Hayward’s Yachting Vs. Obama’s Golfing
More public relations trouble for embattled BP CEO Tony Hayward, pictured above enjoying the weekend on a yacht in the English Channel. With the oil spill far from under control, the sailing photos have sparked outrage — including from within the Obama White House. Meanwhile, President Obama played golf yesterday, prompting some Republicans to question the president's own leisure time. BP defended Hayward's day off, just as the White House defends the president's. So tonight, we ask you: Is it a fair comparison? Does either man deserve a day off? Tell us what you think. Embedded below is White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel on "This Week" criticizing Hayward's PR problem.
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Hipocrosy at its finest for the Whitehouse to protest BP’s exec for a day on a sail boat after their Congress beat him up the day prior and he was reassigned. Meanwhile the president needs yet more vacation time….
Posted by: Frank | June 22, 2010, 12:12 am 12:12 am
When’s the day off yachting or golfing for all the families in the Gulf?! Or can the people who lost someone get their loved ones back for a day?! Or can any of the wildlife or the environment get away from the oil for even one day?!
Tony Hayward makes me absolutely SICK and Obama is starting to lose points with me,too…like he is with alot of people!
Posted by: Nancy | June 22, 2010, 12:12 am 12:12 am
The President of the United States never has a day off. In a few hours of golf, the country will not fall apart.
The CEO of BP can’t take a day off when his company is destroying the coastlines and waters of another country. He can take some time with his family, on his estate, but he is not allowed to go yachting with other millionaires in the clean waters of the UK.
Posted by: C Lee | June 22, 2010, 12:22 am 12:22 am
It takes four hours to play a round of golf. Also, the President didn’t make tens of millions of dollars last year, gush millions of gallons of oil on water and then go home to his clean water, on another continent. It’s Hayward’s fault, Obama’s problem. I understand why Obama still has his job, but why does Tony Hayward still make 100,000 dollars a day at BP?
Posted by: patty | June 22, 2010, 12:36 am 12:36 am
This is so unbelievable that I almost do not belive it. It is as if a big joke was being played. Did anything else go on over the last few days that Obama needed a distraction. He would know that going golfing with Hayward yachting would draw a lot of fire. Did some really bad bill get signed over the weekend?
Was it to distract us from the eleven US Warships transiting the Suez Canal to Persian Gulf? Did you know that the fleet is the first of this composition to navigate the Suez Canal, and is led by the USS Harry Truman carrier and its Strike Group of 60 fighter-bombers and 6,000 seamen and marines. Maybe it is just me but um, what is going on? Huh?
Posted by: Bulldog | June 22, 2010, 12:38 am 12:38 am
C Lee, you need to cut back on the Koolaid. You might be the only person that misunderstands the situation.
Did you know that Obama had ample opportunity wineing and dining and dating and movie stars, and singers and entertaining? The only way I see your assessmet working is that Obama needed golf to get a break from being on a break???
Posted by: Bulldog | June 22, 2010, 12:42 am 12:42 am
I refuse to believe that Obama is so oblivious that he thought golfing was a good idea. Something else is amiss.
Posted by: Bulldog | June 22, 2010, 12:46 am 12:46 am
The mr. obama has had more time off than any other sitting president in the history of the United States. He gave Elton John more time than the Govenor of Arizona! This alone should tell you that he is not committed to doing the job at hand.
Posted by: Yvonne Palomo | June 22, 2010, 12:46 am 12:46 am
There is not a comparison between playing a round of golf and attending the yacht race.
It is just nonsense to expect the President not to play golf on a Sunday.
But then most of what gets discussed is nonsense.
Posted by: JDS | June 22, 2010, 12:54 am 12:54 am
Hayward has been reassigned and not to
be up front so much, so why shouldn’t he
go to the yaucht race, it was probably
planned long before the oil spill and he
needed to be there.
Obama could care less about America
or us citizens. He is just a “celebrity”
he has not a clue as to what it means to
be president. And his “getting tough” on
BP is not going to help the situation.
