Last night, President Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm) declared war against the Gulf Coast Oil Disaster:

We will fight this spill with everything we’ve got for as long it takes.

Obama’s failed attempt at a Presidential Address was long on oratory and short on solutions.

The first step in his battle plan was to announce that he had asked former Mississippi Gov. Ray Mabus to develop a long-term Gulf Coast Restoration Plan, to be funded by BP PLC, in concert with local states, communities, fishermen, conservationists and residents “as soon as possible.”

Let’s take a short look at that ethical Rock of Gibraltar, Ray Mabus, shall we?

Raymond Edwin “Ray” Mabus, Jr. (born October 11, 1948) is the 75th United States Secretary of the Navy. Mabus served as the 60th Governor of the U.S. state of Mississippi from 1988 to 1992 and as United States Ambassador to Saudi Arabia from 1994 to 1996.

In 1998, Mabus secretly tape recorded conversations he had with his then-wife Julie and a priest in marital counseling sessions.  Mabus used the tapes to obtain sole legal custody of the children from that marriage. Julie (now Hines) filed suit against the reverend, his church, and the diocese. The case was the focus of media attention for issues raised relating to privacy rights in the context of churches. Mabus’s actions in the incident were not unlawful and he was not named in the suit, however, the priest left the clergy. 

Obama did not detail what this battle plan should include or how much it might cost, but I’m sure it will be in the billions of dollars. Whatever the bottom line, he declared righteously, “We will make BP pay.”

That’s not a sure thing, though. In declaring that a third party will control the compensation fund, Obama failed to mention that, ideally,  he won’t have any control of their actions. The president meets BP executives in a White House showdown today.

Fifty-seven days into the crisis, oil continues to gush from the broken wellhead, millions of gallons a day, and the fact that Obama has not done anyhing to stem the leak has raised serious doubts about his leadership and his administration’s response to what Obama has called the nation’s worst environmental disaster.

Obama also announced former Justice Department inspector general Michael Bromwich would be the new head of the Minerals Management Service.  He stated that Bromwich would be “the oil industry’s watchdog, not its partner.”  Bromich is a partner in the law firm Fried Frank’s Washington D.C. and New York offices.   Scooter also said that coming regulatory reforms would require stricter drilling safety measures and more robust spill response plans.  That might be a little problem.  Michael Bromwich has no significant experience with oil and gas issues.

Obama pledged not to rest until BP had been held accountable for all the damage the Horizon well has caused and until the Gulf Coast region is restored. However, he did not repeat his earlier pledges to see the Gulf returned to “better shape than it was before.”

Scooter described that process as a long epidemic instead of a single crushing disaster like an earthquake or hurricane, warning that the nation could be tied up with the oil and its aftermath for months “and even years.”

Looking ahead to his White House showdown this morning with BP executives, Obama said he would “inform” them that the company must set aside in an independently run fund whatever resources are required to make whole all local residents and businesses hurt by the spill and to repair the immense ecological damage wrought by the oil.

Today’s meeting will  be followed by yet another presidential statement — his fourth planned remarks on the spill in three days. (Aren’t we lucky?)  Later in the week, BP leaders are being marched out to appear before more congressional hearings in front of some of the same guys who were more than happy to accept their campaign contributions.

BP has had limited success so far in siphoning some oil from gushing into the water. But Scooter said that within weeks “these efforts should capture up to 90 percent of the oil leaking out of the well.” Later in the summer, he said, the company should finish drilling a relief well to stop the leak completely.

However, Obama said that the new Gulf restoration plan would go beyond just repairing the effects of the crude on a unique, teeming ecology that was already battered by the 2005 hurricanes Katrina and Rita:

We must make a commitment to the Gulf Coast that goes beyond responding to the crisis of the moment.

The majority of the president’s speech was a soliloquiy of praise for the steps that he and his administration had taken to deal with the disaster “from the very beginning,” he said.  Was that thunder I heard in the background when he said that?

Obama also spent a huge amount of time lecturing and cajoling Americans on the overwhelming necessity of passing sweeping energy and climate change legislation, a key domestic priority of his presidency (and his friends who have invested heavily in Green Energy) that had become a long shot.

But while Obama urged action, he was very sneaky about what he was calling on lawmakers and the public to rally behind. For instance, though Obama supports placing a price on heat-trapping carbon emissions, he did not have the courage to directly state that:

The tragedy unfolding on our coast is the most painful and powerful reminder yet that the time to embrace a clean energy future is now.  I say we can’t afford not to change how we produce and use energy – because the long-term costs to our economy, our national security, and our environment are far greater.

G.E., The Chicago Climate Exchange, and his Puppetmaster, George Soros, were grinning from ear to ear and counting their money already.

While he was making his push for Green Energy, he lied by making the statement that America was running out of places to drill for oil.

Mr. President, allow me to suggest a couple of places, just off the top of my head.

There is estimated to be between 3 and 9 billion barrels of recoverable oil beneath a 1.5 million acre tract on the North Slope of Alaska. This area is a specially designated area within the 19 million-acre Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), known as the “Coastal Plain”.  This area was designated by Congress in 1981 as requiring special study to determine its oil and gas potential and the effects of development on the environment. In 1987, the Department of Interior recommended development.

Also, I guess you forgot that America is sitting on top of a huge Oil Field that stretches from the Dakotas through Montana up into Canada.  The Bakken Formation could really boost America’s Oil reserves and help to make us energy independent.  4.1 billion barrels of recoverable oil, per the United States Geological Survey, are held in this 200,000 square mile reserve that was initially discovered in 1951.  

Gulf Coast residents are not impressed with the president’s leadership.  One spray-painted sign along the president’s Florida motorcade route earlier in the day, as Obama capped a two-day inspection tour of the region said:

Obama you are useless.

After this failure of an address, I’m sure the country feels the same way.

^{Sources:  wikipedia.com, drudgereport.com nextenergynews.com, anwr.org, washington post.com, yahoo.com}