let them.
There are two issues that bring the college left out in force: (1) sexual freedom (2) the environment. The president has made some progress on the first, but not enough to satisfy the base. When BP offers him an opportunity to excite them by cracking a whip over the corporateperson known as BP, he should not hesitate.
After all, it isn’t slavery. It’s justice. Just ask anyone who lives in Prince Williams Sound.
Note: I’ll be visiting Area 51 today. Light blogging.
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