As a retired executive, I had many training sessions on crisis management. I never dealt with anything as dire as the BP spill, but we did have some minor crises to deal with. I replaced a man as president of a subsidiary whose wife shot him while he was sleeping. The media was camped outside the office for a week. To prepare for a crisis, we all attended media training classes called Super Voice. We had crisis drills. A refinery explosion, for example.
I was never a person who passed out handbills in the South Side of Chicago nor was I an absentee State Senator or US Senator. As an executive, we had many opportunities to fix things that were broken.
Rule number one for me or anyone else running a country when a major environmental incident occurs is go to the horse’s mouth.
Obama should have met with Tony Hayward on day one and said, what happened, what do we face, and how can I help? Obama refuses to get his hands dirty. He’s still campaigning, and doing that badly. He cannot bring people together, he is much better at creating friction. He is sinking in the polls for good reason. The average American has to be absolutely shocked to hear that Obama has not had one discussion with the CEO of BP.
He made a brazen statement yesterday. “I’m looking for some one’s ass to kick.” Mr. President, lets’ start with your ass. You are all talk, no action. Big hat, no cattle. An empty suit, a hollow vessel. You and your staff are totally clueless about his crisis.
They have sent you out to lecture the graduates at Kalamazoo Central High School about placing blame, finger pointing. That gives the media a great opportunity to play back dozens of your speeches where you do just that. They send you out to tout Obamacare along with Pelosi and your cabinet officers. Is this to take heat off the spill? How did that work out for Pelosi who was heckeled by Democrats? Does it make you seem you are on top of the spill by stumping for a very unpopular heath care bill of your making? How do you feel when you lie to a group of senior citizens by saying their health care won’t change when you know it will as Medicare Advantage goes away? lange a
You and your team are spinning out of control.
Where are you looking for those asses to kick? Certainly not at the CEO of BP. Or, does kicking his ass in the media solve your need for kicked ass? Seems like an eyeball to eyeball meeting would be where I would start.
Never talking to Hayward is beyond incompetent. It’s embarrassingly incompetent.
