If you haven't seen it yet, check out Jim O'Toole's story on the political perils of the Gulf oil spill. As the graphic above shows, the pressure is on more nationally than in the region, which votes Republican anyway.

Here's a preview of Obama's Oval Office speech tonight on the spill, from the HuffPost. The last bit sounds a bit like what the president said at CMU two weeks ago:

1. He will address steps the administration's made and its ongoing commitment to "reorganization at the Department of Interior," specifically the Minerals Management Services, which was chiefly responsible for overseeing offshore drilling (and which, by most sober-minded accounts, failed in that mission). Along these lines, Obama will stress, according to the official, that the "mission of the Oil Commission [set up to suggest post-disaster reforms] is to ensure a regulatory structure for safe energy exploration."

2. The president will also "discuss our containment strategy for capturing as much of or all the oil leaking in the Gulf."

3. Obama will also address, "The BP claims process and what we're doing to make it fast, efficient and transparent and to ensure its independence from BP." The official could not comment on how specific Obama will get about Congressional efforts to lift the liability cap for BP and other companies. Nor was there talk about whether the President would give a detailed explanation of the escrow account that his administration supports for helping victims of the spill. The President is meeting with BP executives on Wednesday, at which point more details on such an account will likely emerge.

4. Obama will detail "the beginning of a process to restore the Gulf to a place better than it was before the Deepwater Horizon exploded," the official said.

5. Finally, he will "talk about what we must do to decrease our dependence on oil and other fossil fuels."