Rove When Barack Obama announced he was running for president in February 2007, Nathan Gonzales of the Rothenberg Political Report wrote, “Obama’s history of voting ‘present’” in Springfi eld, Ill. — even on some of the most controversial and politically explosive issues ... raises questions. Vo t i n g ‘present’ is one of the three options in the Illinois Legi slature (along with ‘yes’ and ‘no’) but it’s almost never an option for the occupant of the Oval Office.”

Gonzales’s words were prescient. Obama is now president, but at times he appears to be merely present. That has been the case with his response to the environmental catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico.

The president was late recognizing the disaster’s magnitude, late in visiting the region, late in approving requests by Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, and late in feigning outrage. He has never offered an independent plan to stop the leak.

Obama also seems disinterested in hearing from experts about the spill. The White House’s “Deep Water Horizon Response Timeline” doesn’t list a single meeting between Obama and industry experts, though he did send Energy Secretary Steven Chu and others to Houston May 12 to meet with BP and others.

Yet while the president says his Nobel Prize-winning energy secretary has been “examining every contingency,” Chu was clueless about BP’s plans to install a cap over the well to funnel oil to a vessel on the surface.

Even now, Obama looks like a spectator, albeit an angry one, barking at White House aides to “plug the damn hole” and telling NBC’s Matt Lauer he’s in search of an “ass to kick.”

But the main political behind that’s being kicked is Obama’s. The latest ABC News/Washington Post poll says Americans give the federal government a 69 percent negative rating for its handling of the spill.

This pattern of being merely present has been apparent almost since the first days of the Obama presidency. He may unveil his mighty teleprompter to help pass what Congress has drafted, but this White House seems strangely disconnected from crafting legislation.

For example, last year’s stimulus was largely drafted by House Appropriations Chairman David Obey, one of Congress’s most liberal members. As a result, what passed was a wasteful spending bill rather than an economic growth package.

On other controversies — the attempt of high-ranking aides to entice candidates not to challenge incumbent Democratic senators, the details of cap-and-trade legislation, the resolution of big conflicts between the House and Senate versions of financial regulation, and the drafting of comprehensive immigration reform — Obama appears to be removed, distant and detached, unwilling or unable to provide the adult supervision Washington requires.

Karl Rove is former senior advisor to President George W. Bush.