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President Obama says that he's not in a theater. I'm not sure that I can agree with him. As soon as a catastrophic event such as the BP oil spill or a natural disaster such as a Hurricane Katrina hit's the United States, the people expect a reaction from the head of state. He is the face of America, and sadly to say, the spotlight is on him and all eyes are on him in center stage.
Nevertheless, it is BP's corporate responsibility to take ownership of the situation and handle this. BP CEO Tony Hayward's comments seemed as though he tried to force sympathy, but instead was more concerned with his self-image-- "I just want my life back"-- and the image of the company and whether they will be able to recover their loss profits. The latter part of this is what he should be concerned about as a CEO, but what about all the people he's affecting and their irresponsibility as a company has costed people's livelihood and animals' lives.
Obama did an excellent job rebutting tough questions from the reporter and flippant comments people have made in reaction to how he has handled the situation. And I couldn't agree with him more about the critics. What were their suggestions of how Obama should have handled the situation? Why should the government take responsibility for a mistake that was not even its own? It seems that the U.S. spends more time cleaning up messes now than anything: TARP, economy, and oil spill.
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