Posted by: swedest | June 22, 2010, 12:55 am 12:55 am
Where is the outrage about the oil
leak in Utah, sure keeping it quiet.
Because it is Chevron and not BP ?
Why aren’t you reporting on it everyday?
Posted by: swedest | June 22, 2010, 12:57 am 12:57 am
Where is the outrage over the ocean
being ruined and wildlife being killed
by all the trash, plastic bottles etc.
That crisis is just as bad as the oil, and it is caused by everyone. I think bottled water should be banned.
People need to learn to take care of
our environment, but we live in such a
“ME” society that it will never happen.
Posted by: swedest | June 22, 2010, 1:00 am 1:00 am
It’s an insult and an outrage to hear that Hayward is floating around the
English Channel on a sail boat and Obama is playing golf when the good people of the Gulf coast’s world is coming to an end.This tells me where these men’s hearts and minds really are and they could care less… but are any of us really surprised by this. This country has gone to H in a hand basket.Wake up America and lets make sure Obama does not get re elected.Hayward should not be allowed back in this country.He has proven himself worthless in this situation anyway.
Posted by: marilyn | June 22, 2010, 1:04 am 1:04 am
Obama is the President of the United States. No, he doesn’t get time to sleep when his top priority is this nation. What’s happening in the Gulf is awful. Granted, the USA government doesn’t have powers greater than BP to clog the leak, but at least do something. Give us hope that EVEN though this thing will probably last until August it could change. Isn’t that is campaign slogan? Hope? You have innocent, beautiful, rare, unique creatures in that water and wetlands. The Gulf holds the most beautiful beaches in the world. NO. Obama doesn’t get a break. He can have a break in September or after it ends. Don’t get me started on Tony Hayward. He’s completely void of the sensitivity chip. Reality needs to kick the yacht master in the butt. End the spill, end the destruction of the gulf and wetlands, and the murder of these animals.
Posted by: Amy | June 22, 2010, 1:16 am 1:16 am
What else did you expect from a Kenyan-born, Marxist-raised Narcissist? Hayward is a PRIVATE CITIZEN…Obuma…is SUPPOSE to be OUR PRESIDENT. He doesn’t have a clue. Maybe he’d be a good community organizer…or Professor..???
Posted by: Alpha | June 22, 2010, 2:02 am 2:02 am
People are freaks if they don’t think the President didn’t deserve to take the day off for Father’s Day!! I’m sure he didn’t have all day off like most dads. He has met with who he needs to meet with and talked to who he needs to talk to. He delegates authority out that’s what a leader is suppose to do!! I’m sure they are keeping him up to date constantly. Why is everyone blaming Obama for an oil spill?? They need more regulations and a relief stand by well for every offshore drilling rig. Before and after playing golf how do we know he wasn’t dealing with the oil spill and other things. Some people just want to blame someone and it’s BP and lack of regulations due to previous administrations. Some people just Hate Obama and nothing he does is gonna be ok to them. Why is it when something goes wrong everyone wants the President or govt. to fix it but the same people are always also saying Govt doesn’t do anything they need to stay out of businesses. You can’t have it both ways!! The Govt shouldn’t be responsible for everything. People should be up in arms for cleaner fuel out of Corn so farmers can make a killing like some oil companies. Alternative energy should be a major agenda because of this!!
Posted by: Maryann | June 22, 2010, 2:02 am 2:02 am
No, neither of these creepy turkeys deserves a day off. Hayward is a wasted human being. If he was not willing to work seven days and nights a week, he should have not accepted the CEO position at BP, Those hours are supposed to go with the territory.
The same goes for Obama and even more so. It is an implied understanding that if you accept the US presidency, you will do nothing but work non-stop for the next four years. If you are not willing to make this commitment, you have no business accepting the position. You should let someone else have the job, who will get in there and work those hours for the American people.
