Clinton Felt Your Pain, Obama Is Aware Of It And Is Taking Steps

The President plans to address the nation from the Oval Office on Tuesday night after leaving for the Gulf coast tomorrow to try to nip this whole idiotic "the President isn't doing enough to stop the spill" garbage.

Obama's televised statement will come the night before he is scheduled to meet with top BP officials.

A White House official told CNN that Obama would push BP to create a BP-funded escrow account that will pay for damage claims from the worsening oil spill.

"The president will make clear that he expects, and that if necessary will exercise his full legal authority to ensure, that BP sets aside the funds required to pay individuals and businesses damaged by this massive spill," the White House official said on condition of anonymity.

In addition, the official said, the plan would call for the money set aside by BP to be "paid out under fair, efficient, and transparent procedures administered by an independent third-party panel established just for this purpose."

Gonna have to be a hell of an escrow account.  More than likely BP's going to be on the hook for tens of billions.  But that's Obama's style:  low-key, pragmatic, and results-oriented.

The larger problem of course is that the same people who spent the last 18 months screaming that government is too involved in the free markets, that the government over-regulates industries like energy, that we need smaller government with less oversight, that we need to reduce spending on programs by eliminating government watchdogs and allowing industies to police themselves, and that government interference in the marketplace is a dangerous assumption of power by the state are the first people in line attacking Obama for not doing enough to stop this oil disaster.

From wanting to militarize BP's cleanup operation in the Gulf to actually literally nuking the damn oil geyser, these are the same folks complaining Obama isn't angry enough, isn't involved enough, isn't talking enough, isn't doing enough, and has yet to reveal his secret DARPA program where he gets bitten by a radioactive shark and develops aquatic superpowers to plug the damn hole.

The fact is there's no easy answers to a lot of the problems we're facing right now:  the economy, the two wars we're in, unemployment, that damn oil geyser, and a host of other deadly real we're facing together.  The problem is being compounded by those who don't have any solutions, but have plenty of blame to pass around...and it's amazing how all that blame always lands on the same pair of shoulders at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue no matter what.

There are problems that Obama is responsible for fixing, yes, but not responsible for creating.  There's difference.  The American people are aware of that difference, even if the President's knee-jerk detractors aren't.