Once again southeastern Louisiana finds itself amongst national debate. The oil spill, now in its 71st day of destruction, has brought the Gulf Coast back into the nation’s political limelight, just as Hurricane Katrina did in 2005.In the aftermath of the oil spill, President Barack Obama has seen his approval ratings hit an all time low, with a paltry 46 percent of the country satisfied.The easiest thing to compare Obama’s current approval rating situation to is the Exxon oil spill of Valdez, Alaska, in 1989.George Bush Sr. had just begun his term in the office when the Exxon-Valdez oil spill occurred. Unlike the current BP oil spill, the elder Bush was virtually untouched by media scrutiny.There weren’t have political pundits questioning the president’s every move and debating whether he was showing enough emotion about the oil spill.Instead the focus and hate was showered upon Exxon, which was portrayed as an evil money-hungry corporation that wanted to kill all the whales in Alaska. Obviously, BP also has had its fair share of backlash for this whole catastrophe.But why has Obama caught so much heat for this incident — an incident which no petroleum engineers, no oceanic and environmental consultants and no political figures have the full, correct answer to?The American public needs to point its finger at somebody — and apparently the fourth biggest corporation in the world (a foreign one at that) just isn’t enough.Yes, Obama did halt further oil drilling. He put some people’s jobs on hold. That was simply a safety measure, considering what the turmoil in the Gulf is right now.He also proposed more oil drilling in the Gulf before the BP spill occurred. How was he supposed to know the nation’s worst environmental disaster was to unfold weeks later?The president has also taken the necessary steps toward recovery. He has come down and observed the site of the actual oil spill, something Bush never did with Exxon-Valdez. He has met with local leaders and BP officials. He made a primetime television appearance to the nation addressing the matter.Yet the haters are still going to find something. Obama’s timing and supposed lack of swift action seems to be their weapon of choice. Alas, we once again have to remind ourselves that no one has the answer to fix the spill.Would Obama coming out immediately after the spill and declaring his statement (which I admittedly thought was rather rash), that he couldn’t “go down there and plug it up himself,” silence his opposition? Probably not. No matter what decision he made, people were going to resent it.The conservative public has been ready to tear Obama apart long before he was even voted into office. Think back to the election months of 2008 when Obama and his family suffered death threats by numerous hate groups. White supremacists vowed there was no way in hell that an African-American could successfully lead the country — over their dead, redneck bodies.On a more personal, collegiate level, I’m sure we all remember reading several status updates on Facebook by people declaring they were leaving the country and moving to Canada or something. Yeah, hit the highway and abandon the country before the supposed spawn of Satan takes an oath. What a great idea. I wish those unpatriotic idiots had left. And hating something or someone isn’t really going to get you anywhere. Especially your nation’s leader in a time of crisis like this oil spill, when you and no one else for that matter knows the answer to that crisis.
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Cox Communications: Obama’s recent drop in approval ratings is unjustified
June 27, 2010