Hit or Mess

The Obama administration has faltered just as poorly on the Gulf of Mexico disaster, even more badly in fact, than the last Bush administration did in handling Hurricane Katrina. But unlike the Bush team which simply tried to manage a deadly, destructive act of God, Team Obama has bungled a negligent act of man but is determined to make political hay through the tragedy. When Barack Hussein Obama speaks tonight, expect him to make some more "the buck stops here" noises while deflecting blame back to the oil industry, but more importantly, look for him to use the crisis to advance terminal regulation against petroleum that will cripple domestic drilling, add to already epic unemployment in the beleaguered Gulf states, still rebuilding from Katrina even before this, and to exploit the BP spill further by using it to advance the formerly moribund cap and trade scheme. After all, was it not Rahm Emanuel, President Obama's own Chief of Staff who said "never let a good crisis go to waste"?