Is it too late for Obama to turn public perception around on his handling of the oil spill?

[skip fox]

I believe that weeks ago he should have establisheda presidential crisis center which was highly visible and had the best experts in engineering, ocean flow, biology, economics, skimming, the law, restoration, wetlands, etc. (with an entire group devoted to streamlining with an administrator with the qualities of a Kenneth Feinberg who is in daily contact with each of the governors of Gulf states), the experts flown in and housed in the area, cross fertilizing ideas, brainstorming, and working in their own fields on site.

He could visit this facility frequently and call it on video conferences (reporters allowed in) weekly.

I think something like this would both bolster his ratings (and help in the mid-terms) and be more effective (people on site, efficiency being central, sharing ideas/expertise).

Obama may have an aversion to theater which keeps him from doing something like this, and I understand that. (But then I don't have to get elected.)


I think there may still be time, but it's getting very late.

[spanone]

1. he's been on top of it, just not enough to satisfy the media

the media will not allow this president to succeed.

[Fire1]

7. Then thank goodness most of us don't trust the media. n/t

[Johonny]

13. I agree the media created the Obama not doing enough story

so it's basically impossible for him to get ahead.

[Warpy]

26. Correct. He's been fine. The media are hostile

Corporate media won't give the guy a break, ever.

[skip fox]

27. so we give up?

[Warpy]

31. No. We don't let the lies we hear IRL stand

nor do we let trash talking on the web go unchallenged.

[ixion]

2. Yep. The problem is that

it's a problem which will persist for years, and will get worse before it gets better.

Obama dropped the ball. He should have taken the reigns from BP immediately when it became apparent they didn't know what the hell they were doing.

[skip fox]

4. It might be a bit awkward, and Fox will shout about it for weeks, but

if he really dives into it now, his rating can shoot up I think like Bobby Jindal's did down here in Louisiana (not with me, but even a lots Dems).

Fox News will holler that it shows he cannot make up his mind, but the 80% of the attentive population see him rolling up his sleeves, Fox will be painting itself into the hard-core (nut-bags) corner (as it is doing now with its pro-BP crap). (Imagine if Obama id it now, then Fox will really be shown up for what it is, and obstructionist tool of the right wing!!!)

[Walk away]

10. It seems that no one knows what to do and every stop gap measure...

has just been marking time until they can drill in August. What would he do that would be different than BP? If there is something that he could do then why doesn't BP? If there isn't anything he could do then why would he need to take over?

Please tell me what the President would do after putting the rest of the country on hold to take over this big oil spill in the Gulf? Would he spend his time trying every crack pot idea to sop up oil by thousands of untrained volunteers?

It sounds like a losing idea for everyone concerned and no help at all for the Gulf.

[BeFree]

3. It is what the people want

They need to feel the government has some control of this catastrophe.

The hour is getting late. Another few weeks and BP will have cemented their position.

[BlueIris]

5. Yes. That ship has sailed.

So to speak.

[Walk away]

6. I think it would help if people stopped acting like sheep jerked around by cable news.....

Do you honestly think that the best qualified people in the world aren't already being consulted?

[Fire1]

8. My sentiments exactly. n/t

[BeFree]

9. We know the best are not in control.

BP is in control.

Methinks yee be a wee bit projecting?

[Walk away]

17. Then you must know who the best are! Tell us please!

Who besides big oil and the Army Corp of Engineers know how to handle this? Who else has the practical knowledge to even attempt to fix this. It may not even be fixable? But please tell me, who are these experts that you know have this special information and ability?

Why haven't they come foward? If they have a successful background of stemming deep water oil leaks then why are they hiding? Tell us their names and I will start writing letters now.

[BeFree]

22. Whoa sport

You just stated that the best are being consulted.

So, tell us, oh wise one, who the best are and what do they suggest?

I suggest they quit the dispersants, direct the oil as best as possible to the surface and skim it right then and there.

There are some people in Louisiana who have been suggesting for weeks now on ways to keep and clean the marshes, and all they've gotten so far is BP'ed to death.

So, now, I'll sit back and wait for your response to who the best are and what they suggest. They are your words, eat 'em or prove them.

[Walk away]

32. First, I am not implying that the best is good enough, only that they...

are the only real game in town. There are thousands of people who have many thousands of answers but they don't have the equipment, expertise or contracts to make it work. I still haven't heard of a company with the equipment or experience to actually fix this that isn't already involved. Once again, tell me who they are. It's nice to have ideas but then you have to deal with the consequences.

I think it's our own engineers who are handling the ideas that people in Louisiana have about cleaning up or blocking off their marshes. People are being turned away because they may do even more and permanent damage than this spill has.

[TheWraith]

12. +10,000.

It still amazes me that DUers, so skeptical of cable news at some points, will rush like starving dogs to lap up the bullshit being thrown around at other times.

[Angry Dragon]

15. How would we know

The president has not said, he gives very little information.
We have the right to know what is happening and the American people do not feel that is happening.
So he can continue going the direction he has chosen or give the people what they want.
He does work for us and not himself or anyone else.
A news conference every week, give us the facts. Do not make us guess

[Walk away]

21. Here is my guess. No one knows how to fix it...

all of the repair attempts are just long shots and the only possibility will be when they drill in August for the fix they have been talking about since it started.

The American people are just going to have to deal with it because it's happening. Most of the clean up methods are doing more harm that good. It's a disaster. The President could come out and tell this story but what difference will it make?

[Angry Dragon]

23. Which can one deal with better

the uncertainty or the facts??

With facts one can make plans as it pertains to them, it you have no or little facts have do you plan or come to grips with a disaster?? With uncertainty all you have are rumors and the mind comes up with all kinds of things that do not matter if they do not fit the facts that you do not have.

