The media is conflicted. If a Republican were president it would be an easy deal. Just blame everything on the GOP resident of the White House, everything from the delay to attending the White House Correspondents’ Dinner while poor sea fowl are being soaked in hydrocarbons.

But it’s their beloved Obama who’s the resident of 1600 Pennsylvania, and that complicates things. Yes, we love the environment and do the bidding of enviro wackos like Al Gore, but we love Bambi, too, the media say. But, but, but, why did he wait 12 days to lift a finger, while rings of oils scum head toward the sacred wetlands of Louisiana and the sugar-white beaches of Alabama and the Florida panhandle? Should we, like, comment on that?

Already the mistakes are being treated in the passive voice in MSM headlines. In today’s News & Observer, the lead story’s headline is “Wetlands’ survival threatened.” Two years ago that headline would have been something like “Bush threatens wetlands’ survival.”

To make matters even tougher for the MSM, a video has surfaced that shows that from Day One the federal government knew this was a disaster of epic proportions, yet the president diddled and dallied, probably doing rewrites on his comedy routing for the correspondents’ dinner. Priorities, you know.

A National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration video, shot as officials coordinated response to the Deepwater Horizon disaster, shows that federal officials almost immediately worried that the oil well could leak up to 110,000 barrels per day, or 4.6 million gallons.

The video appears on a federal Web site.

It was filmed in Seattle, at NOAA’s Western Regional Center, as scientists and federal officials in Seattle, Houston and New Orleans engaged in telephone conferences, according to a companion document on the Web site.

So all those assignment editors and national desk editors are in a bind. Pushing their photographers and reporters to highlight all the greasy, oily devastation that would have been a staple during a Republican administration, now blows back on The One, The Messiah, their man Obama.

How will they react? It will be interesting to watch.