BP’s Oil Crisis is Obama’s Leadership Crisis

BP’s Oil Crisis is Obama’s Leadership Crisis

BP’s Oil Crisis is Obama’s Leadership Crisis

On The Ed Show, Katrina vanden Heuvel says that Obama needs to realize that BP’s mess is "more than an oil spill, more than an oil crisis. It’s also an economic crisis."

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On The Ed Show, Nation editor and publisher Katrina vanden Heuvel lays out exactly what President Obama needs to do both for the future of the nation and for his political legacy. According to vanden Heuvel, the president needs to level with the American people, hold BP accountable and formulate "a new plan to wean us off our addiction to oil." She emphasizes that this is not a left or right wing concept, but what most industrialized nations are doing: investing in new technologies.

As for BP, vanden Heuvel tells host Ed Schultz that the administration should not bargain with the corporation but rather should push for a strong and effective Gulf recovery program and for much-needed reimbursements for lost wages. When Schultz says that BP was operating in a free market, vanden Heuvel responds, "This is not a free market that we’ve seen. What we’ve seen is greed and corruption."

—Melanie Breault

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With the midterm elections now firmly upon us, the question is whether Democratic candidates will do more than merely occupy ballot lines as mild alternatives to the red-hot crisis that is Donald Trump.

As Trump spends over $1 billion a day on a globally destabilizing war on Iran and admits that he doesn’t “think about Americans’ financial situation,” millions across the country are struggling with the surging costs of essentials. Democrats must seize this moment and advance bold, small-“d” populist ideas—not settle for cynical caution that once again snatches defeat from the jaws of victory.

The Nation elevates progressive ideas, movements, and elected officials achieving real change across the country into the national conversation. At the same time, our journalists are exposing how crypto and AI-funded super PACs are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to knock out candidates they oppose, reporting on the devastating impact of the Supreme Court’s evisceration of the Voting Rights Act, and sounding the alarm on attempts by red states to quickly redraw electoral maps, disenfranchising Southern Black voters.

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Onward,

Katrina vanden Huevel
Editor and Publisher, The Nation

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