Now what?

The president of the United States took to the airwaves last evening to once again put his marker down on how he views the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. It seems every day that passes, the storyline surrounding the leak gets worse, not better. So I don’t blame the president for trying to manage this mess from the Oval Office. He really doesn’t have much of a choice.

I and many Americans could do without the usual blame finger pointing back to years ago and previous administrations, but hey, Rahm told the POTUS it’s a free swing, so he might as well take it, right?

The question many are asking today is the same one they asked following Obama’s previous trips to the Gulf and other “major” announcements coming out of the White House: Now what? What can this government do to help plug this damn hole?
 
This is gut-check time for the White House. They need to walk a fine line of appearing empathetic with the Gulf region, looking tough with BP, and yet sooner or later, someone needs to start spewing some alarming facts and owning up to them. Instead of 1,000 barrels of oil leaking per day, as was originally estimated, the number is more like 60,000 per day. And there doesn’t appear to be any relief in sight. When is someone from the government going to spell out those sobering statistics and what they all mean? Better than that, how about redirecting some stimulus dollars to put more boots on the ground for the cleanup effort? When that’s finished, send BP the bill. Finally, let’s get the Department of Commerce engaged. You heard right. They have a major division of tourism, let’s get them working with the affected states and sparking some interest again in tourism and travel to the Gulf.
 
I guess I’m disappointed in the administration because it seems Obama is more interested in managing news cycles than the oil crisis. Dropping nuggets every day to feed the media beast may keep Washington satiated, but Gulf Coast residents need more than Churchillian rhetoric to help them get through these dark days.

Williams can be heard daily on Sirius/XM Power 169 from 9 to 10 p.m.

Visit www.armstrongwilliams.com.