[Walk away]

34. Well, maybe they were hoping one of the Hail Mary passes would work.

What plan were you thinking of? It would be kind of odd for our leaders to just throw up their hands and tell us there is no hope and things are going to get alot worse and no one can fix it. People don't function well with information like that.

[skip fox]

19. Barring a perfect world in terms of human attentiveness . . .?

As an old scholar and professor, I distrust theatrical presentations as opposed to thoughtful, intelligent ones.

As a legal scholar and professor, Obama may have had parallel feelings about the more theatrical of trial lawyers.

But the question was about perception. I should, perhaps, have said perception outside of the academy.

[Stinky The Clown]

20. Yanking people around like sheep is cablenooz's JOB. It is what the Owner class pays for and gets

The media is Job One if you want any hope of getting your country back.

[AngryAmish]

11. He needs to have a prime time speech to the nation

This will lay out what he has done and where we are going in the future to prevent this sort of thing
.

[Stinky The Clown]

14. If we're talking about perception and not fact (perception, however, *is* reality), then "yes"

He was rhetorically flat footed at the start and has not recovered. We're too far in for him to take credit for a solution or avoid some blame, no matter how misplaced and wrong headed that blame may be.

Perception is reality.

[Swamp Rat]

16. If one hurricane impacts the oil gusher and the coastal states => one term presidency

He wouldn't be able to come back after that, and the Democratic party would be seen as too weak to govern.

We'd likely have a repuke President and Senate in 2012.

And we would be much more worse off than ever before.

[SunnySong]

18. Here is an idea. Convince me that a country that which 40 years ago put a man on the moon

is able to plug a hole underwater.

WE don't ask much from Government but when we need it to say hand out bottled water in New Orleans. not invade countries with no actual goals (what exactly is our goal in Afghanistan Mr President) or plug a hole in the ground a semblance of competence would be nice.

[William Z. Foster]

24. the media issue is peripheral

Whether or not the media has given the administration a fair shake is really a separate issue from what the response by the administration has been.

I would say that the critics of the response by the administration are not the ones being driven by mass media ideas, rather it is the defenders of the response by the administration who are obsessed with mass media coverage and assuming that it explains the criticism.

But is the catastrophe in the Gulf primarily a public relations concern? Is the impact of the catastrophe on the fortunes of any politician what we should be worried about?

The impact of this catastrophe is going to be so far-reaching and long lasting that I think perceptions and mass media coverage pale by comparison. Reality is overshadowing and will continue to overshadow mass media induced perceptions. If anything, mass media coverage has downplayed the extent and horror of this, which - if we are going to be primarily concerned with the image of the administration - helps rather than harms that image.

[skip fox]

25. Nice post. The O.P. was on perception, but your analysis is that

the perception will pale to the actuality because of the size and long-term quality of the event. Fair analysis.

But I believe it is essential for the more responsible party to retain as many seats in The House and Senate as possible and to keep Obama in the White House. In this great comedy of errors, the last thing we need is President Palin or Beck or . . .

So, the reputation seems very important. (Even to me . . . and I live on the Gulf.)


By the way, those who live down here were greatly heartened each time Obama came down. If the scale is going to be as you assume (and I fear you may be right) then the rest of the nation will begin to feel as we feel and will welcome a presidential presence on the Gulf or a highly active and visible governmental response.

[William Z. Foster]

28. maybe

I think the partisan feud and the fears of Palin et al are largely irrelevant at this point.

The party will not lose seats because of mass media attacks, they will lose seats because people don't have jobs, homes, and health care. Of course, as the apologists for the steady drift by the party to the right relentlessly tell us, people have nowhere else to go.

The mass media dopes have an effect, however it is primarily on liberals who, while they pride themselves on being able to detect and reject right wing propaganda, completely accept and disseminate a narrow partisan framework for political thinking, and are unable to detect the fact that the mass media is not so much rallying any "base" or spreading right wing propaganda as they are defining liberalism and the context within which people think about politics. This gives the right wing a tremendous advantage.

It is easy to tell which posters here spend a lot of time paying attention to mass media, because they have a very rigid and narrow view of politics and post nothing but partisan talking points, all of which are being created by the mass media. They think that they are then promoting and defending the Democratic party, and will attack any and all who are off script, but what they are doing is actually crippling the party and the administration. They think that leftists are the enemy, and that Palin is the worry. The more they attack leftists and promote partisanship, the more likely it will be that the Palin nightmare will happen. They are thoroughly convinced that the opposite is true, but if they stopped watching that crap on cable for 30 days most of them would change their minds.

[Catherina]

29. Sadly yes. A little more attention to the critics and a little less relicance on his fans

would have made that clear for him. Was it your OP that suggested this weeks ago? If so, I recommended it then and I recommend this now.

I think it's too late for him to change perception now.

[skip fox]

30. Yes. I've done this several times. This, I think, is the last. On one

hand because I think it just may be too late. (Sadly, few directly responded that question. I have a case for a presidential presence on the Gulf, but really wanted to know what people thought about the primary question.)

[jp11]

33. Yes, in my mind anyway.

He should have 'fixed' the chain of command issues where people kept questioning who's in charge and gotten it straightened out, stopped the BS where BP tried and continues to keep reporters out of the area and spins their own 'press'. Just about everything else I would write has been said, what should have happened is things get done and you bring the media out to let them see that stuff is getting done, oil is being skimmed, berms are being built, boom is being laid, animals are being rescued etc etc. BP stays 'in charge' of capping the well/collecting oil at the riser the remaining cleanup and dispersant are handled by the coast guard, BP writes checks and that is all.