**** Heads Up: POTUS Speaks About the BP Oil Spill, 1:15pm EDT ****

[Clio the Leo]

http://www.cnn.com/video/flashLive/live.html?stream=stream1

http://cspan.org/Watch/C-SPAN.aspx

(audio only)
http://www.whitehouse.gov/live/president-obama-speaks-press-2

[Inuca]

1. The CSPAN site

has it for 1:30 on cspan.org, I assume video as well.

[gateley]

2. Thanks -- that "set" where he'll be speaking looks pristine. I haven't

been able to watch (if it's even been televised) so do you know if they've shown him the areas that are truly devastated? The one clip I got on CNN, and the photos, look like he's on a beach in Waikiki!

A reporter this morning was saying that it's one thing to see the photos, hear the reports, but until you really experience it, you have no idea. I hope he sees the real deal.

[Cant trust em]

3. That's why getting him down there is more than just a symbolic gesture.

Hopefully it will spark a greater connection with what needs to be done.

[gateley]

5. I hope they bring him to the actual devastated areas. Maybe even

out on a boat. As I said, the only photos I've seen look like they're from a brochure promoting tourism, not at all like some of the places they've shown on TV.

[Clio the Leo]

7. He flew over the rig site earlier. NT

[Clio the Leo]

4. The reporters were saying last night on Twitter....

.... that BP was busting their hind end to clean up the beach before he got there.

[Jennicut]

8. Are you serious?

They should be busting their asses for everyone in the Gulf.

[Clio the Leo]

14. yup, that's what they said.

I'll see if I can find the Tweets.

[gateley]

12. It sure looks like it. On the Live Video shot on cnn.com (where

the press conference will be held) it looks like a picture postcard. I am not kidding!

I really wish he'd get in a boat and go out in it.

[LeftyAndProud60]

6. I'm pissed. I feel like Obama is letting people bully him into these press conferences. The only

thing he need to do that hasn't been done is give states the ability to do whatever they want to protect their coast. And that's it. But he shouldn't be doing all this talking about how he's in charge. It just looks ridiculous.

[Cant trust em]

9. I'm really happy that he's out there more.

He is the best spokesperson for the administration possible. People want to know that the government is not abandoning the situation and him being present sends that message. Maybe it's just a symbol, but it's an important symbol.

[Enrique]

15. i hope it's another press conference

he doesn't take enough questions, imo, especially about this spill. The session he did yesterday was useful and I hope he takes more questions today. His speeches and prepared comments are getting less and less useful. I personally don't watch them very much anymore and I suspect other people aren't either.

[Clio the Leo]

16. Do you watch many briefings?

I think the press did a better job of asking him better questions because they knew it was a rare chance. Gibbs gets a LOT of BS questions at his daily briefings. "I've heard that David Axelrod has a Secret Service car and driver, can you confirm this?" (I'm not making that up, there was a whole discussion about it.)

My theory is that he felt the cop-gate inspired question last July was BS. He was supposed to be talking about health care and the economy and the take away from that event was about some random police officer. I think that's spoiled him to the whole process.

And you'll notice there was a marked increase of one on one sit downs from that point on. *I* think that's a better method and he probably does to.

[Inuca]

10. Link on msnbc.com

says video coming shortly. ALso cspan2 and I assume CNN though I did not check.

[Clio the Leo]

11. sorry for the delay, he's still picking up tarballs. NT

:sarcasm:

[Clio the Leo]

13. POTUS "expected to announce a 3-fold increase in aide to affected parishes"

per Chuck Todd's Twitter

[LeftyAndProud60]

17. He needs to just give the states the ability to do what they want near their shores. I'm tired of

Bobby running his yap.

[ProSense]

20. What exactly does that mean?

BLITZER: So Bobby Jindal, your colleague from Louisiana, we just heard him. He's passionate. He's deeply concerned, for obvious reasons, about what's going on. If this "top kill" procedure, Governor, doesn't work, how worried are you that this will expand and Mississippi could find itself in the same place as Louisiana?

