Obama Gets TOUGH ... sort of.

Now into the 7th week of BP’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill, America has pretty much resigned itself to the notion that, due to Obama and his administration having bungled the handling of the crisis, we will be unable to avert a major ecological and economic disaster in the Gulf and Gulf States.

In an effort to salvage something of Obama’s credibility, Hollywood film director Spike Lee urged Obama to at least display anger for its public relations value. "One time, go off (on BP)!" Lee said on CNN's 'AC 360°.' "If there's any one time to go off, this is it, because this (handling of the oil spill) is a disaster."

During an interview aired Tuesday with NBC’s Matt Lauer, Obama tried it on for size, though unconvincingly, as it didn’t fit quite comfortably within his line of rhetoric.

Obama said during the interview that “I don’t sit around just talking to experts because this is a college seminar; we talk to these folks because they potentially have the best answers so I know whose ass to kick.”

More to the point, Jon Stewart on the Daily Show observed yesterday that with regard to Obama’s failed leadership, “The ass has been kicking you!”

Unfortunately for Obama he also revealed in the same interview that he still had not yet personally spoken to BP’s CEO, Tony Hayward about any aspect of the disaster; despite the campaign in recent weeks by Obama and administration officials to assure the public that Obama himself was personally in charge of the government’s and BP’s efforts to clean up the entire mess.

Obama offered a weak explanation that left even Lauer incredulous. “My experience,” Obama said, “when you talk to a guy like a BP CEO, he's gonna say all the right things to me. I'm not interested in words. I'm interested in actions."

Surprise, surprise. For someone who throughout his entire term of office has had to deal with the perception and criticism of being incapable of doing any real work to accomplish much more than giving “pretty speeches”, Lauer’s surprised look must have been a moment of real revelation for Obama - that anyone could actually expect him to make good on any of his own words – nope, the irony just evaporated over Obama’s head.

Image is everything, isn’t it.