Obama's address to the nation on June 15th, and his follow-up the next day with concrete results were some of the first real indications that at least someone was at the wheel regarding the Gulf crisis. The speech didn't wow me... I think it fell a little short. Dailykos poster and fellow blogger Icebergslim shares some of my views. But at least he's trying. The $20 billion committment that he was able to get from BP is a start.
What happens now will depend on good policy and follow-up. I remain perturbed by the fact that BP still has control over so much of the process... that makes me a little skeptical. But I am willing to give the Obama Administration some time to get back on track (at least on this issue). As I mentioned in my comments under the speech post, the problem with waiting 4, 5, 6 weeks is that it allowed Republicans/Conservatives/Tea Party nuts to grab control of the narrative and poison public opinion. The lack of good advisers and strong PR has plagued Obama for a couple of years now...and I have been screaming about this problem online, via the blog and @ sites like the Dailykos (only to be criticized for not showing blind allegiance to Obama). The PR and media problems are issues for Democrats in general...but especially for Obama. And now it has been laid bare for all to see. The problem has always been there... but this disaster exposed it in a way that other situations had not been able to in the past.
