On May 3, Barack Obama went down to Louisiana to eyeball the possible damage from the blowout of BP's exploded oil rig, keep the cleanup crews on their toes — no version of "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job" from him — and show the Gulf states and the rest of the nation his concern. Later that day, the Washington Post's Web site played the story precisely where it belonged — entombed in the middle of the page. In its placement, it said the president of the United States did not, in this case, matter all that much....