The country is in the saddest shape it has been in my lifetime, and it is getting worse by the minute. The condition of the country is abominable and Obamanable. We need the nationalized, single-payer universal healthcare system that Obama promised us to get himself elected. What a liar!
We need access for all Americans to the federal pension system now. We need the economy fixed and jobs created now. We need our highways repaired now. We need failing infrastructure repaired now. We need our borders secured now. We need swarming illegal alien invasion from Mexico stopped now. We need illegal aliens in the country removed now. We need the oil spill stopped and cleaned up now.
Obama’s miserable failure on these things means we need Obama impeached now. Wake up America!
Many of us work all our waking hours just to stay employed and make ends meet. Thanks to Obama, our futures look more bleak and hopeless than ever before.
Why in the hell does Obama think we put him office and pay him a huge salary? It is not for him to play gulf and have tea with celebrities. The one decent thing that he could do at this point in time is to just resign in disgrace and go away.
Posted by: Proud Native American and Angry Independent Voter | June 22, 2010, 2:03 am 2:03 am
here we go again blaming Obama for Everything just another Obama hater so nothing he does is ever going to satisfy you. The President has lots of things to worry about besides the gulf spill. What do yall people think he is only suppose to deal with one issue. He deals with hundreds everyday we can’t even think of and you want to criticize him for taking time to clear his head for a few hours on Father’s day!! This is not Obama’s fault!!! It was BP’s and still is BP’s!!!
Posted by: Maryann | June 22, 2010, 2:13 am 2:13 am
I could really care less if either of them took a day off. The break would have probably been good for both of them. Maybe it would have helped them to both think clearer. What bothers me is that the White House contributed to this stupid debate.
Posted by: FFrosie | June 22, 2010, 2:40 am 2:40 am
Proud Native American–( It is an implied understanding that if you accept the US presidency, you will do nothing but work non-stop for the next four years. If you are not willing to make this commitment, you have no business accepting the position. You should let someone else have the job, who will get in there and work those hours for the American people.)–Can you name me one president that has done this??
–( We need the nationalized, single-payer universal healthcare system that Obama promised us to get himself elected. What a liar!)–He didn’t promise this, it was one of the things he really wanted but the Republicans fought him and made him drop it!!!
–We need access for all Americans to the federal pension system now. We need the economy fixed and jobs created now. We need our highways repaired now. We need failing infrastructure repaired now. We need our borders secured now. We need swarming illegal alien invasion from Mexico stopped now. We need illegal aliens in the country removed now. We need the oil spill stopped and cleaned up now.)–Of all this stuff you listed we needed in the last administrations as well except for the oil spill.
–Many of us work all our waking hours just to stay employed and make ends meet. Thanks to Obama, our futures look more bleak and hopeless than ever before.)–Well you can Thank Mr. former President Bush for this falling apart, this all started in his administration. Obama inherited this worsening economy. It takes more than a year to turn this kind of crap around.
Just an Obama Hater so it’s all his fault that’s the only way you will ever see it. Some people wear blinders.
Posted by: Maryann | June 22, 2010, 2:41 am 2:41 am
Proud Native American–( It is an implied understanding that if you accept the US presidency, you will do nothing but work non-stop for the next four years. If you are not willing to make this commitment, you have no business accepting the position. You should let someone else have the job, who will get in there and work those hours for the American people.)
–Can you name me one president that has done this??
–( We need the nationalized, single-payer universal healthcare system that Obama promised us to get himself elected. What a liar!)
–He didn’t promise this, it was one of the things he really wanted but the Republicans fought him and made him drop it!!!
–We need access for all Americans to the federal pension system now. We need the economy fixed and jobs created now. We need our highways repaired now. We need failing infrastructure repaired now. We need our borders secured now. We need swarming illegal alien invasion from Mexico stopped now. We need illegal aliens in the country removed now. We need the oil spill stopped and cleaned up now.)
–Of all this stuff you listed we needed in the last administrations as well except for the oil spill.
