"Monster in the Gulf" -- Is BP Obama's Katrina?

More than five weeks have passed since the offshore rig Deepwater Horizon exploded and sank in the Gulf of Mexico, claiming the lives of eleven men. As oil continues to billow beneath the surface from BP’s damaged well, political blood has been spreading in the water as well.

Consider the rhetoric that spilled onto the airways today:

“The President has hired everything in Washington. Someone has convinced them that BP is their partner. They’re not their partner. We need some action here.” (James Carville)

“Why does it take the President 37 days, 38 days? . . . He’ll be there on Day 39.” (John King/CNN)

“We were dealt an untruth by the Corps of Engineers, another group that’s paid with our tax dollars. How much more are we going to put up with?” (Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser)

“We’ve started taking matters into our own hands.” (Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal)

Negative comments, all. We might expect as much from the Republican politicians represented above. But from a Democratic consultant, and the host of a CNN news show? Just how big a disaster is this disaster shaping up to be for President Obama?

The environmental damage is not only gargantuan, but without discernible limit. The “Monster in the Gulf” bloats daily, like a sea-going version of Blob. The BP/Deepwater Horizon blowout has grown to 19 million gallons, perhaps as high as 39 million gallons. BP has now surpassed 1989’s Exxon Valdez as the coastline oil disaster of preeminence.

Inescapably, the current occupant of the White House is taking the heat. President Obama will travel to Louisiana this Friday—the “39th day,” as John King reminded us on his show—and today the President framed his administration’s response this way at a press conference:

“The American people should know that from the moment this disaster began, the federal government has been in charge of the response effort.”

Those words certainly have a “the buck stops here” sound to them. Yet the American people can’t help but notice that this is the President’s first news conference in 308 days.

President Obama—like President Bush before him during the Katrina disaster—would do well to remember the words of Theodore Roosevelt, an earlier Chief Executive who once said: “I have a perfect horror of words that are not backed up by deeds.”