The good stuff starts about halfway through, when O does his “I’m engaged, see?” pose by stooping down to poke at the tar balls on the beach. I want this photo blown up to poster size and available for framing so that I can remind myself, in my moments of doubt, that he really does care.

Via JWF, here’s a detail that … won’t surprise you in the least, actually:

Perhaps you saw news footage of President Obama in Grand Isle, La., on Friday and thought things didn’t look all that bad. Well, there may have been a reason for that: The town was evidently swarmed by an army of temp workers to spruce it up for the president and the national news crews following him.

Jefferson Parish Councilman Chris Roberts, whose district encompasses Grand Isle, told Yahoo! News that BP bused in “hundreds” of temporary workers to clean up local beaches. And as soon as the president was en route back to Washington, the workers were clearing out of Grand Isle too, Roberts said.

“The level of cleanup and cooperation we’ve gotten from BP in the past is in no way consistent to the effort shown on the island today,” Roberts said by telephone. “As soon as the president left, they were immediately put back on the buses and sent home.”

They actually use the term “Potemkin-style backdrop” to describe what happened. While on the scene, Obama said, “BP is the responsible party for this disaster. But as I said yesterday and as I repeated in the meeting we just left, I ultimately take responsibility for solving this crisis. I’m the president, and the buck stops with me.” Does that mean the phony backdrop is his responsibility too? Considering that he’s already using a phony timeline to defend the feds’ response after BP’s rig first exploded, I’m going to go ahead and vote “yes.”

“Top kill” is proceeding apace, meanwhile, but it’ll be another day or two before we know if it worked. Exit question: Who’s that guy over Obama’s left shoulder in this video? He looks awfully shady.

Update: Ah, here’s that Potemkin-style backdrop now. And this wasn’t the only one. Tapper tells me that they were up to the same shenanigans on the beach where the media was headquartered, no doubt desperate to convince the cameras that the coastline wasn’t in quite as bad shape as has been claimed. Click the image to watch.