After 17 months of apologizing, kow-towing, bowing and tin-cupping around the world, President Obama has shown his true colors to the international community. Watching Obama’s handling of the BP oil spill shows he’s a negligent manager and a poseur who reflects poorly on America.
President Obama had an opportunity to show the world his management skills and the international team spirit that he often espouses. Peter Drucker, the management guru, recommends that, during a crisis, a good manger communicates directly with involved parties. Instead, almost 50 days into the BP oil crisis, Obama hadn’t found time to speak with Tony Hayward, CEO of BP, a British based company that is also the fourth largest company in the world.
In a spectacular failure of international cooperation, Obama refused the help of the 17 foreign countries that offered assistance. Obama ignored the international spirit of concern for the environment and sympathy for those affected by the disaster. The international community, which previously had believed in Obama’s commitment to “rebrand” America’s image abroad, likely realizes that Obama’s rhetoric was little more than posturing.
Almost 54 days after the U.S.’ rude refusal of that initial offer, Obama, in a humiliating reversal, sent an appeal to other nations requesting assistance. Mexico and the Netherlands have sent aid, but understandably, some countries are a bit miffed with the Obama Administration for its autocratic and mercurial behavior.
Inexplicably, Obama was awarded a Nobel Prize, in advance of any real achievement, for "extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples", but when he had an opportunity to act presidential and collaborative in the international arena, and he flubbed it--as he has many times before.
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Remember the bow ? Americans have seen Obama perform, like a trained circus animal, bowing low before various international leaders. Many have wondered: why does Obama do this? America is the leader of the free world. We are defenders of individual liberty and defenders of the weak. Consistently and at great cost, we have proven our mettle countless times in the 234 years of our existence. We should bow to no man. Clearly, Obama doesn’t get it.
Remember the kow-towing? Americans have seen Obama hugging Hugo Chavez and tolerating Daniel Ortega’s 50 minute anti-American rants. Doesn’t Obama understand that these thuggish dictators loathe the American way of life? Clearly, Obama doesn’t get it.
There is also the monthly tin-cupping. Various, failed programs of the Obama Administration, such as the Stimulus, Obama’s faux-job-creation efforts and entitlement expansion have caused our national debt to rise to titanic proportions. We are forced to auction hundreds of billions of dollars of U.S. Treasury bonds. Unfortunately, China holds approximately $900,000,000,000.00 of that debt.
Neither Obama, nor his deputy, Tim Geithner, are able to get tough with China on issues relating to human rights, pollution or energy because we have to go tin-cupping every month to China in order to continue support for a bloated entitlement system and congressional pork projects. Any “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy” that we might have seen from Obama have been made impossible by his flawed, domestic agenda.
There’s also the “unprecedented” level of arm-twisting, name-calling, finger-pointing, blaming kinds of intimidation that seem to be Obama’s preferred management style. Epitomizing Obama’s spirit of international cooperation, Obama first sent Eric Holder to build the criminal and civil legal case and gather the details necessary for prosecution-- not exactly a move to encourage international cooperation.
Obama exhibited colossal managerial negligence in refusing to communicate directly with BP leadership for almost two months. Then, when this negligence was publicized, Obama opened communications and extorted the arbitrary sum of $20 billion dollars to cover liabilities. Twenty billion dollars, without full knowledge of all the facts, without the benefit of a full investigation of the causes and without a final solution for the problem, under the control of one of Obama’s Czars just looks like a slush fund.
There can be no doubt that BP must bear the brunt of the blame for the oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. Louisiana is my home, and this oil spill is another, unexpected devastation making a full economic recovery difficult. But, Obama’s managerial negligence and refusal of international cooperation have helped him use the BP oil spill crisis to advance energy reform legislation languishing in congress while alienating segments of the international community.
The BP oil spill offered an excellent opportunity for Obama to embrace the international collaboration on environmental issues that he likes to prattle on about. Instead, the BP crisis shows that Obama is a poseur, who likes to talk the talk, not walk the walk.
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