Barack Obama has invited the chairman of BP to the White House to discuss the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster as the President comes under increasing attack in the UK for his outbursts against the company

Has President Obama overstepped the line in recent days...what are your views and recommendation to the president?

Communication is always good! There are 3 sides to every story. Party 1, party 2 and what really happened.

There is no doubt that BP "pooped in the pool". This topic raised a discussion the other day with friends over lunch...

If we think about it, there are likely thousands of potential crises that require a decision to either address or postpone and hope for the best. This is usually due to being used to a certain standard of living that one resists changing.

Our recent economic downturn, which seems to be starting to recover, forced us to re-think what we are accustomed to. How many old bridges, for example are driven on every day that are deemed "dangerous and in need of repair" by engineers?A choice is made to fix or postpone and hope for the best.

The BP disaster appears to be one of those issues. They had to choose to improve the drilling process by taking proper precautions and stop taking shortcuts, or postpone and hope for the best. In this instance, hoping for the best didn't work so well.

But this could have just as easily been something else. A bridge collapsing, or a financial structure collapsing due to unsound rules of operation.

I am not minimizing this disaster. It is horrible and I am angry that shortcuts were taken that have harmed our natural resources, and the lives of so many innocent people by a company that will still survive after the crises is supposedly over, while so many will suffer.

I do believe that after this is over, there will still be thousands of potential disasters awaiting their "tipping point". Sometimes decision-makers will be lucky and postponement will allow inaction that harms no one. Sometimes not.

Where do we draw the line on this decision?

Interesting divergence in public opinion between US and UK. In the USA, Obama has been accused of not taking strong enough action.

Yes, there are many accusing him of inaction. But it does not appear to be the overall consensus here. Often, the most extreme views get the most attention. Squeaky wheel gets the oil. Our politics are way too polarized right now, making it difficult to play well together. Hope it calms down soon. :-)

Took a break from work and watched some of the FIFA games. South Africa and Mexico. Can't wait to see more. May the best team win today when England plays the US. -- I hope that isn't too controversial to mention amongst this readership. :-)

At the risk of hijacking this thread, there will come a day when the USA will win the World Cup 1-0 over Italy (or Brasil, or England, or whomever.) I just hope I'm still alive to witness the specatacle. Perhaps after watching the home-team Chicago Blackhawks win the Stanley Cup, I must have cup fever!

Obama is delicately weighing overseas relations versus his personal agenda here in the US. Make no mistake. The views of our foreign friends runs second to what the people pushing Obama want.