Frustration with Obama's Non-leadership on Gulf Spill Grows

In a parallel example of Barack Obama's form of no leadership "leadership," residents on the Gulf Coast are pretty much over the Obama administration's "leave it all to BP" approach to the growing disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. They rightfully feel that British Petroleum created the disaster and seems none to concerned that people's livelihoods and the regions environment is being destroyed. This disaster needs to be treated as a national emergency, yet no sense of urgency seems to have gripped the White House and BP is still being allowed to call the shots. It's all more than just a little ass backwards. Here are some highlights from the Washington Post which echo coverage on last nights news shows on MSNBC, including Rachel Maddow's show:
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The tenuous alliance among the Obama administration, the oil firm BP and Gulf Coast officials was visibly fraying on Monday, with exasperation on all sides mounting as oil from a deep-water gusher began lapping at the region's environmentally fragile shoreline.
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On the coast, local officials complained that Washington has been too slow in helping them hold back the oil. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) said that the administration has not provided enough equipment -- including booms, skimmers, vacuums and barges -- and that it has stood in the way of his proposal to erect artificial barrier islands. Federal officials say that latter plan needs more study.
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"BP is the responsible party, but we need the federal government to make sure that they are held accountable and that they are indeed responsible. Our way of life depends on it," Jindal said at a news conference in Galliano, La., with Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.
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Even in one of the few areas where the government has publicly tried to overrule BP -- over its choice of chemical dispersants -- it has not gotten its way. Last week, the Environmental Protection Agency told BP that it had 24 hours to find a less toxic alternative to the chemical it had been using to break up the oil. The company, however, replied that no alternatives are available in large enough quantities to deal with the spill.
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[N]o matter how culpable BP is found to be, there will be questions about the government's responsibility as well. It is now apparent that BP did not have an effective plan for dealing with a large spill, despite its assertion in a March 2009 exploration plan submitted to the Minerals Management Service that it could handle a "worst-case scenario" blowout that produced 300,000 gallons a day.
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That the blowout came only weeks after Obama announced a plan to expand offshore drilling is an accident of timing that is inconvenient politically, but also a point on which the president has expressed dismay internally. In announcing and defending his drilling decision, he repeatedly stressed that the technology the oil industry uses is safe. But from the beginning of the crisis, the administration has run into a different reality when it comes to the risks of deep-water drilling.