Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D.

To the Editor:

I dismissed President Obama’s critics when they first started comparing
his response to BP’s oil spill to President Bush’s response to Hurricane
Katrina. After all, Mr. Bush had several days to prepare for the
hurricane, a fact that clearly distinguishes the current catastrophe
unfolding before our eyes.

Since then, however, Mr. Obama has seemingly set out to prove his
critics right. The president’s response lacks any sense of urgency.

After a month of BP’s underestimation of the scope of the spill (“The
Measure of a Disaster,” by Ian R. MacDonald, John Amos, Timothy
Crone and Steve Wereley, Op-Ed, May 22), Mr. Obama finally set up a
commission to investigate what went wrong. A commission should have been
set up weeks ago.

With each passing day, tens of thousands of barrels of oil continue to
contaminate the Gulf of Mexico, and the president doesn’t seem to be
taking seriously enough the long-term damage that is being unleashed on
our environment, our economy and his presidency.

Ryan Talbott
Portland, Ore., May 24, 2010

Note from KBJ: President Obama gets the benefit of the doubt. President Bush got the detriment of the doubt. Let's have a single standard, please.