White House in P.R. 'panic' over spill
May 4, 2010 05:20 AM EDT
The ferocious oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico is threatening President Barack Obama’s reputation for competence, just as surely as it endangers the Gulf ecosystem. So White House aides are escalating their efforts to reassure Congress and the public in the face of a slow-motion catastrophe, even though it’s not clear they can bring it under control anytime soon. “There is no good answer to this,” one senior administration official said. “There is no readily apparent solution besides one that could take three months. ... If it doesn’t show the impotence of the government, it shows the limits of the government.” Hope and change was Obama’s headline message in 2008, but those atop his campaign have always said that it was Obama’s cool competence — exemplified by his level-headed handling of the financial meltdown during the campaign’s waning days — that sealed the deal with independents and skeptical Democrats. The promise of rational, responsive and efficient government is Obama’s brand, his justification for bigger and bolder federal interventions and, ultimately, his rationale for a second term. So there was a “little bit of panic,” according to one administration official, when White House aides sensed the oil spill narrative getting away from them last week. The White House was particularly alarmed by the rash of stories comparing the Obama administration’s initial response with President George W. Bush’s sluggish response in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Katrina was one of the first issues Obama seized upon after his election to the Senate in 2004 — and he made a highly publicized visit to New Orleans during the campaign, using the Bush administration response as a metaphor for incompetent and uncaring government. In fact, conversations at the time of the spill on April 20 show that West Wing aides were worried about the rig tragedy from the moment it was reported. Even before the scope of the disaster was clear, these aides knew that it would undermine, if not reverse, Obama’s support for increased offshore oil drilling. But even supporters acknowledge the White House didn’t convey that sense of concern to the public. “They weren’t slow on the response; they were slow on talking about it,” an outside White House adviser said. “The communication and the visibility came several days later. In the beginning, because this was so unprecedented, they were optimistic they would be successful in shutting it down relatively soon. They thought they’d be able to cap it. “I don’t think any of the [worst case] predictions are crazy anymore,” the adviser continued. “That’s why you’ve seen that nobody is making predictions anymore. Nobody wants to be wrong anymore. They have to be demonstrating forceful leadership in throwing everything they have at the problem.” The administration’s public response intensified dramatically last Thursday when the magnitude of the spill became apparent, and then again Saturday, when Adm. Thad Allen, the U.S. Coast Guard commander, was named “national incident commander.” The administration announced a Deepwater Horizon Incident Joint Information Center, with its own Twitter feed and Facebook page to help keep threatened communities in the loop.
Allen told POLITICO in a telephone interview that he has no regrets about any of major decisions made by federal officials since the platform exploded – and that the response was much better than the Bush administration’s Katrina response. “Things started to change rapidly when the drilling unit sunk [on the second day after the explosion],” Allen said. “We are dealing in a battle space with no human access. In fact, I call it ‘inner space.’ It’s more like Apollo 13 than the Exxon Valdez because we’re seeing everything with remotely operated vehicles.” Dana Perino, the last White House press secretary under Bush, even sounded sympathetic to Obama’s plight. “I don’t think this is comparable to Katrina,” she said. “But ... they are learning just how hard it is to get situational awareness during a crisis. ... Things are going to overtake them. They are learning this right now.” A timeline of the White House response shows the difficulty federal officials initially had getting a clear picture of the disaster. The Departments of Homeland Security and Interior say they dispatched officials to the Gulf within hours of the April 20 spill. But the White House publicly downplayed its possible environmental and political impact during the Coast Guard’s search-and-rescue operation during the first 72 hours. Allen said, “Two hours after the MODU [Mobile Offshore Drilling Unit] went down, I was in the Oval.” He said he briefed Obama and other administration officials on the worst-case scenario of a catastrophic spill. “It took about 20 to 30 minutes,” Allen recalled. “He had a few questions. ... We also talked about the investigation that would be required.” Allen said it took the Coast Guard “between 36 and 48 hours” after the platform sank on April 22 to get a clear view of the disaster location 5,000 feet below the surface using robot subs. And it was not until late last Wednesday that officials discovered there were three leak locations. A remote camera showed oil gushing from a crimped pipe — leaks Allen suspects were caused by settlement after the rig sank. Just as striking has been the administration’s powerful public relations counterattack, including senior administration officials on the Sunday shows touting talking points pointing to the administration’s involvement from “Day One.” At the same time, they’ve identified a villain — BP — with Interior Secretary Ken Salazar saying he’d keep a “boot on the neck” of the company to ensure it would pay for and toil over a cleanup of historic proportions.
