Reading this (hattip: Instapundit) pretty much cements in my mind how Obama should have dealt with the spill. He should have been straight from the start- explaining that the process was going to be long, that there would be horrible ecological damage, that the federal government itself could not stop the leak but would do whatever is necessary to aid BP in getting the leak closed. That, in addition to the technology and know how, BP had all the incentive in the world to plug the leak. That now was not the time for the government to start investigations- the time for that would be after the leak was stopped.
Treat us like adults, in other words.
The problem, from my perspective, is that he’s been opportunistic- trying to figure out how to twist the outcome to his advantage. Thus, we get statements about “boots on the neck” and the like. Further, his base won’t hear that BP’s incentive is to plug the leak. So any kind of statement from him to the contrary will only piss them off. Modern politicians just don’t piss off their base. At least, not by telling them to sit down and be quiet.
It’ll be interesting to see what happens if the latest attempts at stopping the leak are successful. Will he try to glom up credit by claiming he was whipping BP behind the scenes or something?