Deepwater Horizon and similarities to Katrina

I'm starting to see some calls in the blogosphere and the news that Obama

should have reacted sooner to the disaster in the gulf. There are some similarities

and some differences between this disaster and when Katrina hit, and in the

same waythat it was unfair how much blame Bush took for Katrina, maybe we

shouldn't throw too many stones at Obama.

For the It's Obama's fault side:

This was a disaster out at sea, in federal waters, no one else had any regulatory oversight

There was no collateral damage like Katrina where the major roads and interstates were

cut at multiple places, the feds had free access all the way to Venice, LA.

There was no raging storm blocking everything.

There was full information available, the people who knew best what was happening were

available for interviews after less than a day at sea.

For the it's not Obama's fault side:

The federal government does not have a magic wand to sooth all hurts instantly.

From where I sit, the leak didn't seem very bad for several days. At first it seemed

like the oil was coming from fuel onboard. (very similar to Katrina, where the storm passed

and everything seemed ok for several hours.)

BP was making noises very similar to the ones fema made before Katrina, 'we're

prepared, we've got miles of booms', etc.

Reading over my partial lists, the key difference here is that during Katrina there

was a bad ass storm that destroyed infrastructure from east of Baton Rouge to

Florida, short of dropping the 82nd airborne into N.O. there wasn't much more

that was possible and due to politcal problems the Governor of LA never asked

for help until later, a requirement for federal troops to come, so really it was a city

and state problem.

The deepwater horizon was a purely federal problem, the states have no input

to safety in federal waters, get only a small portion of money from the 8g fund

and aren't involved in licensing, safety reviews or inspections. The Feds have complete

authority over the operation, can stop drilling, intervene in well designs, after the

fire had full visual coverage of the disaster and had people on the ground while

the disaster was unfolding.

I'm changing my answer, it's Obama's fault.

(I joke, I joke, I kid, I kid, if I offend I'm sorry. I don't think he bears any more responsibility than bush did for the sloppy response to Katrina)