Can I go other? A coalition of a Federal Agency, State opperatives from those affected, and BP. Likely the agency as the people directly in charge since at this point this is an economic and practical threat to the nation and needs to be acted upon, but it would need all three groups of actors in getting it done I believe.
While Obama should not be directly in charge I do think he should be ACTIVELY involved in making sure things are moving forward, that it is the top priority of at the very least his agency and BP, and being the person whose the representitive to the nation as to what the agency under his administration is doing.
I also think he has a far bigger affect on it in regards to creating the antagonistic atmosphere regarding this. I don't give a **** about whose ass he wants to kick. I don't give a **** that he wants this to look like his 9/11 instead of his Katrina. I don't give a **** that they want BP to pay. I don't give a **** that Halliburton may be involved. I don't give a **** if this is helping their political hopes in other ways. I don't give a **** if BP is at fault. I don't give a **** if they think BP should have done something sooner or be more involved. I don't give a **** about really anything at this point other than stopping the spill and then cleaning up the oil that is threatening multiple states of the United States of America.
Once the former has happened and the latter is occuring THEN if the Federal Government wants to look into possible legal action, fines, reperations, regulations, etc then be my guest. However all this crap coming from them before hand is no less infuriating and no more appropriate than BP's incessant PR spending on TV ad's and google links.
Stop acting like children, from both BP and Obama's administration, trying to continually pass the buck, point the finger, and focus on things that you think will help YOU and start dealing with the actual problem that will help your customers and your consitutents.