Let me ask you a question . How far can you drive your car without gas in the tank ........moron.......??????  "Good thing reality does not read polls..."  "this boy couln't lead a monkey to a tree"  Nope. Nothing to see here. No racism underlying this comment whatsoever. Look over there...shiny thing!  Its not a matter of what we think it is a matter of what is. The bad part is if they cannot shut it down then the entire ocean will be destroyed.  BP is blamed for the oil leak in the Gulf. Cutting corners, taking risks, not following rules are all the reasons that the government cries that BP is guilty doing. But wait obama's appointiees have signed off on every action as meeting requirements. Where is the outcry? What excuse has these people used for not checking that rules were not followed? The government rubberstamped all of BR's paper work. What took so much of these appointiees time that they allowed this disaster to happen?They were watching porn on their government computers. Government at its best. Where is the accountability?  The poll is meaningless as experts in environment and biology still have too many unknown variables to predict recovery of the gulf. The future is the only poll that counts. Think of the radiation disaster in Russia from the reactor and a poll would be 99% against ever living on that ground again. The gulf is another matter but still a massive environmental disaster.  To say the situcation is not getting worse means that it's not getting better. And if it's not getting better then it's gotta be getting worse. No middle ground here.  Good thing reality does not read polls...  This thing reminds me of all the hackling and arguing and committee meetings during the Viet Nam War. While the Paris Peace Talks were going on people were dying. Almost twenty years later we got out. This is like de ja vu. And let's not forget the poor souls who lost their lives on that rig. At this point the problem of the oil being contained is more important than politics. Forget who's democrat and republican.  yeah – and the 'crackers' down there don't want to miss a day of 'drilling'  This is great news....until Rassmussen comes out with his rethug faux poll stating exactly the opposite!  I think the boom should be lowered on B.P.'s head. But first we all would like this tragic mess cleaned up. I can name countless friends and relatives who's livelyhood is stagnated by this catastrophy. Revenge can come at a later date.People who are not in this area don't seem to realize the importance of stopping this gusher as soon as possible. Yesterday would not be soon enough.  I am one of those that hopes and prays it recovers - do I think that will be in time for 2011 summer season? No. It will take time. I am hopeful that the local economy dependent on fishing and tourism will find some other avenues to grow into to develop the economic base a bit. I hope the moratoreum will allow the govt to evaluate the rigs that are out there for the same failings seen on the current rig failure and shut some of them down permanently. Everyone who is upset about space travel should start ranting about learning about the oceans since we will probably turn them into 'dead seas' before we know a thumbnail of what they hold. I heard years ago, if you think the fight for oil has been bad, wait til the fight for water begins. I say BP jump-started that baby.  Heckuva job Barry, you incompetent buffoon!  More regulation???!?! Good god! just like the Financial Industries, we don't need MORE regulation! We just need the regulators to actually do their jobs. I understand parties and porn are fun, but the job should come first.  A lot of folks can remember when the Cuyahoga River caught on fire. I wonder how long before the Gulf of Mexico becomes a giant floating fireball?  Our mother earth has eternity to recover long after humanity is extinct.  re: Jeff Jackson from Alabama. RIGHT ON MAN .  We have enough regulations already. What we need is a government competent enough to oversee the regulations. A 6 month moraratorium on drilling will kill us. All the experienced oil people will leave the gulf and when you decide that you really do need the oil after all, the new drilling will be done by inexperienced people and this could lead to more numerous disasters. We have oil in shallow water. What Obama fails to mention is that a 1995 law called the Outer Continental Shelf Deepwater Royalty Relief Act gave oil companies incentives to drill deep, drill often, and drill with impunity. The law, according to the pair, “exempted oil wells drilled deep in the Gulf from the normal royalty payments to the government,” spurring companies to drill more and more barrels offshore as time went by. This act gave oil companies about 18% more profits than drilling in shallow water. And for all of you "tree huggers", I would love to have alternate energy to heat my house and propel my car, just tell me where I can get it. Until then I do not want 5 or 6 dollar gas.  What's the "drill, baby, drill" queen gotta say about that?  The Gulf will never recover if it's left up to Republicans, remember they support big oil and not the Gulf. Shame on them.  So the oil is still flowing and Obama is still relying on BP, the same buffoons that caused this, to fix it. Am I wrong for not being as comfortable with this as Obama apparently is? At what point does he stop and say hey, maybe these guys don't know what they are doing?  I love the gulf coast. I spend most of my off days on the Florida gulf coast. But why is it that hardly anybody understands that B.P. had almost nothing to do with the operation of this rig that's leaking. People in America are law suit happy. Fixing the damn leak is more important to those of us who enjoy the gulf than drawn out legal suits. Let's put all that energy into fixing the problem. Those of us who live down here will still be here when all you uneducated experts north of here and west of here turn your attentions to some other part of the world. If you don't have a solution just shut the hell up !!!!!  