He did say he was calling the shots; even about the top-kill effort:
In his own words Obama owns the top-kill operation:
“Now, when it comes to what’s happening on the surface, we’ve been much more involved in the in situ burns, in the skimming. Those have been happening more or less under our direction. And we feel comfortable about many of the steps that have been taken. There have been areas where there have been disagreements. I’ll give you two examples.
Initially on this top kill, you know, there were questions in terms of how effective it could be. But also what were the risks involved? Because we’re operating at such a pressurized level, a mile underwater, and at such frigid temperatures that the reactions of various compounds and various approaches had to be calibrated very carefully.
That’s when I sent Steven Chu down, the secretary of Energy, and he brought together a team — basically, a brain trust, some of the smartest folks we have at the national labs and in academia — to essentially serve as a oversight board with BP engineers and scientists in making calculations about how much mud could you pour down, how fast, without risking potentially the whole thing blowing.
So in that situation, you’ve got the federal government directly overseeing what BP is doing, and Thad Allen is giving authorization when finally we feel comfortable that the risks of attempting a top kill, for example, are — are sufficiently reduced that it needs to be tried.”