–Many of us work all our waking hours just to stay employed and make ends meet. Thanks to Obama, our futures look more bleak and hopeless than ever before.)
–Well you can Thank Mr. former President Bush for this falling apart, this all started in his administration. Obama inherited this worsening economy. It takes more than a year to turn this kind of crap around.
Just an Obama Hater so it’s all his fault that’s the only way you will ever see it. Some people wear blinders.
Posted by: Maryann | June 22, 2010, 2:45 am 2:45 am
You can’t compare. President of the USA has uber more responsibilities than ANY narrowly defined corporate CEO job. Just look at their respective budgets if you’re ANY kind of capitalist. BP is puny pimple in comparison to the USA. BP right now is fighting for their life. At first I thought Tony Hayward was a nice guy, but what has come to light about BP’s shabby safety record, and Hayward’s Congressional performance “I don’t know what’s going on in my own company” when he’s been in it for 29 years was the most incredible insult (no, it was a flipping of the bird) to the American public. It’s an insult to our form of government by a corporate class snob who should go on trial in an American courtroom and serve time in an American jail. They know exactly the kinds of risks they were taking by ignoring our regulatory laws regarding safe operations. Fortunately the UK has extradition treaties withe US.
Posted by: Rob Gworek | June 22, 2010, 3:08 am 3:08 am
Neither one of them have any idea what they are doing or how to resolve this disaster so perhaps it is better for them to go play and let someone who has some idea of how to correct the problem get to work. All Obama does is fein anger and hurl insults/blame at others. (As my Daddy used to say ‘He is as useless as tits on a boar hog’), Hayward is obviously a suit who looks good but has no real authority and/or a clue about what is really going on. They are both perfect examples of the Peter Principle. They should both be on a permenant vacation. I KNOW that can be arranged.
Posted by: Pamela | June 22, 2010, 3:37 am 3:37 am
How stupid does the media really think we are? On last night’s evening propaganda (that is, “news”), they were showing a fleet of skimmers on the Gulf (and after only 3 months of the oil spill!), and had some idiot from the Obama administration taunting Tony Hayward ( “if Tony Hayward wants to bring his skimmer down here we’ll appreciate the help”).My God , what a crock of B.S. These liars and their media helpers are actually trying to convinced us that the “president” has been on the job all this time and BP has done nothing. This is the OPPOSITE
of reality! They (The media and the Obama “people”) have rewritten reality from the beginning of his entire campaign. Obama had absolutely NO experience in an executive capacity, but the media portrayed more experienced opponents as unprepared and somehow gave the message that even with no experienced Obama was more prepared. Guess what-He’s not. Yet they still believe if they play politics and try to change the subject by focusing on blaming someone else, the stupid public will buy into the lie.
Posted by: phil | June 22, 2010, 9:13 am 9:13 am
You people elected Obama because he could speak well. Of course it’s being demonstrated that a lot of what he said wasn’t true. The point is, he has NO experience at governing, He has no experience in administration. He has never held an executive position, and YOU PEOPLE…yes, you too, Mary Ann, elected someone president simply because he’s good at delivering speeches with rhythmic buzzwords and catch phrases. Well, that’s what he’s still doing. That’s what you elected him for, isn’t it? It’s YOUR fault..YOU elected him.
Posted by: phil | June 22, 2010, 10:39 am 10:39 am
I see no issue with BP CEO’s yachting or Obama’s golfing. What do people want? BP CEO worrying about it every second? Gimme a break.
I bet you some people complaining are probably refusing to pay their mortgage and spending money on weekend activites like eating out in a restaurant and stuff. Again, nothing wrong with that.
And for reference, Bush was doing plenty of golfing while thousands of soldiers were killed in Iraq War.
Posted by: Greenspam | June 22, 2010, 11:07 am 11:07 am
A segment of Obama haters are racists, that’s a fact. No racist will come out and say, “I am a racist, so I hate Obama”. However, if the hate is irrational and people choose to mischaracterize everything and equate Obama to a Nazi, then, if it smells like an irrational racist, it barks like an irrational racist, then it probably is an irrational racist.
