How I Would Solve the Oil Leak

I am completely amazed that this oil leak has not been fixed yet. I do find it interesting that this seems to be the only problem Obama seems to be relying on a solution from the private sector. Every other thing he has looked to government to fix. Plus the only trick he seems to have in his bag is to spend massive amounts of money. Regardless of the arguments over who's fault the leak is, the Obama administration has done an abominable job at addressing the problem. The Gulf of Mexico is a national treasure that should be protected. Once it was determined that there was a large amount of oil spewing into the Gulf, the Obama should have immediately brought the best people together to address the amount of oil in the Gulf. The waited until it was too late to start burning the oil. They dragged their feet on allowing Louisiana to protect its shores with sand berms. They did not bring any tankers into the area to siphon the oil out of the water. Instead of putting the Environment first, they put environmentalists first. Governor Jindal is a Republican and Louisiana is a Red State, so Obama treated both with hostility, a major trademark of this administration. President Obama was nearly invisible during this crisis. He did not want to be associated with the leak, so he put politics above preservation of the Gulf of Mexico.

I have heard many, many solutions offered on talk radio and on the internet. The problem with most solutions is that they address the problem against the direction of the flow of oil. Putting a dome to stop the gushing oil. Plug the hole with golf balls, tires and other junk. Putting a cap on it. All these solutions fight against the pressure of the oil coming out of the hole. I am no engineer so I don't know all the terms that might be used. I will try to avoid using the word "thingy" in my description. My solution involves putting what I would call a sheath with a reverse seal. The sheath would be completely open when placed over the existing pipe. This would allow all attempts to seal the outside rim of the sheath without fighting against the oil pressure. Once the sheath was firmly over the pipe and the rim sealed, there would be an inner rim on the inside of the sheath. There would be (here is where I want to say thingy) a circular plate as wide as the sheath which would be wider than the inner rim between the oil and the inner rim. It would either act as a pop-plunger or by turning a wheel would rise up to seal against the inner rim. The oil pressure would push it against the inner rim and seal it even tighter rather than it being on the other side of the rim and pushing against the oil.

I am sure my description lacks the finesse of a true engineer, but hopefully it was good enough to understand. I am certain that in the end when this is resolved, the solution will be something like that.