Katrina v. BP oil spill: a political strategy? The Obama administration has said a crisis is a terrible thing to waste

GULF OF MEXICO—It took a few days, but BP’s oil spill and the Obama administration’s response has been compared by radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh to Bush’s Katrina. The two are hardly analogous: Katrina was natural disaster with forewarning days in advance and there was a tremendous loss of life and property damage.

But one point Mr. Limbaugh has made is something that underlines an ever-present mentality within the administration of which, Rahm Emanuel put it best when he stated, “You never want a serious crisis go to waste.” So it would seem quite plausible the Obama administration’s delayed response and laissez faire approach may be another calculated strategy to allow the federal government a path into the oil industry—allow just enough time for BP to hang itself by its own sham damage control and inability to clean up the spill then ride in as a white knight.

This isn’t so far afield when one considers how the administration approached other crises: GM, AIG, Fannie and Freddie, and currently, Goldman Sachs. Though not extraordinarily popular, the country went along as these entities were “too large too fail” and poor economic conditions made them a crisis (as opposed to health care reform, where no crisis existed).

We wait with baited breath to see how these events play out in the coming days and wouldn’t be surprised to see the administration again champion the federal government as the answer to all ills.

-- Owen E. Richason IV

Chief Editor, Killswitch Politick

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