Carney: Once a government pet, BP now a capitalist tool

BP has gone from the government pet of this Administration to capitalist tool all because of the oil spill that the Obama Administration left go on for days doing nothing but it is all BP's fault? Obama always has to blame others for his own failures.

How about the fact that BP has the worst safety record by far of any oil company but they received an award for safety from the Obama Administration? Since the Obama Administration granted them a safety waiver in spring 2009 to do what they wanted without reporting, no wonder they received the award. BP probably thought it was pretty cheap to buy this Administration with donations but it bit them big time along with Obama and his incompetent appointees.

This Administration starting with Obama reminds us of the lion in The Wizard of Oz -- "if I only had a brain"

Now we learn that Obama in an ABC interview he had never talked to the CEO of BP. Some of his comments in the interview have left us speechless.

"I have not spoken to him directly," Obama said. "Here's the reason. Because my experience is, when you talk to a guy like a BP CEO, he's going to say all the right things to me. I'm not interested in words. I'm interested in actions."

Obama also leveled his anger at those who criticized the way he has handled the crisis, saying he was there long before "most of these talking heads were even paying attention.

"I don't sit around just talking to experts because this is a college seminar," he said. "We talk to these folks because they potentially have the best answers, so I know whose ass to kick." Such forceful language was broadcast a day after an ABC News-Washington Post poll found that more Americans rated the government's response as negative than they did for the response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

One of Obama's most vocal critics was also one of the most unexpected, Democratic political consultant James Carville.

"It just looks like he's not involved in this," an angry Carville said on "Good Morning America" last month. "Man, you got to get down here and take control of this, put somebody in charge of this thing and get this moving. We're about to die down here."

Obama with his cussing seems to be nothing more than a staged event via Spike Lee. The Obama 'street creed' is not playing in most of America as his numbers are now down to 44% in latest polling.

Note: In looking at Obama's poll numbers by state, we noticed there are only 49 states listed -- for some reason they left out Oklahoma. Could it be because Obama only got 34% of our vote in 2008 and it would be much lower now? The pollsters probably are afraid to get the 'real' numbers out of Oklahoma on Obama now.

Once a government pet, BP now a capitalist tool
By: Timothy P. Carney
Examiner Columnist
June 9, 2010

In this May 30, 2010 file photo, BP PLC CEO Tony Hayward talks to reporters as he visits a Coast Guard command center in Venice, La. BP's inability to contain the worst oil spill in U.S. history has focused attention on CEO Tony Hayward's words and deeds over the past six weeks - and the scrutiny has not yielded a flattering image. (AP file photo)

As BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig was sinking on April 22, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., was on the phone with allies in his push for climate legislation, telling them he would soon roll out the Senate climate bill with the support of the utility industry and three oil companies — including BP, according to the Washington Post.

Kerry never got to have his photo op with BP chief executive Tony Hayward and other regulation-friendly corporate chieftains. Within days, Republican co-sponsor Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., repudiated the bill following a spat about immigration, and Democrats went back to the drawing board.

But the Kerry-BP alliance for an energy bill that included a cap-and-trade scheme for greenhouse gases pokes a hole in a favorite claim of President Obama and his allies in the media — that BP’s lobbyists have fought fiercely to be left alone. Lobbying records show that BP is no free-market crusader, but instead a close friend of big government whenever it serves the company’s bottom line.

While BP has resisted some government interventions, it has lobbied for tax hikes, greenhouse gas restraints, the stimulus bill, the Wall Street bailout, and subsidies for oil pipelines, solar panels, natural gas and biofuels.

Now that BP’s oil rig has caused the biggest environmental disaster in American history, the Left is pulling the same bogus trick it did with Enron and AIG: Whenever a company earns universal ire, declare it the poster boy for the free market.

As Democrats fight to advance climate change policies, they are resorting to the misleading tactics they used in their health care and finance efforts: posing as the scourges of the special interests and tarring “reform” opponents as the stooges of big business.

Expect BP to be public enemy No. 1 in the climate debate.

There’s a problem: BP was a founding member of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership (USCAP), a lobby dedicated to passing a cap-and-trade bill. As the nation’s largest producer of natural gas, BP saw many ways to profit from climate legislation, notably by persuading Congress to provide subsidies to coal-fired power plants that switched to gas.

Read more at the Washington Examiner