BARBOUR: Well, there's no question that we're at risk. And the tides and the winds and -- have blessed us. And Louisiana, of course, is much closer to the well site than we are. And we feel terrible that we are trying to help them any way we can and any resources that we can make available to them.

But if this "top kill" does not work and the well continues to spew out oil, it actually, as you said earlier, it could come out at a faster rate, because in the process, they may blow it more wide open, so to speak.

We are prepared in Mississippi. We have a multi-layered defense to defend our shores. We've got hundreds of vessels that are ready to go.

And -- but, yes, the best thing that could happen to everybody is if today we stop the amount of oil that is streaming out and then focus on cleaning up what's already out there.

BLITZER: When you say you're prepared for that worst case scenario, what are you doing?

BARBOUR: Well, we have about 750 vessels that are -- that we're in the process of training. Most of them have been trained now, with their crews, to fight the oil off our barrier islands, then to try to prevent it from getting between the passes, between the barrier islands, keep from getting into the Mississippi Sound.

link

I don't for a minute believe Barbour wouldn't be calling for federal help, but at the same time why isn't Jindal marshalling his state's resources?

States are not prohibited from protecting their shores, but the notion that there shouldn't be federal monitoring to ensure that the ecosystem isn't damaged by excessive traffic and people doing things that compound the problem is ridiculous.

I can hear the pundits if such a situation were allowed to happen: Why the hell did the federal government allow the process to devolve into chaos?

[LeftyAndProud60]

29. I don't know, but they keep talking about Red Tape and they want the Fed Gov to get out of the way.

So give them what they want. And make them pay for it as well.

[Clio the Leo]

18. Raw AP Video: POTUS visits Grand Isle beach...

watch while you wait

http://video.ap.org/?pid=ue4ky9l4q9VRpk_9B1WrjtoVrcTBKhTC

I like how he's explaining it all to the cameraman .... not standing and listening to someone else explain it to him. That's change you can believe in.

[LeftyAndProud60]

19. This is what it's come down to? The media is turning him into a tour guide. NT

[Clio the Leo]

21. DUDE! I gotta go out and stimulate the economy! Get ON with it!!!! NT

[Clio the Leo]

22. A heron just died on camera ...

.... of old age, waiting for this thing to start.

[Enrique]

24. ha ha ha

:D

[Jennicut]

25. I ate lunch, did the dishes, and posted a bazillion things on DU already.

Let's do this! Maybe Obama really did swim down to plug the leak, after all.

[Clio the Leo]

26. watch him emerge from the water all snorkled-up NT

[Inuca]

27. LOL!!! n/t

[Inuca]

23. Going for a cigarette break myself

while video stream streams on. Blissfully slow day at work :-).

[Clio the Leo]

28. Of course you ARE left with the feeling that he's doing more by running late.

.... hmmmmm .....

[Clio the Leo]

30. sigh ....

... he's probably too sad about Gary Coleman ... I wouldn't want to come out either.

http://www.tmz.com/2010/05/28/gary-coleman-dies-dead-diffrent-strokes/

[Clio the Leo]

31. thank you, camera man, for verfying at the boat was still over there

I was curious. :)

[Clio the Leo]

32. ABOUT TO START!!! WHOOHOO!!! NT

[Inuca]

33. Looks like something is finally

about to happen

[LeftyAndProud60]

34. Is that Charlie Crist? This looks so staged. The media is to blame for this. NT

[Inuca]

36. Crist and Jindal

and probably the other Gulf states governors.

[Jennicut]

39. They have a right to be there, it is the Gulf states being effected.

But Jindal makes me puke.

[Clio the Leo]

35. POTUS up now says he's ready to start...

... heh.

