BP Stock Alerts: How Joe Barton's apology to BP saved President Obama's week

By Chris Cillizza
source:washingtonpost.com
President Obama spoke from the Oval Office on Tuesday night hoping for a game-changer in public opinion on his handling of the Gulf Coast oil spill.

But unlike in past high-profile addresses -- say, his 2004 speech at the Democratic National Convention, his remarks at the Iowa Jefferson-Jackson Dinner in 2007 and his speech distancing himself from the controversial Rev. Jeremiah Wright in 2008 -- Obama failed to meet the high rhetorical expectations he had set for himself and was roundly panned by the punditocracy.

Combine that lead balloon of a speech with the oil still leaking into the gulf, coastal-state officials taking to cable shows to condemn the federal response and BP executives continuing to stuff their collective feet into their mouths -- "small people," really? -- and it seemed an easy choice to name our commander in chief as having had the Worst Week in Washington.