The Idiocy and Politics of Blame Following the Oil Rig Explosion and Fire in The Gulf

From day one, the oil rig fire in the Gulf should have been considered a dangerous situation. It had burned out of control for days and it should have been obvious to anyone familiar with it that it would ultimately burn to the ground; or, in this case, sink into the sea. Most All oil pumping operations have a natural fire accelerant -- called crude oil -- that makes it difficult to contain the fire. The pressure from the earth will cause well heads to continue to spew oil for most of the life of the well. That's why they call them "gushers". The intensity of the heat will melt almost everything; including steel. Just look at how long it took for Red Adair's company to "explosively blow out" all the fires in the Kuwaiti oil fields after Saddam's troops sabotaged all the wells, pumps, and pipelines while in retreat.

People on the political left are trying to say that there is no comparison between George Bush's Katrina goof-up and Obama's handling of this oil disaster. I beg to differ. The potential for disaster with an oil spill was very high. He waited a full seven days before doing anything. Prior to that, the Coast Guard was trying to figure out what to do. Then, on the eighth day, Obama finally took the sinking and subsequent oil spill seriously and sent an armada of lawyers, EPA, and homeland security personnel to the Gulf Coast. I say he and his people bungled it. To me, Janet Napolitano is Obama's equivalent of Bush's "Brownee".