Giuliani: Obama Handled Oil Spill ‘Like A Political Problem, Not A Crisis’

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by Colby Hall | 8:58 am, June 3rd, 2010

» 22 comments

Former New York mayor (and failed 2008 Presidential candidate) Rudy Giuliani appeared on on Hannity last night to discuss the political topics of the day with Sean Hannity, and delivered a strong and scathing critique of President Obama‘s management of the BP oil spill, saying it’s been handled more like a political problem and not an environmental crisis.

After first discussing the potential scandal surrounding Joe Sestak, the conversation turned to the Gulf Oil Spill. And sometimes a strong opinion gets in the way of a stronger argument, as is sort of the case in the following clip. Hannity opens the segment by clearly setting his own agenda with the following intro:

“Now clearly the President’s status as a community organizer – and his brief stint as Senator – haven’t actually made him a skilled manager. But somebody who knows real crisis management is the man who took the lead during 9/11, that’s former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani.”

While that introduction serves as delicious red meat to his loyal audience, it also undercuts the very sharp point-by-point criticism of how the White House mistook the scale of the environmental (and political) disaster of the BP oil spill. Of course hindsight is 20/20, but Giuliani’s comment that this administration has treated this whole mess as a political problem — and not the crisis into which it has evolved — is the sort of pithy commentary that we will likely hear a lot more of in the coming weeks. It should also be noted that Giuliani received a lot of criticism for politicizing the crisis of 9/11, but that’s a post for another day.

Rough transcript of the oil spill part of the discussion follows the video.

Hannity: You are known for your leadership in 9/11. You walked out there. You were with the people of New York on a daily basis. How would you rate the President’s handling of the gulf crisis?

Giuliani: Couldn’t be worse. This would be an example, if you are taught Leadership 101 of what NOT to do. Minimize it first. Two, three days after, go on vacation. He’s been on case more off than he has been to Louisiana, Mississippi or any of the places affected.

Hannity: Or playing golf or shooting hoops.

Giuliani: He gives the sense that he’s nonchalant or lackadaisical about it. Which I think that’s the word of Jim Carville, lackadaisical. Which that does is, that sends it to the bureaucracy they are also lackadaisical. As a leader, your actions are going to energy your bureaucracy to do the best it can or make it — the same thing Christmas day bombing. Stays on vacation for 11 days. So the other guys go on vacation. The reality is, that the administration has made every mistake you could make down to this criminal investigation of BP. Why you are you criminally investigating them? Are you going to distract them from the job of what they are supposed to be doing? If they are being criminally investigated, why are we allowing them to do it? We have a bunch of criminals doing it…

Hannity: We knew at a minimum 5,000 gallons a day we knew it was going to be huge. 5,000 feet in the ground this was going to be difficult to plug. Here’s the question, what should we have done?

Giuliani: The President should have immediately taken control. He should have gone there, should have been there more than twice. He should have been leading the charge from the front, not this..oh, you know, “I’m not going to touch it.” BP for the longest time Gibbs was saying BP was in charge. The President announced a week ago he was in charge. if he was in charge, he was in charge while on vacation. He should have brought in the best experts. He should have set up a team of independent advisers to be advising him directly. so he wouldn’t be just in the hands of BP. And he wouldn’t put the entire responsibility just on them. And now these telling us through his Attorney General they have real suspicions that BP committed crimes why the heck are they allowing BP they believe might have committed crimes to be doing this?

Hannity: Great point. I was asking about the environmental, we can’t build barriers they didn’t deliver the booms they were supposed to deliver 44 days in we couldn’t have a berm that’s environmentally, not safe. It seems they left little options. The Gulf Coast of Florida, the panhandle is going to get hit with this oil.

Giuliani: May 23rd, they asked for permission to do their own work and they can’t make a decision about it. The reality is, this has been handled — this has been handled as a political problem. which is — it is not handled like a real crisis.

Hannity: Will he pay a political price?

Giuliani: Oh my gosh yes. Republican, Democrat, Liberal, Conservative, like him or not, you can’t argue this has been handled close to competently. To start criminal investigations right now on a company that you want to be focused just on doing that, they are going to divert an enormous amount of attention to dealing with these criminal investigations which i think is about escape getting.

barack obama, BP Oil Spill, Gulf Oil Spill, Joe Sestak, Rudy Giuliani, Sean Hannity

The Real Royal King

I always enjoy getting advice from moral degenerates like Rudy!
MichelleF

By Rahm’s own admission, there’s nothing he loves more than a good crisis. It’s very important that you don’t waste it.
paulmdoro

I for one would fully expect guys like Rahm and Rove to get off on crisis. They thrive on the challenge, whether it’s handling an oil spill or winning elections.
The Real Royal King

Exactly, Paul. Not to understand that is to both underestimate and over-estimate the two men.
MichelleF

Washington Post Exposes BP ties to Eco-Groups, Other Media Ignore Controversy

Read more: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/julia-seymour/2010/06/03/washington-post-exposes-bp-ties-eco-groups-other-media-ignore-controv#ixzz0pnWsPibb
paulmdoro

Was Giuliani this critical of the way the Katrina response was handled? Or was that not as important to him?
notsofast

Yes, the Community Organizer has shown his incompetence yet again.
Bootleghaircut

Rudy is a total digrace.