Just calling it the way I see it.
Posted by: Greenspam | June 22, 2010, 11:09 am 11:09 am
There is no problem either of them taking some time off. In fact, I would not mind if Mr. Obama attended the Stanley cup to see his home team win. We talk of Multi- tasking all the time. What is important is the commitment by BP to restore the damage which I believe BP has agreed to. Just because there is 24-7 news feed as to what these people do every second it does not mean we need to question every thing they do. They are human and they need to have some time to revive. They are both dealing with the oil spill catastrophe in different ways. being away one day does not take their burden of responsibility away from them.
Going further, there are many companies in the same business as BP and none of them had a back up plan for this scenario. It is easy to point the finger at BP for negligence but this could have happened elsewhere and none of them would have ever asked the “what if” question and had a back up plan.
It is not a time to point fingers at anyone. It is a time to take responsibility. Realize that it is important to ask the “What if” questions and do everything possible to avert a disaster of this nature in the future and if for some reason it happens, to know what would be a back-up plan.
Also for those who take pleasure in bashing BP, I would say not so fast. I don’t own BP shares and I know many hard working Americans do. They would have a few shares as a secure saving towards their retirement or they may have contributed to IRA’s that may have invested in BP. So lets get focused on the problem and the solution and not be shot sighted.
Posted by: Priyani Anandakrishnan | June 22, 2010, 12:51 pm 12:51 pm
Tony Hayward is the CEO of BP and doesn’t deserve a break, Obama is not.
Do you expect Obama to be working around the clock, 24 hours a day on the country’s problems? Does he not deserve an hour or two to take a deep breath? Come on now, be realistic.
Posted by: Sherrell | June 22, 2010, 4:43 pm 4:43 pm
This clearly suggests just an irresponsible attitude esablished by the WH and the minions within. What reason was there the WH press couldnt simply NOT COMMENT and instead divert precious print to a non-issue as hobbies ?
Theres one set of rules to judge the rest of the world but another to judge select American people, if at all they are willing to be judged.
The goal posts keep shifting and whilst I dont deny either man deserves a chance to relax knowing that delegations are in place – why judge each with different parameters ?
The bottom line is the WH wont rest until this unfortunate accident and disastrous impact results in one possible outcome i.e. BP hands over the keys and the company is renamed BARRACK PETROLEUM.
The press is as guilty of supporting a policy to shoot first and ask questions later and this is defining the Amercian identify.
Posted by: tee | June 23, 2010, 2:55 am 2:55 am
The WH could have just refused to comment instead to support its irresponsible policy of establish one set of rules for the American Elite and another for all the others.
I dont deny either man a chance to recharge but why shift goal posts ? The press is guilt of fanning the flames wider irresponsibility.
As unfortunate and distressed as situation in GOM – name one contribution from the WH other than a pair of boots ?
Finally the WH minions have been succesful in establishing a new American Identify – Trigger Happy Hippocrites. The WH wont rest until BP simply hands over the company key and the company is renamed BARACK PETROLEUM.
Posted by: tee | June 23, 2010, 3:16 am 3:16 am
The more time Obama spends golfing the fewer pieces of idiotic legislation he is promoting and signing. Please, Mr. Obama, go sailing with Tony Hayward. In fact, go explore Mars while you’re at it.
Posted by: GB | June 23, 2010, 2:26 pm 2:26 pm
nice post just what i was looking for i always like to hear other perpectives and thanks for sharing ,In your blog i found so many intresting thing whch i want, i have a lot of intrest in boats and i like traveling. so your post gives me a lot of enjoy
Posted by: yacht boat | September 23, 2010, 8:18 am 8:18 am
There is not a comparison between playing a round of golf and attending the yacht race.
Posted by: Yacht Crew | January 7, 2011, 1:21 am 1:21 am