Confirmed Failure

It’s the Katrina syndrome. In 2005, George Bush, already mired in low polls, hastened his descent when he didn’t know how to react to the hurricane that devastated New Orleans. Five years later, Barack Obama could also pay dearly for his poor handling of the oil slick in Louisiana. In seven weeks, the current occupant of the White House hasn’t truly taken any account of what could be the largest ecological disaster in the history of the United States.

Above all, he has never commanded the authority needed to be seen by his fellow citizens as the leader of the cleanup operations. Criticized repeatedly for his tendency to have a dialogue on everything, Obama has possibly committed the error of going after the heads of BP a little too quickly and a little too strongly. By judging the British company “ultimately responsible for the mess, he has allowed himself to become entangled in more and more dangerous and ineffective interventions in the Gulf of Mexico, and such actions recall the image of a federal government that hasn’t been as involved in petroleum as it should have been.

Today, Obama faces a certified failure. Worse, he has managed to annoy his ally David Cameron, who is uncomfortable to see British Petroleum both under attack from the White House and in shaky straits market-wise. From now on, the American president doesn’t have a choice. Facing a summer sullied by a contamination that now even threatens the coast of Florida, he has to make the crisis in Louisiana his top priority.