Below is President Obama on Thursday morning, telling us the oil leak is his biggest priority, and answering various questions. The White House site, with the questions he was asked listed, is here. As I write this now, BP has restarted their mud-plugging operation and by sometime on Friday we should have a better feeling of whether it has adequately worked or not.

Obama has announced a six-month moratorium on new offshore oil drilling, which is bad news for Shell Oil, who planned to begin drilling off the coast of Alaska soon — but it’s good news for everyone else on earth.

The sooner we get off our addiction to oil the better. Obama is no longer promoting offshore drilling, but he hasn’t said it will ever end either and this would be his big chance to do that. Will another terrible opportunity like this ever present itself? We have to hope it doesn’t, so we have to change his mind as soon as possible.

Keep in mind, another leak a lot like this could happen at any time in the Gulf, and no other country allows an oil company to stage a disaster like this anywhere. The U.S. stands alone in its blatant favoritism towards oil corporations, its deference to the way they want to do things, and this favoritism has crossed at least 3 presidential administrations so far. Two of them were led by Democratic presidents.

Dan Froomkin writes:

“The press conference was a powerful rhetorical rejoinder to the growing perception that Obama has been personally disengaged from the disaster in the Gulf.

But there was very little there for those who are more concerned with what’s actually happening on the ground and in the water than with presidential optics.

And to those unhappy with the speed or the extent of the government response, to those scientists who question some of the decisions that have been made, and to those Louisiana residents who think not enough is being done, he didn’t actually announce any changes. There is no new plan. He just tried to redefine what is.

Obama praised the government’s response so far. “I’m confident that people are going to look back and say that this administration was on top of what was an unprecedented crisis,” he said.

But his confidence doesn’t seem justified.”

That’s an understatement.