He is the President of the United States, for God's sake. It is his job to be prepared to act quickly in an emergency. Can you imagine his response if we had an attack on the scale of 9/11? He'd wet his pants and hide under the desk.
He also had legal guidelines on what to do since congress passed the Oil Pollution Act of 1990. He has zer0 excuses for not acting sooner and utilizing all assets available.
Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA)
http://www.uscg.mil/npfc/About_NPFC/opa.asp
The Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund (OSLTF)
http://www.uscg.mil/npfc/About_NPFC/osltf.asp
SO TRUE!
Visualize it, visualize it!
Yikes!