Determined to project both command and compassion, President Barack Obama is returning to the Louisiana coast for a fresh reality check on work to stanch the oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico and the spiraling effects of the nation's worst environmental disaster. The president underscored the mounting political implications by abruptly canceling plans for a trip to Indonesia and Australia later this month.

Addressing a crisis that threatens to undermine his presidency, Obama spoke for many Thursday in declaring himself furious at a situation that "is imperiling an entire way of life and an entire region for potentially years." Friday's trip will be his second to the Gulf in eight days, answering critics in both parties who suggest he has seemed detached from the crisis.

Polls show the public growing more negative toward the president's handling of the spill.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs announced late Thursday that Obama was scrapping his foreign trip — which already had been postponed — "to deal with important issues, one of which is the oil spill."

Speculation the president would need to rethink the trip, set to begin June 13, mounted as the administration came under increasing scrutiny for its handling of the Gulf spill. The trip was first put off while Obama was making the final push for his massive health care overhaul.

Obama had a sensitive political decision to make: Risk putting off two allies in a strategic part of the world once again or endure all the downsides, including an inevitable backlash, of being on the other side of the world during a crisis at home.

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