Chip Reid Surprised by Obama's Behavior, Less Surprised By Imus's

Reporting live from New Orleans, Chip Reid, CBS’s chief White House correspondent, told Imus that President Obama wouldn’t spend much time in the region during today’s visit.

“He’s going to pop in an pop out,” said Reid, who was surprised by how little time Obama has spent in this area, where an oil leak has been raging in the Gulf of Mexico for six weeks.

As for complaints that Obama has been invisible on this disastrous issue, Reid said the White House feels he is doing whatever work he needs to do behind the scenes. “The truth is, from day one they were holding meetings and sending resources down,” he said. “But you would think he’s a politician who understands the value of being out there publicly, and showing leadership.”

Reid offered that he and the rest of the White House press corps have been pushing White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs on this issue “like crazy,” and the message finally seems to be resonating that Obama needs to get out there.

Just before Obama’s press conference yesterday, the head of the Mineral Management Services either resigned or was fired, and when Reid asked the President which it had been, he claimed not to know.

“You’d think he’d be able to get in touch with somebody who could tell him,” Reid speculated. “With a couple of hours to find out, he said he had no idea.” Obama was willing to admit that his administration had moved too slowly clean up the messy MMS.

Though Obama’s schedule today calls for him to meet with U.S. Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen in Grand Isle, La., and then give a statement, Reid guessed there would also be an unannounced portion of the visit.

He was reluctant to compare this situation—an exploded oil rig, 11 people dead, a seemingly unstoppable flow of oil from a well thousands of feet below the earth—to Hurricane Katrina, when nearly 2,000 people perished. But he gave credit to President George W. Bush, who came down to the region seven times in 36 days in the aftermath of that tragedy.

“And this President will have been down here twice in 39 days,” he said. “It’s surprising that he would let it get away from him like this after he so harshly criticized Bush for his response to Katrina. You’d think he would have been so absolutely out front everyday.”

You would also think the I-Man would keep it to himself if he noticed a guest had packed on some pounds, but you’d be wrong in that case too.

“Are you kidding me? With my wife, she wouldn’t let me put on a pound,” said Reid, whose wife is a personal trainer. “She would beat me senseless.”

Might not want to advertise that, Chip.

-Julie Kanfer