I am sure that some Pliosaur said to another Plioasaur something like "we will never recover from that asteroid impact". Well, in fact they didn't, but the earth recovered and time moved on and here we are fouling it up, and the earth will recover...it's got another 7 billon years to do it in.  BP: you screwed the pooch on this one  There are a lot of people who really know how sensitive this area really is, to any upset of the balance of nature.  The other half, will find out, soon enough.  Of course the Gulf will recover! It just depends on the time scale – on the geologic time scale, this will be just a little splat on the ocean. The oil slicked beaches will stay in the stratigraphic record until it erodes away, and future geologists will wonder what kind of idiots could have allowed such a disaster to happen.  Actually this is a reflection of the human mentality, short term views.  Of course the gulf will recover (if further drilling is stopped), it just won't be in our lifetime. People really have to start thinking about the future, and I do mean past tomorrow.  I have always said we Americans are killing ourselves! What has been allowed to happen in the Gulf is absolutely outrageous and we have done it to ourselves. We are using our home, Earth, as a constant garbage dump! Polluting our land, waters, wildlife, and the air we breathe, with chemicals that are not only damaging all of the above, but will eventually kill all of human kind! I am outraged and ashamed! But, we only have ourselves to blame! God help us all.  Kind of like the rest of America after this administration!  I believe in more off shore drilling. Throw up rigs off the coasts of every single republican state, close enough for those people to see the rigs every day, close enough for them to smell the rigs every day, close enough for the residue to wash up on their beaches every day, close enough for them to understand the consequences of their continued stupidity. Start making the morons of Florida, Alaska, Alabama, Texas and all other Republican states deal with and look at the results of their "money above everything" mentality.  This is not news. This is a speculative poll. The long-term realities won't be known for a long, long time. To say it will never recover is to be uninformed and pessimistic, and CNN's brand of soft journalism / infotainment feeds and breeds ignorance and pessimism. Stop wasting your time on bogus polls and start asking hard questions of BP, our government, and the American people.  do you think obama osama will vacation ,,in the gulf...what a pice of shi.....t this boy couln't lead a monkey to a tree  BP in the events of the past five years has proved they are the worst offenders in the oil and gas industry. In 2005 the were felony negligent in the the texas oil refinery explosion the Baker commission found Bp had cut corners to place profit over safety . Bp vowed that it would make changes and in 2006 created the worst Oil Spill on land in America with Alaskan North Slope incident.  Bp has been cited for over 750 violations by osha since 2007 next offended in the industry 8 over the same period. BP record for safety concerns over profit speak for themselves deemed the most unsafe operations in the oil industry. over five years.  BP has caused the largest disaster due to oil drilling ever in the north American continent in doing so has been cover up the facts since day one. First citing 1,000 bbl. of oil knowing the gusher was producing at least 35,000 to as much as 80,000 a day . The Key decisions on the rig have been made with costs concerns Haliburton stressed in a report to use 21 sleeves and tyvec approach Bp used six sleeves and a straight pipe saving 12 million and approximately 32 hours An acoustic test to see if the cement refractoring Job was skipped this would have insured the cement was permament and would hold the cement did not and they sent the company away that was to perform said test saved 120,000 and eight hours . When it all went to the bottom they have delayed the response of the federal by directly releasing false information to the size and scope of leak. they did not allow the hd footage to be released to the government knowing our experts could directly estimate the size and scope of said leak.  BP is still engaged heavily in the bury this case in finding favorable judges to over see their case they are not cooperating with Congressional Investigation . They Still think they own the government. They have run maverick long enough and it is time to pull there plug stop issuing oil contracts suspend leases do not give them lucrative oil for defense contracts bring these criminals to Justice.  This corperation is not a friend to the gulf coast they are not a partner in the oil industry they are criminals and enemies of the state and should be held to the fullest extent of the Law of Our Land....  Now I understand CNN's polls.  ".....roughly half say it's not getting any worse"  IT'S STILL LEAKING. IT'S GETTING WORSE EVERY DAY.  Don't drill until BP proves it knows the actual cause of the oil well rupture.  Don't drill until BP proves it has contingency equipment IN PLACE to address another rupture.  Half full! Half empty! Half full! Half empty!  Don't pee on my leg and tell me it's raining.  Comments have been closed for this article
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/images/06/16/art.oilinwater.jpg caption="A new CNN poll indicates that most Americans think the situation in the Gulf of Mexico is still out of control.