Up to now, I have admired Barack Obama and really wished him well, but this oil spill thing seems to be right over his head. Can you imagine this happening in Japan, or anywhere in Europe? BP might have been given one chance to fix it, but as soon as it was clear that they had no idea what they were doing (like 2 months ago), they should have been told to take a hike. All the best and brightest resources in the country – in the world – could then have been called into play, a Manhattan-style project initiated, and the thing would have been plugged in a week (2 weeks? A month? Long before now anyway!). Then they could have sent BP the bill and started whatever inquiries etc. were necessary to punish those responsible and ensure that it didn’t happen again. They would NOT have wasted time and effort shouting at BP while waiting for them to come up with another half-assed “solution” every few weeks. Obama has at his disposal the biggest military in the world, which spends a trillion bucks a year on high-tech toys to kill foreigners; the Army Corps of Engineers, who have in their day moved entire rivers, and a vast private sector who would love the chance to build a rep by showing off their skills. It’s a pipe leaking in three places for God’s sake! Is there really no one in the US who can plug it?