The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is drawing a lot of attention from Americans right now, particularly the residents of the Gulf Coast who will have to absorb the brunt of the spill’s economic and ecological impact. Consequently, every cable news outlet in the country is hosting guest after guest to talk about the spill and how its ramifications might be curtailed.
Earlier this week, CNN’s Anderson Cooper, host of Anderson Cooper 360, had actor Robert Redford on his show to talk about the spill. Not surprisingly, what viewers heard from Redford was how the spill demonstrated that big oil companies are bad, that it was George W. Bush’s fault (more accurately, Dick Cheney’s), and that Obama has done his level best to handle this mess in a Presidential manner.
Cooper began the interview by asking Redford what he thought of BP’s response to the spill thus far, and Redford answered by saying we were seeing the fruits of “a failed energy policy” that was “the consequence of the collusion between government, Congress and big oil companies.” Redford went on to say that it was our “terrible energy policy” had “allowed this [spill] to happen” in the first place.
As Redford spoke, I thought about the fact that a spill of this magnitude has not happened anywhere, at any time, during the last four decades of oil and gas exploration. Therefore, I could only conclude Redford is of the opinion that one spill is enough to prove our entire approach to energy acquisition a “failed” one.
In other words, according to Redford, one accident equals failure.
So I wondered, would Redford say one passenger airline crash proves our system of airline travel a failure? Does he think one train crash proves locomotion kaput? Or was he ready to give up on space travel following the Challenger explosion in 1986?
While I pondered these things, Redford reframed his answer to say that our energy policy is bad “because of the way it was designed [and because of] who it was designed by.” He then intimated that our current fossil fuel-based energy policy is the work of the always devious Dick Cheney. (I don’t know where Redford got this idea, but I do know that at the Daily Kos, certain lowbrow “journalists” at the Huffington Post, and a few other miscreants on angry, left-leaning websites hold the same theory.)
Nevertheless, Redford actually said that Cheney, while Vice President, framed our nation’s “energy policy [via meetings held]…behind closed doors with oil, gas and coal companies.” And because these meetings were secretive, they were “bound to end up being a disaster of some sort.”
I don’t remember Redford voicing any opposition to the closed door meetings Obama used to push Universal Healthcare through congress or any opposition to the same kind of meetings that resulted in GM bailouts, which were really little more than the seizing of taxpayer dollars for the purpose of bailing out automotive labor unions.
Redford also made clear the fact that he doesn’t hold this spill against Obama by saying: “I’m somewhat sympathetic to what the guy’s dealing with because he [had so many]…other issues that were paramount when this thing came forward.”
I’m sure Redford gave Bush this same type of courtesy when Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast in 2005. It’s not like Bush didn’t have “other issues that were paramount” as well. For example, Bush was smack-dab in the middle of a relatively new, multi-front War on Terror at that time.
But I won’t hold my breath waiting to see Redford break out the kid gloves for a Republican President the way he’s broken them out for the current failure-in-chief. However, I do believe someone needs to remind Redford that the blame Bush and Cheney stuff is getting old: those guys have been out of office for nearly 18 months.
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