Obama's remark about wanting to "know whose ass to kick" has been in response to a question specifically directed to the President, in an interview, as to whether he should be kicking more butt in the BP Gulf Oil Spill.
While the interviewer had asked President Obama whether this wasn't a time to "kick some butt" versus remaining calm and collected, Obama upped the ante by bringing "ass" into the picture:
"I'm gonna push back hard on this [BP Oil Spill disaster]. Because I think that this is just an idea that got in folks' heads and the media's run with it.
I was down there a month ago [in the Gulf], before most of these talking heads were even paying attention to the Gulf. "A month ago, I was meeting with fishermen down there [in the Gulf], standing in the rain talking about what a potential crisis this [BP Oil Spill] could be. And I don't sit around just talking to experts because this is a college seminar. We talk to these folks [the Gulf fishermen] because they potentially had the best answers [to the Oil Spill disaster], so I know whose ass to kick. Right? So, you know, this is not theater."
While President Obama claims his efforts in the BP oil spill disaster are not theater, Obama's on-camera remarks are being widely discussed as just that -- as an effort to compensate for his failure to handle the theatrics of the Oil Spill disaster properly.
In his interview with Matt Lauer, President Obama did "up" the nation's public anger quotient in using the term "ass" when Lauer had used "butt." While that "ass" kicking reference has spurred media attention, no ass has yet to be kicked in the BP disaster--well, certainly not BP's.