Presidential Remarks on BP Oil Spill reimagining

Patrick Imperial

Presidential Remarks on BP Oil Spill reimagining

A different speech where Obama admits that the federal Government was to slow to act on the spill and apologized for the slow response would have a different effect then the speech that exists now.

The speech as written acknowledges the same concerns in a different fashion. He displays his understanding of the situation and states the work that has been completed towards the cleanup. He diverts any dissatisfaction toward the government’s slow response back toward BP as the real culprit and fully responsible. He leads people to feel comfortable in their government as capable of solving the crisis. Finally he ends with a call to arms type reaction with, the containment and cleanup of the oil spill.

If Obama were to give a different speech, instead admitting to Federal Government’s slow action towards the Oil Spill with an apology for the slow reaction, there would be an altogether different effect perceived by the audiences of Obama’s speech. People would not feel a call to action, they would be left with more disdain for the government and think of the Obama administration as incapable and ineffective bureaucracy. I personally would not find this speech as effective in getting trust in the systems in place. In the other speech Obama does not even mention the Federal Government as being slow to act he only gives the positives and displays what has been accomplished. At no point does he apologize to the audience. This prevents people from thinking that they are under an inept administration. In the case of this speech an outright apology would be a bad choice, it would give the idea that federal Government is inefficient and trying to control the damage of their ineptitude.

This speech reimagined would be harmful to Democrats up for reelection as they would be seen as part of the bureaucracy that failed the people. Candidates running against them would have a field day with this and this speech could very well lose the Democrat their seat in government. This would in turn be damaging to the Obama administration as the candidates taking their place would be a Republican, mortal enemy of the Democrats. This would weaken the Democrat numbers in government and thus make the Obama administration less effective.

BP oil executives would be able to take this speech and have their responsibility lessened of financial burden. They would be able to seem less at fault for the damages to the gulf and adjoining states.  They could in all possibility, shift blame toward the Federal Government and their slow response.

Engineers working to stop the oil spill might respond to this reimagined speech with, as opposed to the increased vigor of the real speech, a dislike for the lack of acknowledgement of their hard work in fixing the problem. As with the other speech Obama gives clear note to the progress being made to remedy the situation. They may change their perception of the problem and be less focused on fixing the problem and start thinking back to if they had been able to get at the situation sooner they might have been able to fix this problem with much more ease.

Still the main audience of the people hit the hardest by the Oil spill, people of the Gulf Coast states, would not feel their economic distress properly dealt with.