Double-barreled disaster

Intercutting video of oil slicks and political critics, George Stephanopoulos of ABC's Good Morning America and Meredith Vieira of NBC's Today grilled uneasy Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, while James Carville, a longtime Democratic strategist who is a Louisianan, blasted the White House for what he termed "political stupidity."

The still point of the shouting world is Obama - not so much his actions as his emotions. Ross Baker, professor of political science at Rutgers University, says, "People really want him to fashion a Bill Clinton response to this, and he's just not Bill Clinton. His personal style is to become engaged intellectually, think problems through. . . . But because he didn't wring his hands and get choked up, people think he's disengaged."

Stung, Obama went to Louisiana for image-ops. On his first visit, May 2, he stood outside the U.S. Coast Guard station in Venice, La., and, rain beading on his face and jacket, swore that "your government will do whatever it takes for as long as it takes to stop this crisis," and that "BP will be paying the bill."

On a May 28 visit to Grand Isle and Port Fouchon, La., in tie and rolled-up shirtsleeves, he hunkered with Louisianans and heard them out; he palmed the sand on a beach. After a couple of bad-polling family vacations, he returned to the gulf June 4, taking care to announce beforehand he'd include businessmen.

But Obama came across to some people as too distant, too cool. On June 2, on CNN, director Spike Lee beseeched the president to vent: "He's very, as I know, as I've seen, calm, cool, collected - but one time, go off! If there's any one time to go off, this is it."

Obama countered on the next day's Larry King Show: "You know, I am furious at this entire situation . . . ."

Was it fair to depict Obama as culpable? To a point, writes Jamieson: His environmental agencies gave BP pass after pass, even after he was in office. Drilling permits continued even after the gusher. "President Obama was reasonably cast as blameworthy," she writes, "as were past administrations that colluded with the industry."

What isn't fair, say both Jamieson and Baker, is the portrayal of an unfeeling president. Baker calls it "setting the standards too high," and Jamieson writes that "by suggesting that President Obama's problem is either the incapacity to feel or express emotion about the gusher and its consequences, the media narrative veered into distracting silliness."

The political impact will be tracked down to the last November vote. But Cohn, of Yale, wonders whether the ecological aftermath will suffer the same neglect the lead-up got: "The media are fine when it comes to throwing all their resources at the story of the year - but what happens in September and November, when the spotlight is off, when the real impact will start to become apparent?"

Contact John Timpane at 215-854-4406, jt@phillynews.com, or twitter.com/jtimpane.