'If he was working for me I'd sack him' – Obama turns up heat on BP boss

[Poll_Blind]

Source: Guardian.co.uk

Barack Obama has put the survival of BP's Tony Hayward in even deeper jeopardy today, saying he would have sacked the chief executive for downplaying the oil spill catastrophe in the Gulf.

In the six weeks BP's well has been spewing oil into the Gulf of Mexico, Hayward has made a name for himself as the "Bumbler from BP" for clumsy comments, prompting the US president to say he would have sacked Hayward if he had been "working for me".

--snip--

The tough talk from Obama today appears part of a concerted administration strategy to distance itself from the oil company and shield itself from growing public anger at the ongoing catastrophe in the Gulf.

The administration's top man on the spill, coast guard admiral Thad Allen, this week shifted his daily briefings from the Gulf Coast to Washington.

He told reporters today that the administration would meet BP officials this week to demand it speed up pay-outs to small businesses who have lost out because of the spill. In addition to the mounting costs of clean-up and compensation claims, BP is also threatened with prosecution if a federal government investigation determines possible wrongdoing in BP's management of the well.

"There may be situations in which not only human error was involved but you also saw some corner cutting in terms of safety," Obama told NBC.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/jun/08/bp-deepwater-horizon-obama

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The whole article should be read- snippets can't do it justice.

[mikelgb]

1. Salazar? Allen?

[Demeter]

7. The Boys From Goldman and the Boys from Chicago, Starting With Rahm?

And good ole Uncle Ben--the one you already reappointed....

[tnlefty]

8. The Bush/Cheney MMS enablers?

I want their heads on a silver platter along with the BP nitwits. :mad:

[primavera]

15. +1

[rudy23]

2. What about the people who DO work for you, Mr. President?

How hard should this be to figure out?

[Nay]

6. Uh, yeah, Mr Obama, there are plenty of assholes YOU can fire, if

you have a mind to. Start off with all those RW lawyers Bush put in. Send 'em their termination notices.

[harmonicon]

3. Why aren't all of BP's assets seized, foreign and domestic?

Whatever all of that is worth, it will never come close to fixing this environmental disaster.

[skyounkin]

4. Bwwhahahahh

Yeah.

You have SUCH a history of holding people accountable!

[Oregone]

5. Theyll sack him when this is over, with a huge retirement package

He is doing his job by being more hated than BP. BP will makeover its image without him after he has absorbed the brunt of the fallout. Thats how this works from a PR perspective. Once the disaster is out of the way, clean slate for the next guy and the company

[montanto]

9. Wow, finally

Obama breaks out the "strongly worded statement."

Take that, Hayward!!

As a very last resort perhaps he'll bite his thumb at them, which is a disgrace to them if they bear it!

[Ellen Forradalom]

10. So what are you waiting for, Mr. Prez?

Nationalize BP's American subsidiaries and assets!

[yurbud]

11. sounds like whack-a-mole: get everyone to pile on the CEO, fire him, and then the anger dissipates

but the problem remains.

Fire and prosecute him, but keep your eye on the corporation, regulate, tax the shit out of, and criminally prosecute, or put out of business.

[Permanut]

12. A strongly worded letter

should do the trick, but only if a federal investigation determines that there is possible wrongdoing by BP and/or Hayward. Are you kidding me? If I blow up my house with dynamite, does it take a federal investigation to figure out if I handled it correctly? If I pee on the floor, does it take a federal investigation to determine if my aim is off? If I shoot myself in the leg, does it take a federal investigation to find out if I should have stuck a loaded gun in my pants? This is just creepy to see anyone still wondering if BP did anything wrong.

[glitch]

13. Therein lies the problem, from day one. He isn't working for us.

He's working for BP. Which is why the US Government needed to take charge of this catastrophe as soon as it happened. We could have hired BP (at BP's expense) to kill the well and contain the spill, instead we left it all up to them and they fucked the gulf.

BP's objective was salvaging their operation and limiting their loss, our objective was about saving the gulf. Two different objectives, two different results.

I wish somebody was working for US.

[bvar22]

14. +1 "I wish somebody was working for US."

Me too.

[Nihil]

16. On past behaviour, you'd have re-appointed him on a higher salary.

"Tough talk from Obama" my arse.

Just who does he think he is kidding?

[CanonRay]

17. Whew, I bet he's scared now!

BP owns our government. If they cut off the military oil, we'd crap our collective pants.