My Take on the Oil Spill

What shouldn't be a political football at all of course is, given our polarized partisan country.

As is my custom, I try to sift through what information is available and figure out what seems most likely to be true.

In this case, it would seem that these contributing factors are more likely true than false:

The accident probably could have been prevented or at least mitigated had BP been more responsible with safety standards.

Since there has never been an accident on this scale with a deepwater rig, BP was caught flat-footed without a clear plan to deal with it.

The President didn't even pay attention to the problem until the oil started washing up on gulf coast shores.

The ususal left-wing zealots, who hold themselves up as the protectors of the environment, cheered the disaster, proclaiming that "God must be a Democrat!". Pretty heartless toward the rig workers who died and the thousands of gulf coast folks who will be harmed by the whole event.

Some of the things I wonder about, being a lay person who knows next to nothing about deep sea oil rigs:

The "Top Kill" approach, which may or may not be working to stop the oil spill today, is something even I would have at least suggested. It isn't a hard concept to understand. So why did it take over a month for one of the "geniuses" down in the gulf to suggest it?

A moratorium on further deep water drilling would seem to be a reasonable response. But when issued by Obama, the suspicion is that he'll simply make it permanent because he will claim that the oil companies never satisfactorily proved to him they've learned from the accident and know how to make sure it never happens again.

Of course, if Bush were still president and made the same decision, the Right would be OK with it, but the Left would assume he will wait a few weeks or month before lifting the moratorium, whether or not BP learned from their mistakes.

Is it possible both might have some truth to them?

Obama dithered, of course. If the "Top Kill" works, he's already positioned himself to take credit for it, despite the obvious fact he had nothing to do with it.

The MMS and Interior Departments proved themselves to be incompetent bureaucrats. What exactly is new there? The attempts by Dems to try to suggest that's Bush's fault, in the face of the facts that the agencies are led and staffed by Obama appointees is jaw-droppingly ludicrous.

What a decent President, who is a true leader would have done:

Within the first 24 hours, he would have immediately convened experts from the industry to analyze the accident and work on strategies to minimize its impact.

He would have created a team to immediately commence containment operations while preparing for the "Top Kill" procedure.

Much of the oil would now be contained, and the leak plugged weeks ago.

But Obama's clearly not that kind of leader.

He ignored it for a couple of weeks, then when he did start paying any attention at all, it was only to threaten BP.

How much longer until we see $4 or $5 gas?

Probably very soon.