PHOTOS, PAGE 1

       Editor and prime reporter is Doug Terry, a veteran television and radio reporter in   Washington, DC, (details below)

Okay, has this gone on long enough? Seems like BP has tried everything but putting a giant soda bottle cap in the well head a mile deep in the Gulf and nothing is working. They are making one more try this Wednesday, but after that it is time, past time, really, for Obama to step up and get this deal done.

How can the White House force a solution when none has been developed so far? How can people who are not oil experts help resolve a situation that has continued for over a month? First, they can sit in on the meetings and listen carefully, evaluating the options. Then, they can help select the option that has the best chance of working by talking to the engineers and sifting through the data.

The danger in stepping in is that Obama makes this disaster his rather than theirs. The problem is that if he waits long enough, it becomes his disaster anyway. He is quickly approaching a fork in the road where he loses no matter what. As Yogi Bera used to say, “When you come to a fork in the road, take it”.

It is not just a matter of being in charge but also one of looking like he is in charge. This oil spill is serious. It is not some minor distraction apart from the other major problems facing the nation. How long can this go on? How long can we tolerate a well blasting who knows how many barrels of oil per day into the ocean? What happens if this disaster spreads all over the Gulf, from Mexico down to the tip of Florida and over to Cuba?

All in all, it is better to have Obama in the White House at this point rather than  Bush, the oil man and all his oil buddies, like Cheney. If they were still in power, the lower estimates of gushing oil on the sea floor would probably be all we’d know. They, along with the oil industry, would be playing the whole thing down and telling us to go shopping or something.

This oil “spill” (the word seems vastly inadequate), is a warning that no one really knows how to handle wells at such depth. The technology has been developed to sink those wells, but, it is painfully apparent every day, we don’t have the means to deal with problems if and when they develop. Yet, ever deeper wells, farther and farther from the shoreline, are planned.

Who would have ever imagined that the well would still be gushing more or less full force more than a month after it started? Every day is bad news for the oil industry and those who think offshore wells are a wonderful thing. If Obama doesn’t step in and help resolve this situation, he could soon have a big metaphorical oil slick surrounding the White House. That would be an ugly mess.

5.24.10

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