I don’t anticipate that the White House will take my advice, but here’s two things President Obama shouldn’t do tonight in his address to the nation.

1. Blame BP and Big Oil.  Good leaders focus 80% of their time on the solution and 20% on the problem.  People want to hear about solutions tonight.  They want to hear that the government has relaxed the necessary regulations to ensure a speedier cleanup and resolution to the problem.  Blaming BP and Big Oil will score the president points with the Sierra Club crowd, but that’s about it.  No one wants to hear excuses or listen to the president of the United States point fingers–just what he’s doing to address the problem.
2. Push a new cap and tax bill.  The economy is in rough shape.  The economy is still the number one issue on the minds of most Americans–not climate change.  Using this forum to push a fringe bill that only liberal Washington elitists care about is a mistake.  The president has proven to be politically tone deaf on more than one occasion.  Trying to push a new energy tax bill is not the way to go.  It’s bad policy and it’s certainly bad politics.

Now, having said that I will be very surprised if the president doesn’t make these points multiple times throughout his speech.