Now what?

by Armstrong Williams - 06/16/10 5:11 PM ET

The question many are asking today is the same one they asked following Obama’s
previous trips to the Gulf and other “major” announcements coming out of the
White House: Now what? What can this government do to help plug this damn hole?

This is gut-check time for the White House. They need to walk a fine line of
appearing empathetic with the Gulf region, looking tough with BP, and yet
sooner or later, someone needs to start spewing some alarming facts and owning
up to them. Instead of 1,000 barrels of oil leaking per day, as was originally
estimated, the number is more like 60,000 per day. And there doesn’t appear to
be any relief in sight. When is someone from the government going to spell out
those sobering statistics and what they all mean? Better than that, how about
redirecting some stimulus dollars to put more boots on the ground for the cleanup
effort? When that’s finished, send BP the bill. Finally, let’s get the
Department of Commerce engaged. You heard right. They have a major division of
tourism, let’s get them working with the affected states and sparking some
interest again in tourism and travel to the Gulf.

I guess I’m disappointed in the administration because it seems Obama is more
interested in managing news cycles than the oil crisis. Dropping nuggets every
day to feed the media beast may keep Washington satiated, but Gulf Coast
residents need more than Churchillian rhetoric to help them get through these
dark days.