The message the White House seems to be sending this week is, "When all else fails, send in the lawyers and prosecute."
This raised the strange, if not laughable spectacle of Obama, who is also a lawyer, initiating a criminal investigation or civil action against the company that Obama has conceded is the only one who has the expertise to deal with the crisis and hopefully, end it.
This is taking command of the crisis? This is taking responsibility?
But this was just the beginning of the White House's Keystone Kops response. On Monday -- brace yourself -- the administration said it was no longer sharing the daily briefing podium with BP.
From now on, the administration said, the commander at the site, Coast Guard Adm. Thad W. Allen, would do the briefings by himself. The Post called this a "public relations shake up." Some shake up.
Other cosmetic changes were made this week. Coast Guard Rear Adm. Mary Landry, who delivered daily briefings with BP's chief operating officer, Doug Suttles, was returned to her post as 8th District commander to focus on the hurricane season response plan.
Meantime, there are reports of bitter dissension between BP and administration officials over a new attempt to stanch the leak after last week's "top kill" effort failed. Obama's chief environmental adviser Carol Browner said Sunday she feared the maneuver would result in 20 percent more oil pouring into the gulf, which BP said was unlikely.
But the White House, with all of its oil drilling and environmental protection resources, and access to the world's top oil-spill experts, seemed out of the loop from the beginning -- treating the disaster as a political and public relations challenge.
Even during last week's news conference, Obama's explanations seemed a touch defensive.
Pounded by questions about how he has handled or mishandled the crisis, the president's "tough words didn't match his frustratingly detached demeanor" as he launched a new political offensive that "marked the beginning of the public relations push by the White House," writes the Washington Post's Jonathan Capehart.
Each day that passes, the public questions grow about the White House's inability to grasp this crisis by the throat and to bring to bear all of the available technological resources to put it to an end.
This is not going to be solved by a slick public relations offensive or sending in lawyers and ambulance chasers, changing who is at the briefing podium, or even by naming a blue ribbon commission to find out what went wrong from the beginning.
Instead, this is a crisis that this administration has still not seriously come to grips with, especially at the highest levels of responsibility.