[Slingin Sammy 33]

Originally Posted by 12thMan

And I beg to differ that had Obama ratcheted up the pressure on MMS prior to this spill that conservatives would have just sat by silently. You would have seen every Tea Party protest(er) that Fox could point their cameras at calling the president Marxist, Socialist, and everything else under the sun.

We'll just have to disagree on this one. I don't see O'Reilly/Hannity/Rush/Fox News/etc. running segments on the "Marxist Obama Admin. enforcing existing MMS policy and regulation that has been in place since the Bush Admin." Beck, maybe. But only if the red phone and chalk board linking Obama/BP/Mao/Chavez/ Stalin are in the segment.

FWIW, I recall O'Reilly defending the Admin's response a week or two ago.

But I think the larger point to be made, from a political and policy perspective, is that the drill, baby, drill crowd: Sarah Palin, Michael Steele, John McCain et al have been curiously silent regarding how they would deal with BP, the oil spill and the damage it has inflicted on the environment, and how the US should approach off shore drilling in a sensible way in the future.

Which is pretty stupid IMO. No way they should let the Dems and Obama Admin take sole credit for better rules/regs and punishing BP. Now would be the time to work across the aisle to put an unlimited cap on damages, which would force oil companies to assess risks differently than with a cap of $ 75M or $ 350M whatever it is (jtf, that's how a free market should work). Jam BP for every last cent to clean up this disaster and compensate folks in the Gulf whose property values and livelihoods are destroyed, and if BP won't play, shut down every drilling permit they have in U.S. territory. Put in tougher safety inspection and permitting processes and make the oil companies pay a fee/royalty for the increased manpower to support better inspections. Make damn sure every safety device recommended is a requirement.

I think this president deserves (of course he won't get it here) tremendous credit for including off shore drilling in his energy policy and having the courage to continue to stand by his decision.

Let's not break our arms patting Obama on the back for "including off-shore drilling" here. All he did was allow for expansion of exploration on the Eastern seaboard and North coast of Alaska, with the leases for exploration not being bid on until 2012. This decision was calculated to gain support for his cap & tax proposal.