Are you seriously saying that if the Obama administration had denied that rig that exemption, and shut it down, you and everybody else on the right wouldn't have castigated him for that? I don't believe that for a second. If the Obama administration had built the rig, then it might be fair to blame him. But the inconvenient reality is that it was an oil company, or their subcontractor, who built and ran it, so the blame for its failure lies squarely at their feet. Oh, and I'm sorry to inject more reality into the thread, but there's also the fact that the three environmental impact studies, upon which the decision to exempt that rig was based, were conducted in 2007. Hmmm.. who was the President then? Why is this less HIS fault than Obama's? And if you want to blame a President, why not just blame FDR, who was President when they started drilling in the area? Better yet, why not just acknowledge the FACT that this disaster is no more Obama's fault than the Exxon Valdez disaster was the fault of George H. W. Bush, and then concentrate on how we can mitigate this one, and try to avoid them in the future?

Oh I forgot.. The Bush administration got raked over the coals for their response to Hurricane Katrina, so they have to find some way to exact revenge. God forbid either side should drop the partisanship!