Re: OT: Barack Obama's attacks on BP hurting British pensioners

"White Spirit" <wspirit@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:huqqvv$8uh$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
On 10/06/2010 14:27, RichL wrote:

"White Spirit" <wspirit@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:huqmtt$oa0$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It seems to me that is precisely what he is doing. The comments that
have drawn criticism were in response to Obama's provocation.

Sorry, I don't buy it. Among BP's unforced errors:

-- Denial of the existence of "plumes", which are fine underwater
suspensions of oil that can be as large as tens of miles long and wide
and several hundred feet deep: now independently confirmed by several
university and government research teams

-- Severe underestimates of the amount of oil gushing from the "leak":
BP's original estimate was 1,000 barrels a day, later upgraded to 5,000
barrels a day. Independent estimates now range from 20,000 to 40,000
barrels a day and larger. And the amount being collected now by BP is
upward of 12,000 barrels a day.

-- BP's initially trivializing the possible environmental impact of the
leak

-- Hayward's moaning in an internationally broadcast press conference
that he wishes he "had his life back".

That's just a smattering of BP's public-relations fiascos.

That doesn't change the fact that Obama is being frightfully over the top and is not helping matters in the slightest. The fact that his vitriol clearly stems from a long-standing prejudice towards Britain just makes it worse.

I don't think there's a connection in the mind of most Americans between Obama slamming BP and any "prejudice" toward Britain. There certainly isn't in my mind. To me, BP is just another too-powerful international corporation and I don't associate blaming it for the disaster with insulting British honor (or is that 'honour'?).

Americans (most of them, at least) don't tend to regard charges against their own home-based internationals as some sort of attack on the US itself.

.

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