A senior yet unnamed Obama administration official has provided the media with the five talking points to be included in the president's Oval Office speech on Tuesday. The speech, advertised yesterday by White House adviser David Axelrod as one that will lay out the government's steps to cope with the oil spill in the Gulf, is sounding more like a typical Obama speech designed to lay the groundwork for the advancement of his far-left agenda.

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According to that unnamed official, the 8:00pm speech tomorrow night will be 15 minutes long, will include an update on the government's response to the spill so far and the following points:

1. Reorganization at the Department of Interior in what was once MMS and mission of the Oil Commission to ensure a regulatory structure for safe energy exploration.

2. Discuss our containment strategy for capturing as much of or all the oil leaking in the Gulf

3. The BP claims process and what we're doing to make it fast, efficient and transparent and to insure its independence from BP.

4. The beginning of a process to restore the Gulf to a place better than it was before the Deepwater Horizon exploded.

5. Talk about what we must do to decrease our dependence on oil and other fossil fuels. (source)

On first glance, these talking points may seem to be in keeping with the immediate concerns of those directly affected by the spill. But, as with most things Obama, a word here and a phrase there can turn helping those he is sworn to serve into furthering his own political agenda via more federal power grabs. Specifically:

1. Reorganization at the Department of Interior in what was once MMS and mission of the Oil Commission to ensure a regulatory structure for safe energy exploration.
Controversial practices leading up to the firing of Minerals Management Service Director Liz Birnbaum have proven this is one government agency in need of reorganization. But is the administration planning on using the disaster in the Gulf not to clean house so that existing rules are actually followed but to add more layers to the existing regulatory structure?

2. Discuss our containment strategy for capturing as much of or all the oil leaking in the Gulf.
Exactly whose containment strategy will be discussed? Despite President Obama's "I take responsibility" at his recent news conference, it is British Petroleum that is devising containment strategy after containment strategy and, while Mr. Obama keeps posing for photos on freshly oiled beaches, he is not the one formulating such strategies. Is he meeting with BP executives to find out about such things? Yes, but ironically his first meeting with them will not be until the day after he delivers his speech.

3. The BP claims process and what we're doing to make it fast, efficient and transparent and to insure its independence from BP.
This certainly should be a high priority of the administration and hopefully whatever relevant information President Obama provides in this speech will give much needed assurances to those working families and business owners most affected by the spill. But whenever a member of the Obama administration utters the word "transparent," a collective chill should travel down the spine of the American people based on the past 18 months of opaque government.

4. The beginning of a process to restore the Gulf to a place better than it was before the Deepwater Horizon exploded.
To paraphrase former President and current Obama bagman Bill Clinton, that depends on what your definition of "better" is. As of now, the only future plans for the region revealed by the Obama administration has been a job and business killing six month moratorium on all offshore drilling. If "better" is to be defined as turning the region into an economic wasteland sacrificed to far-left special interest groups intent on destroying a vital industry, then the people of the Gulf Coast deserve much better than better from the federal government.

5. Talk about what we must do to decrease our dependence on oil and other fossil fuels.
The inevitable campaign rhetoric within the speech, this talking point will no doubt be another example of the administration's not letting a crisis go to waste. Taking advantage of the very real suffering of those on the Gulf coast to further a political agenda and not content to merely cripple the area's economy with his moratorium on offshore drilling, President Obama will likely attempt to deliver a death blow. The culmination of his speech will quite possibly be a push for such legislative nightmares as Cap & Trade and an energy policy that overburdens industry and kills even more jobs.

Of course it is also possible that the president's speech will contain useful information and evidence that he has been working both hard and smart to help those affected by the crisis in the Gulf. Perhaps Mr. Obama will not take advantage of the situation to push more of his political agenda onto the American people. And perhaps oil drenched pelicans can fly.