Obama promises Gulf Coast will 'return to normal'

THEODORE, Ala. - In a newly optimistic tone, President Barack Obama promised yesterday that "things are going to return to normal" along the stricken Gulf Coast and the region's fouled waters will be in even better shape than before the catastrophic BP oil spill.

He declared Gulf seafood safe to eat and said his administration is redoubling inspections and monitoring to make sure it stays that way. And his White House said yesterday it had wrested an apparent agreement from BP PLC to set up an independent, multibillion-dollar compensation fund for people and businesses suffering from the spill's effects.

He declared, "I am confident that we're going to be able to leave the Gulf Coast in better shape than it was before."

That pledge was reminiscent of George W. Bush's promise to rebuild the region "even better and stronger" than before Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Bush could not make good on that promise, and Obama did not spell out how he would fulfill his.

With Obama hoping to convince a frightened Gulf Coast and a skeptical nation that he is in command, he is marshaling the tools at a president's disposal: a two-day visit via Air Force One, helicopter and boat, a prime-time speech Tuesday night and a face-to-face White House showdown Wednesday with the oil company's excecutives.

From an enormous waterside staging facility here, one of 17 where cleanup crews ready themselves and equipment to attack the spill, Obama mixed his optimism about the ultimate result with warnings that the recovery could take a while.

"I can't promise folks here in Theodore or across the Gulf Coast that the oil will be cleaned up overnight. It will not be," he said, after encouraging hard-hatted workers as they hosed off and repaired an oil-blocking boom. "It's going to be painful for a lot of folks."

In Washington, meanwhile, documents released by a congressional committee indicated that BP took measures to cut costs in the weeks before the well blowout as it dealt with problems that led a company engineer to describe the doomed rig as a "nightmare well." The comment by BP engineer Brian Morel came in an e-mail April 14, six days before the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion that killed 11 people and began the nation's worst environmental disaster.

Obama promised tough words, and demands, for his meeting with BP officials, his first. The much-criticized chief executive, Tony Hayward, was expected there, ahead of a probable explosive appearance later in the week before Congress.