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On Spill, We Need 'Barack and Tony Show'

The president and BP's CEO should be allies, at least for now

By John Johnson, Newser Staff

Posted Jun 16, 2010 2:32 PM CDT

(Newser) – Great, President Obama finally met face to face today with BP's Tony Hayward. Only about 6 weeks too late, complains Steven Pearlstein. These guys should have realized from day one that "they were in this mess together," he writes in the Washington Post. Obama has been publicly hostile toward Hayward, but his attitude should have been, "Your guys screwed up, my guys screwed up, so we better both roll up our sleeves and fix this thing before we're both out of a job."

There's plenty of time after the hole is finally plugged for the blame game. "This needs to be the Barack and Tony Show, not the Barack and Tony Showdown," writes Pearlstein. "Barack and Tony on the phone with each other debating options, hashing through conflicting priorities and filling in each other's to-do lists." Why? "Because it is important to demonstrate that the adults are in charge and that they're not wasting time, attention, or energy pointing fingers or covering their political or corporate backsides."

BP CEO Tony Hayward arrives at the White House. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

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On Spill, We Need 'Barack and Tony Show'

The president and BP's CEO should be allies, at least for now

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President Obama • British Petroleum • Gulf oil spill • Tony Hayward • oil spill cleanup

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Prez wants all oil industry workers compensated

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