Many of us have been observing the messy oil spill that has been hogging up the headlines over the past several weeks. It doesn't seem to be getting any better, and with each passing day, the Obama administration is left looking worse and worse. This political slop is all at the hands of British Petroleum (BP), the company responsible for creating this mess.

The reason the Obama administration is being made to look politically impotent is because this oil spill has drenched our collective conscience with another uncomfortable reality about America: Politics is heavily and uncomfortably controlled by money. While every politician is the first in line to argue that he or she is not in the pockets of big oil, it's very difficult to hold that position when you are actually forced to prove it. By allowing oil to ruin our shores and destroy the lives of millions of Americans, BP is practically daring Obama to stand up to them, forcing his administration to back down whenever it does.


Why are they backing down? Well, let's see. Exxon, the largest company in the oil and gas industry, earned $40 billion in profits last year. Yes, that's profits, not revenue. In case you're wondering, that's more money than any company has ever earned in the history of the entire world. BP, Exxon's baby brother, earned $16 billion in profits last year. Therefore, BP earns roughly $44 million per day, and when you bring home that kind of bacon, politicians fear you worse than the mafia.

This oil spill is not only embarrassing to the administration and sad to watch, it's going to be made more painful by the fact that some expect it to last all summer. Many experts estimate that oil is going to spill for several more months, keeping this issue on our TV screens until football season. With every news segment about how badly the oil has destroyed the shores of the gulf, there will be a follow-up interview with some poor fisherman who has lost his entire life savings because of the tragedy. Each of these interviews will make the Obama administration appear that much weaker and incompetent in the face of such an embarrassing corporate debacle. Right now, anyone and everyone responsible for cleaning up this spill is being made to look like the Keystone Kops.

Critics on the right will try to ridicule Obama's inability to step in handle the situation, even though they know they would be doing the same thing he's doing right now. While Democrats get quite a bit of money from oil companies, the Republican party accepts three times as much. Critics on the left, many of whom wanted to believe that Obama loves the environment as much as they do, are going to wonder why he isn't sticking it to BP and shutting it down the way it has irresponsibly shut down so many American businesses. But sorry, my friends. Obama isn't the bleeding heart liberal you thought he was. He is part of the establishment, meaning that he's got about as much political flexibility as a redwood tree.

Who's going to be left holding the bag? The American taxpayer. BP will ruin our coastline and pay some kind of fine, but most of the expense is going to be picked up by the rest of us. According to the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, the maximum liability that can be faced by an oil company during a spill is $75 million. Yes, that's less than two days worth of profits for BP, meaning that after this spill is over, it's going to be business as usual. Energy companies have more power than the government can ever effectively combat, so this oil spill is a wide-open education on the state of American politics.

Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition and the author of the new book 'Black American Money.' To have Dr. Boyce's commentary delivered to your e-mail, please click here.