On April 23, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs took issue when a POLITICO reporter suggested the wellhead was still leaking. Gibbs said Obama, who was receiving regular reports, was principally concerned with the human toll of the explosion. Gibbs said the disaster wouldn’t prompt a review of Obama’s executive order opening up vast offshore areas to petroleum and natural gas exploration. “I don’t think it opens up a new series of questions” on the process, he said, predicting it “won’t be the last time” there’s a spill. Also on April 23 — the day the Coast Guard called off the search for 11 missing workers, now presumed dead — Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano led the first formal meeting of a National Response Team in the White House Situation Room. The Situation Room meetings have become a twice-daily conference call at 10 a.m. and 6 p.m., with about a dozen agencies participating. Napolitano, who went to Louisiana last week, plans to return to other affected Gulf Coast states later this week. With members of Congress returning to Washington on Tuesday, top administration officials are heading to the Capitol Visitor Center auditorium to hold two briefings — one at 3 p.m. for House and Senate staff, and another at 4:30 p.m. for lawmakers. Salazar will moderate the session for members, which will include Adm. Allen, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson and White House energy adviser Carol Browner. An adviser familiar with the planning said the administration officials’ message will be: “Here are the efforts on the ground. What are you hearing, and what else do we need to do? If there are places you think we’re not putting enough resources, tell us where those are, and we will get them there.” “The administration is being very concrete,” the adviser said. “Nobody’s trying to spin anybody. They’re giving a straight story, and taking input as to where else they need to do more.” Allen defended himself against criticism that the Coast Guard waited too long to intervene with BP. “Everybody was acting at each point in accordance with our doctrine and our judgment,” said Allen, who is due to retire at the end of this month. “There’s no hard and fast criteria to some of this. ... We have not had an event involving a platform like this in my career, and that’s 39 years. “This is an asymmetrical, anomalous complex unprecedented event.” Allen, echoing Obama’s remarks, said he was confident that BP would foot the entire bill for the cleanup, which could run into the tens of billions, despite a $75 million cap on payment for ecological damages embedded in a 1990s law. “There is an unlimited liability. ... Under certain conditions, there is no limit to the liabilities,” he said, adding that the government would have to prove “negligence or things like that” to recoup the whole amount.
The ferocious oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico is threatening President Barack Obama’s reputation for competence, just as surely as it endangers the Gulf ecosystem. So White House aides are escalating their efforts to reassure Congress and the public in the face of a slow-motion catastrophe, even though it’s not clear they can bring it under control anytime soon. “There is no good answer to this,” one senior administration official said. “There is no readily apparent solution besides one that could take three months. ... If it doesn’t show the impotence of the government, it shows the limits of the government.” Hope and change was Obama’s headline message in 2008, but those atop his campaign have always said that it was Obama’s cool competence — exemplified by his level-headed handling of the financial meltdown during the campaign’s waning days — that sealed the deal with independents and skeptical Democrats. The promise of rational, responsive and efficient government is Obama’s brand, his justification for bigger and bolder federal interventions and, ultimately, his rationale for a second term. So there was a “little bit of panic,” according to one administration official, when White House aides sensed the oil spill narrative getting away from them last week. The White House was particularly alarmed by the rash of stories comparing the Obama administration’s initial response with President George W. Bush’s sluggish response in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Katrina was one of the first issues Obama seized upon after his election to the Senate in 2004 — and he made a highly publicized visit to New Orleans during the campaign, using the Bush administration response as a metaphor for incompetent and uncaring government. In fact, conversations at the time of the spill on April 20 show that West Wing aides were worried about the rig tragedy from the moment it was reported. Even before the scope of the disaster was clear, these aides knew that it would undermine, if not reverse, Obama’s support for increased offshore oil drilling. But even supporters acknowledge the White House didn’t convey that sense of concern to the public. “They weren’t slow on the response; they were slow on talking about it,” an outside White House adviser said. “The communication and the visibility came several days later. In the beginning, because this was so unprecedented, they were optimistic they would be successful in shutting it down relatively soon. They thought they’d be able to cap it. “I don’t think any of the [worst case] predictions are crazy anymore,” the adviser continued. “That’s why you’ve seen that nobody is making predictions anymore. Nobody wants to be wrong anymore. They have to be demonstrating forceful leadership in throwing everything they have at the problem.” The administration’s public response intensified dramatically last Thursday when the magnitude of the spill became apparent, and then again Saturday, when Adm. Thad Allen, the U.S. Coast Guard commander, was named “national incident commander.” The administration announced a Deepwater Horizon Incident Joint Information Center, with its own Twitter feed and Facebook page to help keep threatened communities in the loop.