[Inuca]

38. He actually said

that it is kind of hot so let's start RIGHT AWAY :-)

[Clio the Leo]

37. calls this, "an assault on our shores, our people and our regional economy." NT

[Clio the Leo]

40. "this is already the largest clean up effort in US history." NT

[Clio the Leo]

41. "we have been staging clean up since the explosion."

70 vessels in place when the gravity of the spill was realized

[Clio the Leo]

42. "if top kill is not successful a team of scientists stand ready..."

they have been exploring contingency plans

[Clio the Leo]

43. "I have directed Napolitano and Allen to triple the man power on the shore..." NT

[Clio the Leo]

44. "we have ordered BP to pay all claims and make sure they deliver." NT

[Clio the Leo]

45. directs those with a claim to WhiteHouse.gov

.... and I'll tell you why that's important in a moment.

[Clio the Leo]

64. this is significant because...

.... the WH is very adept at creating NEW websites .... recovery.gov .... healthcarereform.gov (or whatever that one was called)

This time, they are making a point to direct people TO the WH site. They want to make sure there's no confusion as to who's going to help them.

[Clio the Leo]

46. Doctors have been stationed across the gulf to monitor and care for the health of the citizens...

... BP will also be paying for this.

[Catherina]

59. Clio The Leo! Thank you. n/t

[Clio the Leo]

47. the heron comes back to life and starts singing with joy!

see...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=433&topic_id=318556&mesg_id=318674

[Jennicut]

49. I heard that. It woke up.

[Clio the Leo]

48. "I'm the President and the buck stops with me!" NT

[Clio the Leo]

50. "I would gladly do whatever it takes to end this disaster today but..."

"this is still evolving and we're facing a long term recovery. America has never faced a disaster like this before."

[Clio the Leo]

51. "there are not going to be a lot of perfect answers to the problems we face..."

"there will be frustration and we expect that it will continue until we solve this problem"

[LeftyAndProud60]

52. Does anyone else hate that "The buck stops w/ me" thing. Your a politician, not an oilman. And he

shouldn't be expected to fix all of this. I swear Democrats get way more blame than republicans. During Katrina all u had to do was send in helicopters on time. Bush couldn't even do that. Now Obama is expected to stop oil from shooting out of the earth. Amazing.

[Clio the Leo]

54. blame Truman

Anyway, you may hate it, but the press will eat it up ... Google it ... he's already being quoted ... it's a good move politically.

[Clio the Leo]

53. "everyone is working night and day to solve this crisis" NT

[Clio the Leo]

55. calls for Americans to volunteer...

... or, rather, offers those who want to help a way to do so

[Inuca]

56. Thanks CLio

I had to stop watching for a little while

[Clio the Leo]

57. "all of the Gulf's beaches are safe, open and clean, that's a good way to help..."

"come pay them a visit"

[Clio the Leo]

58. "To the people of the Gulf ...the cameras and media may someday leave ... we will not"

", you will not be abandoned, you are not alone..."

[Clio the Leo]

60. "to the leaders, talk to Thad Allen, talk to me, we are in this together." NT

[Jennicut]

63. Good point by Obama, the media does not pay attention to Haiti anymore.

[Clio the Leo]

61. (round of applause from those around him) NT

[Clio the Leo]

62. ~ end ~

[LeftyAndProud60]

65. Anderson Cooper is an Asshole. NT

[LeftyAndProud60]

66. Is it possible to cancel 1 channel? I don't want CNN anymore. NT

[Clio the Leo]

67. lol, no but you change it...

... I look at it like this ... the poor press ... it has taken them six years to find a chink in the man's armor and now they have it. I'm indulging them a little bit.

Although, after TODAY's appearance, I think that chink is looking a little yes ... you know ... chinkish.

[TEXASYANKEE]

68. I love how he assumes responsibility.

You never heard that from the last Administration. Comforting words, indeed.

[polichick]

69. Missed the speech but I'm very glad he did this! nt