Crisis in the Gulf

Have been reading news reports and blog entries; watching videos and television programs; and listening to radio commentaries on the disaster that is the oil spill in the Gulf. It seems quite apparent the BP cut corners and ignored sage advise and warnings to change the way in which they were persuing the preparation of the well site under the Deep Water Horizon rig.
The results have thus far been catastrophic, with no end in sight. Lives lost and disrupted, many industries face either dislocation or complete shutdown, and whole communities face collapse --
all because ( let us assume for the moment ) someone or several someones decided to do it on the cheap.
Then after the disaster manifests itself, the current administration is caught napping and is totally unprepared to deal with organizing the response. Bureacratic red tape, incompetence, ineptitude, arrogance and hubris are all exhibited to anyone who is observing.
Help offered is turned away; and local officials and residents who offer solutions -- or who simply want to take control of the cleanup and protection of the beaches and waters surrounding their communities, are rebuffed and impeded by a slew of agencies, all trying to impose their wisdom, or trying to protect their little "fiefdoms".
And where is President Obama in all of this: either out playing golf; fund raising; making speeches; or when he is finally convinced to do something and is pulled into the morass, he seems to possess little passion or real empathy for the endeavor -- unlike Gov. Bobby Jindal, or Democratic strategist "the ragin Cajun' " James Carville. It seems like he does not want to be bothered.
After all, what do they expect him to do: "he can't suck it up with a straw, or dive down [ himself ] and plug up the d@#% hole."
As this tragedy plays out over the next several months, America is going to learn alot -- about themselves, how resilient we are or can be as a people; how some leaders are in fact just that, "Leaders"; while others who we think are leaders, turn out the be paper mache images, having no substance; they are in fact, " an empty suit mouthing "just words".