Artful Dodger: oh he will probably take it out of the 30billion he is asking/getting/or has been offered from BP....

Bernice: Obama sat on his hands for nearly 60 days. I think he let this disaster get as bad as it could get so he could play the tough guy and then pass some of his controversial ideas.

Artful Dodger: This kinda reminds me of why I don't like someone buying me dinner.You feel inhibited from ordering what might be the best, but most pricey items on the menu,and can't really complain if you don't enjoy the meal.........Obama has traded the right to call the shots for BP paying the tab on the fixit job and clean up, no matter how lousy a job they do.

Jim Dandy: Obama shirked his responsibility early on in this whole mess. There were things he could do but his administration sat on their hands. That part is clear. Now he's acting (playing politics) all though. Even Chris Matthews is critical of him.

Artful Dodger: How is he playing politics?

Jim Dandy: The Obama administration's response to the oil spill was slow. Even when he did begin to get involved, the efforts of the feds has been disorganized and inefficient. The politics he's playing has to do with the clean up and NOT the spill. It's OUR shores and OUR fishing waters and OUR recreational waters that are affected. So it's up the US (as in the Federal Government) to be sure things are being done aggressively to contain this disaster.

Obama and company did NOT do that. They are just now taking aggressive action. And at every opportunity, Obama is vilifying BP. That is not to say BP isn't at fault here. I think they clearly are. But grandstanding and making promises to kick someone's ass is a political move and not a move of a leader trying to offer viable solutions.

Obama is moving toward passage of some of his energy policies and he's doing so on the back of this oil spill. There is speculation that he and his administration have deliberately allowed the spill to get worse so that it would yield more political advantage. I think this is true. The evidence of this is Obama's current pressure on legislators to pass some of his more controversial legislation.

Obama has never been a fan of huge oil companies. And clearly he's using this crisis to his political advantage. I'm not saying Republicans don't do the same. They do. But Obama is president now and he's the man in charge so ultimately he's the only one that matters at the moment.

Artful Dodger: OMG... If BP had not corners then there would be NO accident. You cannot blame Obama for BP trying to do the job on the cheap. BP ignored safety warnings from their own engineers, they ignored safety warnings from their contractors.

Tuesday: I don't get parts of the mess over that event.. over here if there is a natural disaster then county (state to you guys) lines vanish.

(V): There was PLENTY Obama could have done AFTER the spill but he did NOTHING. I'll list them later. I'll also get specific on Jim's question.

Artful Dodger: You are still ignoting the point that BP caused the accident by ignoring safety advice by their experts

... this is not a mistake by government but by a private sector company who cut costs. Is there documentation that Obama told them to cut costs... no.

(V): I'm not ignoring that fact. I've know BP caused the accident through negligence from the start. But Obama did nothing in the first 60 days.

Artful Dodger: I didn't know you bugged the Oval office!!