in dealing with the spill and to distance itself from the London-based oil giant, formerly known as British Petroleum. Polls have shown a majority of Americans believe Obama has handled the crisis poorly. The administration has stopped using the same figures as BP any more for how much oil is flowing from the blown-out well and how much is being captured. Collecting oil BP said on Tuesday it had collected 14,800 barrels of oil from the leaking well on Monday, 33 percent higher than the amount collected on Sunday and the highest capture rate since it installed a new system last week to contain the spill. Video: Oil-regulation 'scandal' The latest attempt involves a containment cap placed on top of the gushing pipe on the ocean floor. The total amount of oil collected over four days was about 42,500 barrels, BP said Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the top U.S. official overseeing the cleanup effort, said on Monday neither BP nor the government knew just how much oil was gushing out of the well. "That's the big unknown right now," he said. BP has given conservative estimates of the oil flow that have been ridiculed by scientists and U.S. lawmakers. Even the government's much higher estimates of 12,000-19,000 barrels a day seemed on the low side after Allen said the company planned to double its collection of oil from the well to 20,000 barrels every day. The Post article, by nonprofit journalism organization ProPublica, said a series of accidents before