The making of a Presidency?

After the announcement that BP will be paying $20 billion dollars into a fund as a form of compensation for the oil disaster in the Gulf: bbc link

Several things struck me:

1. Is this purely a ploy for limitation of liability from BP so they can regain some moral high ground? After all the sum of $20bn is only 18 months profits for the company. It seems to me like the reputed deal BP cut with the fisher people whose livelihood was exterminated by the leak who they paid $1,000 a day to work on the 'cleanup' along the gulf on the understanding it was for a max of three months and meant they couldn't sue BP at any point ever in the future.

2. Is this cynical maneouvering by the oil industry to protect it's 'image' after a disaster or is it a genuine attempt to cover the clean up operation.

3. Who gains from a weak BP in the international oil markets?

4. Is todays' display a show of strength by Obama? Does it show he has an independent will and acted in a credible, even laudable manner. Or is he the ventriloquists dummy skipping to somebody elses tune and making the best of a situation forced on him to enhance his image in the eyes of ordinairy citizens. (Seriously i bet his rating leaps up in the next few days after e socked it to the Brits )

I tend to think that BP have been held over a barrel and have traded off the $20 bn because they had no choice because of Obamas actions on calling them out in public. (Hell, in the UK we would be saying we have to wait and see the extent of the disaster, then there would be an enquiry and ten years in the future BP would get a £250 million slap on the wrist!)

Mark my words this is the making of Obamas Presidency. He will from now on be known as 'Obama the Strong - The Callout man'.

(Remember Bush and his do not 'misunderestimate' me line? That line is the whole reason he is seen as a clown internationally. Everything after this just reinforced it.)

Opinions...?

(Should this be in the Deepwater Disaster forum Mod? ? ? Please move if you think best)

[edit on 16-6-2010 by spacedonk]

[edit on 16-6-2010 by spacedonk]

I'm pretty sure it's quite the opposite: the beginning of the unravelling of his Presidency.

He still doesn't get it. He doesn't comprehend the scope of the disaster. $20 billion is chump change BP will happily drop to avoid the immensely larger amount they will otherwise be liable for.

Pascagoula, MS alone has about 30,000 people. If you divided the entire $20 billion between them they'd get less than $700,000 thousand each.

Pay off the folks Thibodeaux, LA, pop 15K, too and it drops to less than $500K per person.

Add the folks in Gulf Shores, AL, pop 5K: less than $350K per person.

Toss in another small fishing town in Florida and Texas and you'll be under $100K each.

Now assume there are twenty more small towns effected andit's less than $5K per.

And that's without counting even medium size towns and the big cities.

$20 billion is chump change, pennies per person directly effected.

When BP fails to meet the capture deadline, that'll be the end.

A $20 billion settlement is Neville Chamberlain's "Peace in our time."

I have seen reference to this being called Obama's 9/11 unfortunately I do not recollect the source but seem to remember it coming from his office.

I agree $20bn is in effect chump change but like with the'war on terror' and Bush won't most Americans just percieve this as action taken when needed, not do the maths and think $20bn is a stratospheric sum of money. (Even in these days of trillion dollar bank bailouts.)

I think this will be seen as STRONG action by Obama irrelevant of the fact it really isn't.