I went long the BP ADR again today at $31.80 before BP's audience with Obama. We'll see. I play this game with a guaranteed stop loss.

Having worked in Shell for for 12 years and then run various commodity outfits round the world, including a spell as commercial director for an early entrant to deep-water drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, it is cringemaking to see battle hardened oilmen like Tony Hayward of BP sitting opposite charlatans like Obama, Biden, Holder and Napolitano. Whatever BP's sins, the intellectual and operational gap is as wide as it gets. A multi-dimensional problem like running a vertically integrated mineral business stretches the mind and soul. Obama's only problem is "Does this make me look good?" Were Hayward to debate Obama on level terms, it would be like man and boy.