A cross dressing adulterer who thought he was going to get the GOP nomination by screaming 9-11 on Fox 24-7.

Didn’t work.

Nobody(especially social con preparing for the rapture) wants to take crisis management advice from a raging hypocritical cross dressing serial filanderer. Who knew right?

Yeah, I don’t think the Obama War room is sweating this one.
AmericanCowboy

I blame Obama for the slow clean up. I want to see the Commie out there with a mop and bucket. Now there is a job he might be qualified for. Scrub Commie Scrub!!!!
http://www.uselessbeauty.com Vidiot

It’s not like Giuliani is a spectacular wow at either disaster preparedness or crisis management. What exactly did he do after 9/11 that was so spectacular, other than walk around and pose for pictures and give aggressive-sounding, content-free press conferences?

He elevated his former driver to run both the corrections department and the NYPD, but neglected to notice his mob ties or that he was a crook.

He also put the city’s emergency-response center — with no backup location — right in the World Trade Center AFTER the 1993 bombing. I’d think an anonymous bunker in an outer borough might have been safer.

This after ignoring several calls over three years for a city-wide anti-terror plan.

Pardon me if I don’t exactly flip over Giuliani’s crisis-management bona fides.

FDNY didn’t have radios that worked,
paulmdoro

Why don’t you head down there and help out AmericanCowboy, if you are such a concerned patriot?
tjl

Paul, he’s not a real patriot. he’s all talk. a phony. an uneducated one at that.
paulmdoro

I do believe that he is one of those people who equates patriotism with how many (Chinese made) American flag bumper stickers you put on your car.
writer

Just as with Bush and Katrina, Obama isn’t to blame for the catastrophe, but is at least partially to blame for the slow response.
paulmdoro

True enough writer. Can’t argue with that.
AndyZNYer

Ironic that the author also paints a fact with some bias…describing Giuliani as a “failed 2008 Presidential candidate” and poisons the well. Why not just “former 2008 Presidential candidate”? Obviously, he is not the President. Colby just wanted us to remember that he was “failed” and that perhaps, his opinion isn’t worth much. It’s fair to talk about Rudy’s criticisms of politicizing 9/11 in this story, but not to paint him with the “failure” brush. He was a rather successful Mayor in many ways, whether or not someone likes him.
Geoff

How strange that Colby Hall points out that Hannity’s intro (which was true) and Guiliani’s comments negate any correctness in their arguments against the O’s handling of the oil spill, then he goes on to say “pithy commentary that we will likely hear a lot more of in the coming weeks. It should also be noted that Giuliani received a lot of criticism for politicizing the crisis of 9/11, but that’s a post for another day.”, revealing his own agenda and negating any correctness of his own points.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Joshua-Taj-Bozeman/661000669 Joshua Taj Bozeman

June 3, 2010 at 10:28 am

I agree 100% I tend to think guys who did a lot of cocaine in high school and go to dinner at the homes of terrorists tend to be better at managing disasters.
AmericanCowboy

Obama has all the wrong answers. Could this guy be a bigger idiot?
http://secondthots.blogspot.com/ Dennis_F

It’s obvious that Hannity and Giuliani come from a certain ideological perspective but, as I write on my own blog, I’m glad that someone is providing SOME substantive critiquing of Obama’s handling of this, instead of the usual back-and-forth. Symbolism matters for leaders, and some early suggestions were rejected by the government. I know I’d like to hear some more substance, on both sides, in assessing the management of this crisis.
puck30

If there ever was a job opening for a ‘Monday Morning Quarterback’ , Rudy would win it in a heartbeat.
hostilemass

Giuliani is such a pathetic scumbag. I am sick and tired of him being put on a pedestal as a National Hero for his “heroic leadership on 9-11.” So he was in control of all emergency operations and reacted to a disaster and was in control of the situation. Oh you mean………HIS JOB!!! Isn’t that his fricking JOB???!! Isn’t that what the citizens of NYC elected him to do? So he went above and beyond? What would anybody do in that situation? Sit in the mayors office trying on dresses and playing solitaire? Gimme a break! And I especially love how the jack ass in the beginning swallows his whole foot before he can even open his mouth trying to suggest how unethical and bordering on criminal to have a former head of a major corporation in a position that has influence and could manipulate and unfairly act in political favors for a given corporation or industry. Hmmmmmmm let me wake you from your mental slumber sir see if you can follow along I will speak real slowly. V I C E P R E S I D E N T D I C K C H E N E Y – H A L L I B U R T O N – N O B I D C O N T R A C T S IN I R A Q