Poll: Obama, BP Should be Doing More on Gulf Spill

AP/CBS

CBS News Poll analysis by the CBS News Polling Unit: Sarah Dutton, Jennifer De Pinto, Fred Backus and Anthony Salvanto.

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A significant majority of Americans believe both President Obama and British Petroleum are not doing enough to clean up the massive oil spill that has spewed up to 46 million gallons of crude into the Gulf of Mexico, according to a CBS News poll released Friday.

Sixty-three percent of those surveyed said the Obama administration should be doing more in response to the spill, while 28 percent believe the government is doing all it can. BP scored slightly worse - 70 percent feel the company should be doing more while 24 percent believe it's doing everything possible to contain the crisis.

However, while the poll indicates Americans believe more should be done, the overall approval ratings for the Obama administration and BP are little changed from a similar poll last week, if slightly improved.

Special Section: Disaster in the Gulf

Forty-four percent of respondents disapprove of the White House's handling of the spill, with 38 percent satisfied with the government's response. Those figures were 45 percent and 35 percent, respectively, a week ago.

For BP, 68 percent disapprove of the company's handling of the disaster, with just 21 percent approving. Last week, those numbers were 70 percent and 18 percent, respectively.

Meanwhile, BP's latest efforts to cap are going according to plan, despite the fact that oil could still be seen leaking from the containment device, a company executive said.

"We do have the cap successfully in place. ... And the oil you see escaping right now is actually part of the design," BP's chief operating officer Doug Suttles told CBS "The Early Show" Friday. "What we have is four vent valves on the top of this cap. We'll be successfully closing those vent valves through the course of the day."

Suttles said the valves have been left open to avoid drawing water into the containment device. The company will begin closing the vents in an effort to "capture the vast majority of the flow," Suttles said.

Suttles said the goal is to capture more than 90 percent of the flow, which has spewed between 21 million and 46 million gallons of oil since the April 20 explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon oil rig precipitated the disaster.

As anger mounts in coastal areas affected by the spill, Mr. Obama plans to visit the region Friday for a third time since the leak started April 20.

Read the Complete Poll

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This poll was conducted among a random sample of 960 adults nationwide, interviewed by telephone June 1-3, 2010. Phone numbers were dialed from random digit dial samples of both standard land-line and cell phones. The error due to sampling for results based on the entire sample could be plus or minus three percentage points. The error for subgroups is higher.

This poll release conforms to the Standards of Disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls.

[cleric60]

CBS News correspondent Chip Reid answered that the Jones Law is an old law that limits shipment between U.S. ports by foreign vessels. I called the Department of Homeland Security about this and officials here at the White House. They say they are getting waivers. In fact, there are now about 15 ships from at least eight nations in the Gulf, including Spain, the United Kingdom, Norway and Panama and they believe that more will be coming in the days to come.

Why did it take over 50 for these foreign nations to get a waiver to come and assist USA in this clean-up????

[GertBFrobe]

John Gault for President in 2012!

[AkBre]

Obama is the one that should have his ass beat. Not BP. Obama has done more harm to all of us Americans that BP...

[teacher110]

970 does not constitute a "majority of Americans". This is disingenuous on the part of CBS. I watch Washington Journal each morning for 3 hours. There is almost always some aspect of the spill discussed. You do NOT hear the criticism from viewers of the president that CBS tries to portray in this poll. Viewership of Washington Journal is in the millions.

[teacher110]

970 people were polled and that constitutes the "majority of Americans?!" It's this disingenuous type of reporting that most Americans are weary of. I watch C-span's Washington Journal each morning. Some aspect of the oil spill is discussed almost every morning, and the callers.....Independents, Republicans and Democrats in an overwhelming majority, put the onus on BP. Few are critical of the president's response. Washington's Journal's viewership far exceeds 970. The meme criticizing the president for his lack of emotion falls into somewhat the same category..most callers, when this was discussed on Washington Journal dismissed it as a media obsession. Finally....does CBS monitor Chip Reid's behavior at the press conferences....he is an embarrassment more often than not.

[bcs2k]

I think Obama is doing as much as possible but BP failed to be as prepared as their original disaster plan indicated. Most Americans lack an engineering degree. Most lack much knowledge of science and math. Most are fat and should be doing more about education and weight/health problems but don't. Thus I doubt seriously that many can understand the nature of this challenge or recommend realistic solutions. Saying whoever should be doing more and the constant cries to fix the leak (as if it's easy to do) is a sign that Americans watch too many movies and make too many naive assumptions about our capabilities.

[daffy64]

I'm assuming that the people who want the President and Federal government to "do more" are staunch Liberals.

After all, Conservatives believe in the private sector and don't want the Feds "interfering".

Right?

[liberalme]

Wouldn't that be another "Government takeover"?

[pasmalltown]

by daffy64 June 4, 2010 4:20 PM EDT -
"After all, Conservatives believe in the private sector and don't want the Feds "interfering"."
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It is not until the private sector screws up (as is the case here) that conservatives feel that their gov't is NOT DOING ENOUGH........... Liberals and moderates refer to this case as the Sarah Palin "theory of relativity"......

[IndepTex20]

by USA_is_back June 4, 2010 4:00 PM EDT
Come on T3ex, admit it. You are just against everything Obama does. You know for a fact, if Obama had taken over on day one, as you now say he should, you would have been here screaming the loudest. You would have said that this is proof of his "socialist" takeover bid. You just see where Obama stands on every issue and take the opposite stance.

I would support him pushing BP around..........they have terrible OSHA and maintenance histories..................their plant south of Houston blew up and the paid billions in settlements due to their lack of maintenance. Then OSHA hit them for another 75 million in fines..................they are scum and should be put out of business. This event might do it.

Additonally I support him in the covert missions he's charged our military with overseas. Thankfully he listened to his advisors on that one.

[IndepTex20]

by USA_is_back June 4, 2010 3:48 PM EDT
A proud member of the party of "NO"

I am proudly part of the party of no.........conservatives that thank republican senators and congressmen that fight Barry all the way as he tries to impose his socialist views and policies...........I will always be a conservative, not a member of any one party. I vote for those who do what is in the best interest of this country and I always will.

[IndepTex20]

by USA_is_back June 4, 2010 3:08 PM EDT

When was it decided that BP was incapable or unwilling? Was that day one?

Geez, you Cons are idiots!

Back, the kicker was the federal government authorized the permit, inspected the facility and deemed it well above average. They signed off on the permit even though BP stated in the permit that contingencies for spill remediation would account for only 5% of the spill.........and the government gave them the permit! And you want them to run healthcare??? Please............

Back, I practice environmental enginnering and have been in engineering for nearly 30 years. While remediating the source, you must contain the spill or it can get completely out of hand as we've witnessed. What I've been trying to impart on you is that Barry should have stepped in Day One and forced BP to contain the spill with the best available technology that would include super-tankers to vacuum up all the oil they could. It's easy to seperate the oil from the sea water and it would allow BP to use the sell the oil reclaimed to boot!

So yes, in this instance Barry should have dictated to BP they must use super-tanker, pumps and all available technology to suction up as much of the liberated crude as they could while they repaired the source.

[JFK2112]

USA_is_Back, talk about ignorant. Having Obama flex his muscles from the start would have resolved this issue much much faster. And um, telling BP to take this spill seriously has absolutely nothing to do with taking over the Oil Business.