Why the Frustration with Obama's Reaction to Oil Spill?

Americans are increasingly frustrated with President Obama's reaction to the Gulf oil spill, according to a recent poll.

"Americans have become just as dissatisfied with President Barack Obama's work on the Gulf oil spill as they were with his predecessor's handling of Hurricane Katrina, according to an Associated Press-GfK poll released Tuesday.

Even so, the catastrophe appears not to have taken a toll on how Americans view the president overall. Obama's approval rating remained steady in the poll and he is more popular than President George W. Bush was two months after the hurricane.

Still, Obama and his administration have struggled to contain the environmental disaster in the Gulf and now, it seems, to convince people that the government is acting effectively."

Besides using his bully pulpit to influence British Petroleum to act quickly, it's unclear what Americans want President Obama to do. We still are a nation of laws, so President Obama can't just seize British Petroleum's assets and re-route them to those whose livelihoods were most affected by the spill.

The finances of the country are in massive disarray, so there's not a pot of money lying around that he can siphon off of to give to those that are impacted.

In fact, the expectation of immediate Presidential action in matters such as this are such that they risk turning the President into an all-powerful King, one who makes ill-conceived, unconstitutional decisions affecting everyone on a moment's notice, depending on how the political winds are blowing.

Until British Petroleum is held fully accountable, all Americans should pitch in to the clean-up efforts where possible, donate to relief agencies and generally not act as helpless victims that couldn't possibly do anything for themselves.