I don't see Obama's administration as having any culpability in the BP disaster. Too new and likely only recently learned that MMS has been in bed with the industry since day one. That's makes Congress (as an institution) and numerous prior administrations culpable for not requiring better regulatory oversight. That doesn't mean that better oversight would prevent oil well explosions; it only means that better oversight would reduce the frequency of such events. Total prevention probably requires zero offshore drilling, which is a different subject.

I'm puzzled by all the gov't. activity over the oil leak. The administration needs to send the memo that neither the government nor anyone else, including BP, knows what to do or how to stop the leak. Instead, in order to appear presidential and doing something, numerous federal agencies have diverted tons of staff to LA in regards to the spill. Except for a few that can actually contribute something useful, what I'm hearing is that hundreds, maybe thousands, of federal employees who have been sent to the Gulf attend daily briefings. That's it. They attend meetings and are briefed about the latest goings-on. But they aren't actually doing anything to solve the problem. Not that they wouldn't. But because they can't. Not to worry however; at least every week each Cabinet Secretary can report that he or she has sent XX federal staff to the Gulf to deal with the oil spill catastrophe, which is mostly true, except that next to no one is actually dealing with it because for the most part there is next to nothing that people can actually do that is worth doing in the long run. So scads of staff are hurrying up to look busy so that the gov't can report that it is doing everything possible to deal with the oil spill, which is also mostly true, even though those scads of people are just attending briefing meetings day in and day out.

That is my problem with gov't. The lack of intellectual honesty. I'd rather they just send those who can actually contribute to problem solving, even if it appears that it is too few, instead of sending many for appearances sake. That's my fairly non-partisan appraisal.

Sg