The growing oil slick in the Gulf Coast is threatening more than the fragile ecosystem and economy of the Gulf Coast region. It has seeped into the White House.

I would hate to have been Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano's scheduler this last week.

As the person charged with the federal response to the BP Deep Water oil spill in the Gulf, and the jurisdiction over the attempted bombing in New York City, Napolitano must have had more than a few early wake-up calls and some extra caffeine in her coffee this week.

President Bush learned the hard way that any real or perceived hesitation in addressing a natural disaster creates significant real and perceived consequences.

• 6 Ways to Help the Gulf • Rick Outzen: BP’s $25M Insult While some good old-fashioned police work captured the suspected Times Square terrorist suspect, and while the oil spill has yet to hit the coast, this last week provided a clear reminder to President Obama and his team of just how difficult it is to lead the free world. If it's not a terrorist threat, it's an environmental disaster. Or both.

President Bush learned the hard way that any real or perceived hesitation in addressing a natural disaster creates significant real and perceived consequences.

It’s a complicated and dangerous time in which we live. Those in charge must maintain hard focus 24/7. They can never relax. Not for a day. Not for a moment.

Look, for example, at the criticism heaped upon Team Obama, not by conservatives, but by left-leaning media for the administration’s sputtering response to the still-threatening oil spill:

—From The New York Times, U.S. Missed Chances to Act on Oil Spill:

“The Obama administration has publicly chastised BP America for its handling of the spreading oil gusher, yet a review of the response suggests it may be too simplistic to place all the blame for the unfolding environmental catastrophe on the oil company. The federal government also had opportunities to move more quickly, but did not do so while it waited for a resolution to the spreading spill from BP.

“The delay meant that the Homeland Security Department waited until late this week to formally request a more robust response from the Department of Defense, with Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano acknowledging even as late as Thursday afternoon that she did not know if the Defense Department even had equipment that might be helpful.

—From the Mobile, Alabama Press-Register: Despite Plan, Not a Single Fire Boom on Hand on Gulf Coast at Time of Oil Spill:

“If U.S. officials had followed up on a 1994 response plan for a major Gulf oil spill, it is possible that the spill could have been kept under control and far from land. The problem: The federal government did not have a single fire boom on hand.”

—Also from The New York Times, in Unanswered Questions on the Spill:

“A White House as politically attuned as this one should have been conscious of two obvious historical lessons. One was the Exxon Valdez, where a late and lame response by both industry and the federal government all but destroyed one of the country’s richest fishing grounds and ended up costing billions of dollars. The other was President George W. Bush’s hapless response to Hurricane Katrina. Now we have another disaster in more or less the same neck of the woods, and it takes the administration more than a week to really get moving. The timetable is damning.”

Losing the Times does not bode well for Team Obama, unaccustomed to the criticism now flowing even from Bill Maher, who asked: "Why isn't Barack Obama getting more s--t for the oil spill in the Gulf?”

Sensing the turning tide, the admin is ratcheting up the rhetoric.

—From CBS News, White House Dismisses Katrina/Oil Spill Comparison:

“Nothing will get you a faster argument from White House spokesman Robert Gibbs than to liken President Obama's handling of the BP oil spill to President Bush's flawed response in 2005 to Hurricane Katrina...To counter comparisons with Katrina, Mr. Obama declared ‘that’s why the federal government has launched and coordinated an all-hands-on-deck, relentless response to this crisis from day one.’ He made the reference to ‘day one’ three times in his 8-minute statement...”

—From the same CBS article:

“Above all else, the White House wants the strength of its rhetoric to be seen as reflecting the depth of its commitment to plug the leak and contain the spill and damage...It's a case the White House will be making over and over until the underground gusher is plugged and the spill is contained.”

And the P.R. firefight may be containing the spread.

—From AP on May 2, two weeks after the spill, Obama to do Everything `Humanly Possible':

“Obama rushed to southern Louisiana to inspect forces arrayed against the oil gusher as Cabinet members described the situation as grave and insisted the administration was doing everything it could.”

As businesses in the Gulf Coast region, still struggling to recover from four hurricanes in three years, braced for impact, few in the mainstream media questioned the president’s other scheduled event that day, the black-tie White House Correspondents Dinner.

But others are taking note of the Team’s priorities.

—From Politico, White House in P.R. ‘Panic’ Over Spill:

“The ferocious oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico is threatening President Barack Obama’s reputation for competence, just as surely as it endangers the Gulf ecosystem. So White House aides are escalating their efforts to reassure Congress and the public in the face of a slow-motion catastrophe, even though it’s not clear they can bring it under control anytime soon.”

With no time to recover, questions are now being asked publicly about Team Obama’s reaction to the thankfully thwarted Times Square bombing and how the no-fly list was not immediately updated.

A tough week for Team Obama, with high winds and rough seas still ahead. I wish them well and hope they heed the lessons of history in their own words. From then-presidential candidate Obama’s campaign fact sheet on Katrina:

“As president, Barack Obama and Joe Biden will keep the broken promises made by President Bush to rebuild New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. And they will take steps to ensure that the federal government will never again allow such catastrophic failures in emergency planning and response to occur.”

Team Obama should get credit for apprehending the Times Square bomb suspect. And they may dodge catastrophe on the coast. But, this bomber was pretty inept and it may only be because of fickle winds that leaking oil floats out to sea and away from the shoreline. This time. But there is only one thing that is for sure when you’re on the presidential watch. There will be a next time. And you better be ready.

As vice chairman of Public Strategies and president of Maverick Media, Mark McKinnon has helped meet strategic challenges for candidates, corporations and causes, including George W. Bush, John McCain, Governor Ann Richards, Charlie Wilson, Lance Armstrong, and Bono.