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Even as the oil-spill disaster plays out in the Gulf of Mexico, Americans still have a more positive view of British Petroleum than they do of Goldman Sachs, according to the new NBC/WSJ poll. While Americans see neither company in a shining light, they do see the financial firm as a worse villain. This could be comical, sad or a sign of how completely outraged people are because they feel they have been screwed over by corrupt Wall Street.
| May 2010 | Very Positive | Somewhat Positive | Neutral | Somewhat Negative | Very Negative | Don’t Know Name/ Not Sure |
| BP | 2 | 9 | 29 | 22 | 23 | 15 |
| Goldman Sachs | 1 | 3 | 21 | 19 | 31 | 25 |
That’s quite an accomplishment on the part of Goldman Sachs. The BP failure creates a massive oil spill you can see from space that will soon ruin beaches, kill wildlife and destroy fisheries. Yet people still think more of the company than they do of Goldman Sachs. Americans at least think BP provides people with a useful product, but they view Goldman Sachs as a corporation that only makes huge profits while ruining our economy.
There is still a lot of anti-Wall Street anger out there from regular people who got a raw deal in this downturn. If I were a politician run right now, I would not want to be associated with Goldman Sachs in any way. California Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Poizner seems to have reached the same conclusion with this brutal ad against primary opponent Meg Whitman.
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Of Course they do. BP is the red-headed step child of the financial crisis.
That took money out of everyone’s pocket and is the reason for the horrible state of the economy.
Americans will need to feel actual effects of the spill before the this poll to change.
Most people I talk to think the oil spill will be cleaned up in a few years and then they can go back to their Gulf Coast vacations. People are clueless.
This poll means nothing.
Like Democrats being viewed better than Republicans, that’s an EXTREMELY low bar.
Deregulation
The corporate media is soft soaping it all reporting 5,000 barrels a day.
Deregulation made it easy for the banksters to swindle the world into the Great Recession. Europe may not make it as a state and all governments lost huge resources and can barely provide services. World Political instability is following.
Which is worse is hardly the question. Congress is proposing bandaids for all these and other devastating threats to our health our wealth and our freedoms.
But what does a good impress vs. a bad impression mean? Both of these companies probably don’t care about the polling because the general public are not their audience. All they have to do is keep their real audience happy.
GS big money people and their friends in the government.
BP oil buying public and their friends in the government.
The GS people will still have hedge and pension fund people buying their products they are one of the only games in town. We know they have the government on their side.
The BP people know that oil is really fungible. They really don’t have to worry that much about people not buying gas at BP stations. They sell to the open market. They have bought off the politicians in the very states that are harmed by this.
Also BP is doing some PR damage control, better than GS, but that is just because GS knows the public’s anger means nothing as long as they have their lobbyists and lawyers. The people at BP still think that managing the public might result in a lower fine, but they will work the courts and laws harder than they will work the media.
Good ad against Whitman. But talk about a couple of phonies.
Americans are junkies of oil. They do more damage to the nation and the world than crack junkies.
Book Salon up at the Mothership with William Kleinknect’s The Man Who Sold the World: Ronald Reagan and the Betrayal of Main Street America hosted by Rick Perlstein
BP is a bunch of engineers working (after the age of easy oil) doing dangerous jobs with recently developed technologies. GS is a bunch of schemers making money exploiting tax payers (and others) via their political connections. I’m saddened that so few people are able to discern the difference.
GS&BP are a fucking disaster and I would say you can keep your sadness, and I will keep my truth, there is no discernible difference other than details, they are both murderers.
While it is royally fucked up that BP has knowingly gotten away with not protecting the environment against potential oil spill disasters like we are witnessing (again). They have stepped up to the plate and said that they will take economic responsibility for these catastrophic mistakes (although yet to be fully confirmed)
Did anyone hear anyone from Goldman Sachs or the other Wall Street fat cats do that. Hell no. They had their hands slapped and nothing has changed. They walked out of the hearings slightly humiliated and laughing all the way to their multi million dollar homes and lives.
Still no serious banking reforms
Most Americans have no idea how dangerous this so called spill is and could become. It’s not really even a spill it’s something far worse and it’s getting worse by the day. BP has really fucked here and is clueless how to fix it. This thing is a monster that could get totally out of control. Add the fact that the US Gov’t is also clueless and you have a disaster of biblical proportions building.