Maybe an invasion would help

I wish I could take credit for this, because it says fairly succinctly what I've been grasping for.

From Anne Applebaum on Slate.com:

Here is the hard truth: The U.S. government does not possess a secret method for capping oil leaks.

Even the combined wisdom of the Obama inner circle — all those Harvard economists, silver-tongued spin doctors, and hardened politicos — cannot prevent tens of thousands of tons of oil from pouring out of a hole a mile beneath the ocean's surface.

Other than proximity to the Louisiana coast, this catastrophe therefore has nothing whatsoever in common with Hurricane Katrina. That was an unstoppable natural disaster that turned into a human tragedy thanks to an inadequate government response. This is just an unstoppable disaster, period. It will be a human tragedy precisely because no government response is possible.

... most Americans in recent years have come to expect a strong response — an invasion, a massive congressional bill — from their politicians in times of crisis, and this one is no exception.

We want the president to lead — somewhere, anywhere. A few days ago, the New York Times declared that "he and his administration need to do a lot more to show they are on top of this mess," and should have started "putting the heat" on BP much earlier—as if that would have made the remotest bit of difference.