Obama blasts BP

Associated Press

GRAND ISLE, La.

Dogged for being too calm in crisis, President Barack Obama unleashed frustration for all to see Friday, warning BP it had better do right by the people whose lives it has wrecked.

The president’s third trek to the Gulf of Mexico was about the workers with no government titles, the shrimpers and the shopkeepers, the fishermen whose lives have been upended and are running out of people to blame.

As the crisis has dragged on — and his poll ratings have slipped — Obama’s words for BP’s leaders have grown sharper.

“I don’t want them nickel-and-diming people down here,” Obama said after his latest briefing on the oil response. He promised his government would look over BP’s shoulder to ensure it was paying out claims.

His visit amounted to one long I’m-on-your-side passage for reeling communities. Along that same line, he invited family members of the 11 workers killed when the BP rig blew up to visit the White House next Thursday.

As for BP, Obama cast the oil company as a corporate giant interested in protecting its image with TV ads and its shareholders with bountiful dividends.

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