Last week, in closed door meetings with BP executives, Barack Obama and key members of his administration were assured that BP was on top of the oil leak disaster in the Gulf of Mexico and that their latest effort to stop the leak was almost a sure bet.

So with BP’s assurances tucked under his belt, Obama went before network cameras on Friday to do what he does best: claim a victory before it has even happened.

After weeks of playing golf and largely ignoring the oil leak, Obama declared, “the buck stops with me.” Obama took responsibility for the BP disaster, and he said his White House was “in charge” of the efforts to plug the leak in the crippled oil well that has already spewed 18 million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf.

The BP oil leak, which is entering its 43rd day, has overtaken 1989’s Exxon Valdez disaster as the biggest oil spill in U.S. history.

Just before jetting off to Chicago with his family to begin his Memorial Day weekend, Obama assured residents of Louisiana that he was calling all the shots and he forcefully pledged to “shut this down”.

That was on Friday (May 28) when Obama thought for sure that the leak would be plugged, and he would once again get credit for something he didn’t do.

“This is what I wake up to in the morning, and this is what I go to bed at night thinking about. The spill,” Obama said as he stood on a Louisiana beach that had been cleared of oil and tar balls by hundreds of volunteers who were bused in earlier that morning.

When Obama woke up on Sunday morning, he was told the sobering news that “the spill” would continue unrelentingly until August when a relief well can be drilled. “We have not been able to stop the flow,” a somber BP official told reporters.

Now that the oil has hit the fan, Obama wants to wash his hands of the BP mess before he’s covered in it.

According to the Washington Post, Obama has taken steps to distance himself from BP.

On Monday he dispatched Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. to the Gulf Coast to meet with federal and state prosecutors. Obama is pissed that BP didn’t come through on its promise to make him look good if he took ownership of “the spill.” There is talk now that Obama’s lawyers might launch a criminal investigation into BP’s handling of the environmental disaster.

If Obama opens up a criminal investigation into the BP debacle in the Gulf, will BP still finance his run for reelection in 2012 like they did in 2008?