At his press conference on the oil spill this afternoon, President Obama was barraged with a series of questions from reporters that, for the most part, boiled down to one thing: “Why aren’t you doing more?” While admitting that the federal government hadn’t sufficiently prepared for the “worst-case scenario,” Obama maintained that it has, from day one, exerted the maximum effort in the leak-stoppage (which has succeeded, for now) and cleanup process, and has always been in command. “Those who think that we were either slow on our response or lacked urgency don’t know the facts. This has been our highest priority since this crisis occurred,” he said. That hasn’t exactly been the perception, though, and when asked by Chuck Todd what he thinks about the comparisons to George W. Bush’s response to Hurricane Katrina, Obama said he’d “leave it to you guys” the press to make that connection, but that, looking back, people will realize he’d done all he could.
