Tar balls and promises: Obama visits Gulf Coast

CASPER

New member
GRAND ISLE, La. – Kneeling to pick up tar balls on an oil-fouled beach and listening to "heartbreaking stories" of loss, President Barack Obama personally confronted the spreading damage wrought by the crude gushing into the Gulf of Mexico — and the bitter anger that's rising onshore.

"What can he really do?" said Billy Ward, a developer who comes to his beach house here every weekend and, like many other locals, had little positive to say about Obama's trip to the beleaguered region on Friday. "If he wants to do something, let him get out there and pump some mud and cement into that hole. Just fix it. Help us."

BP PLC, even less popular here, kept up its efforts to "just fix it," using its "top kill" procedure to try to stop the deep oil well leak by pumping in heavy mud. If it doesn't work, something BP says will be known within a couple of days, Obama's own problems will only compound.

He said he understands people "want it made right" and that their frustration won't fade until the oil is stopped and cleaned up.

"It's an assault on our shores, on our people, on the regional economy and on communities like this one," the president said from this small barrier island town threatened by what is now established as the largest oil spill in American history. "People are watching their
 
Top