Allen told POLITICO in a telephone interview that he has no regrets about any of major decisions made by federal officials since the platform exploded – and that the response was much better than the Bush administration’s Katrina response. “Things started to change rapidly when the drilling unit sunk [on the second day after the explosion],” Allen said. “We are dealing in a battle space with no human access. In fact, I call it ‘inner space.’ It’s more like Apollo 13 than the Exxon Valdez because we’re seeing everything with remotely operated vehicles.” Dana Perino, the last White House press secretary under Bush, even sounded sympathetic to Obama’s plight. “I don’t think this is comparable to Katrina,” she said. “But ... they are learning just how hard it is to get situational awareness during a crisis. ... Things are going to overtake them. They are learning this right now.” A timeline of the White House response shows the difficulty federal officials initially had getting a clear picture of the disaster. The Departments of Homeland Security and Interior say they dispatched officials to the Gulf within hours of the April 20 spill. But the White House publicly downplayed its possible environmental and political impact during the Coast Guard’s search-and-rescue operation during the first 72 hours. Allen said, “Two hours after the MODU [Mobile Offshore Drilling Unit] went down, I was in the Oval.” He said he briefed Obama and other administration officials on the worst-case scenario of a catastrophic spill. “It took about 20 to 30 minutes,” Allen recalled. “He had a few questions. ... We also talked about the investigation that would be required.” Allen said it took the Coast Guard “between 36 and 48 hours” after the platform sank on April 22 to get a clear view of the disaster location 5,000 feet below the surface using robot subs. And it was not until late last Wednesday that officials discovered there were three leak locations. A remote camera showed oil gushing from a crimped pipe — leaks Allen suspects were caused by settlement after the rig sank. Just as striking has been the administration’s powerful public relations counterattack, including senior administration officials on the Sunday shows touting talking points pointing to the administration’s involvement from “Day One.” At the same time, they’ve identified a villain — BP — with Interior Secretary Ken Salazar saying he’d keep a “boot on the neck” of the company to ensure it would pay for and toil over a cleanup of historic proportions.
On April 23, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs took issue when a POLITICO reporter suggested the wellhead was still leaking. Gibbs said Obama, who was receiving regular reports, was principally concerned with the human toll of the explosion. Gibbs said the disaster wouldn’t prompt a review of Obama’s executive order opening up vast offshore areas to petroleum and natural gas exploration. “I don’t think it opens up a new series of questions” on the process, he said, predicting it “won’t be the last time” there’s a spill. Also on April 23 — the day the Coast Guard called off the search for 11 missing workers, now presumed dead — Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano led the first formal meeting of a National Response Team in the White House Situation Room. The Situation Room meetings have become a twice-daily conference call at 10 a.m. and 6 p.m., with about a dozen agencies participating. Napolitano, who went to Louisiana last week, plans to return to other affected Gulf Coast states later this week. With members of Congress returning to Washington on Tuesday, top administration officials are heading to the Capitol Visitor Center auditorium to hold two briefings — one at 3 p.m. for House and Senate staff, and another at 4:30 p.m. for lawmakers. Salazar will moderate the session for members, which will include Adm. Allen, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson and White House energy adviser Carol Browner. An adviser familiar with the planning said the administration officials’ message will be: “Here are the efforts on the ground. What are you hearing, and what else do we need to do? If there are places you think we’re not putting enough resources, tell us where those are, and we will get them there.” “The administration is being very concrete,” the adviser said. “Nobody’s trying to spin anybody. They’re giving a straight story, and taking input as to where else they need to do more.” Allen defended himself against criticism that the Coast Guard waited too long to intervene with BP. “Everybody was acting at each point in accordance with our doctrine and our judgment,” said Allen, who is due to retire at the end of this month. “There’s no hard and fast criteria to some of this. ... We have not had an event involving a platform like this in my career, and that’s 39 years. “This is an asymmetrical, anomalous complex unprecedented event.” Allen, echoing Obama’s remarks, said he was confident that BP would foot the entire bill for the cleanup, which could run into the tens of billions, despite a $75 million cap on payment for ecological damages embedded in a 1990s law. “There is an unlimited liability. ... Under certain conditions, there is no limit to the liabilities,” he said, adding that the government would have to prove “negligence or things like that” to recoup the whole amount.
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