Who fiddled while Rome burned?

I've been hearing a lot of comments lately from news sources as well as people I run into here and there about how Obama's handling of the mess in the Gulf of Mexico is just as bad if not worse as the way Junior handled Katrina.

I'm not buying it. First of all, the most oft repeated comment is the comparison of how many times each visited the disaster site. Bush comes out ahead-only because when Karl Rove woke him up to tell him he needed to do something, he finally started making trips.

And therein lies the biggest difference. Obama was on top of it-from afar-but on top of it from day one. Bush slept through most of it because of massive apathy for what the residents were going through.

Let's be realistic. It isn't necessary for a president to camp out at every disaster scene that occurs. Visiting those places is show business-nothing more, nothing less.

In today's age of telecommunications he can be right there 24/7 and that's exactly what Obama is doing.

Another big difference is that there is unfortunately very little government can do right now. It certainly can't stop the leak. The residents and their land based property are in no immediate danger. The economic loss to the fishing industry is going to be addressed by government AND BP when someone knows what it is.

As Obama pointed out, the sad fact is the oil industry is where the expertise and technology are right now to stop this thing.

Katrina was a natural disaster that wrought havoc on people and where they lived. In that particular instance, government could have been in a position to help. None of this is true in the case of the BP oil disaster.

I love listening to republican gas bags, fuming and stewing about how government isn't doing its job while on the other side of their mouths they're fuming and stewing that government needs to get out of our faces, leave us alone and let people take care of themselves. More unbelievable hypocrisy.

Let's face it. The comparison between Bush and Obama doesn't work. Obama's efforts border on exasperation-even desperation. All you need to do is listen to him to know this. Bush ("Great job, Brownie!"), on the other hand, played his guitar-or like Nero, fiddled while Rome burned.