FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
It's way too soon to celebrate… but it's hard not to. After almost three months the flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico has finally been stopped… for now.
[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/images/07/15/art.oil.jpg caption="Oil is pictured off of Grand Isle, Louisiana."]
Even if it's stopped for good, the implications of what has happened are huge and probably won't be known for sometime.
The damage to the environment is immeasurable. Some say it will wind up being worse than the Exxon Valdez.
The government wants a moratorium on offshore drilling… one judge already said no… the Obama administration came back with a second one.
The oil spill has come to symbolize everything his critics say is wrong with this president's leadership. As those awful pictures of the ruptured well and the gushing oil filled our television screens day after agonizing day, President Obama increasingly was seen as indecisive and unwilling or incapable of taking charge and managing the crisis. At the end of the day, it was simply another problem this president didn't need. He has more than enough already.
And now as we collectively hold our breath and wait to see if the well will hold, one wonders how all of this will translate to the politics of the midterm elections which will be here in almost the same amount of time the oil has been flowing into the Gulf.
Here’s my question to you: How much will the oil spill hurt the Democrats this November?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
Anita writes:
I don't think this will hurt the Democrats as much as the Republicans hope it will. It's big oil's fault, and big oil ties in with Republicans.
Mark writes:
Jack, Let's just say that some really ticked off voters in the Gulf states are NOT going to be happy campers when they go to the polls in November and you can bet your shrimp cocktail that Obama will feel the wrath of fishermen, oil rig workers and travel industry workers in the South two years from now..... and rightfully so.
Jamie in Tacoma, Washington writes:
If voters are thinking, no effect. It was the Bush policies and Cheney collusion with the oil companies and corporate conniving that caused both the economic and environmental disaster. President Obama may be too timid in response to many issues, but it is still a Republican Party disaster.
Matt in Florida writes:
Probably not very much, Jack. Remember, the voting public in the U.S. has the attention span and memory of a fruit fly. Some other crisis or problem will come along and cause the spill to be knocked off the nation's collective consciousness by the mid-terms.
Nancy writes:
You have got to be kidding. The Oil Companies are the Republicans' baby. The question you should be asking is "How much will the oil spill HELP the Democrats?"
John writes:
It's just another nail in the Democrats' coffin, not enough by itself to cost the Democrats the election. But when added to the economy, unemployment, immigration, and all the other things Obama and the Democrats have failed to change for the better it is a problem they won't overcome. Obama has looked impotent when it came to dealing with BP and the oil leak. Hillary in 2012!