The back and forth on Bush/Katrina is interesting. My recollection is that there was some discussion in the WH as to whether Bush should fly in. Some of the political types thought he should. The operational guys pointed out that Louisiana was a wreck, logistics were all snarled, and the last thing that was needed was for a president to swing by for a photo op. That would require hundreds of people to drop whatever they were doing and suspend relief efforts to escort a pol. Bush agreed.
Naturally, the absence of a photo op junket on day two or three immediately bacame a key talking point in the democrats' "Bush doesn't care" campaign.
If a house were on fire, the typical democrat would let a six year old burn alive if it interfered with the picture. It is to Bush's credit that he put operational priorities first, and said the photos could wait. It is fascinating though not surprising to hear Rosie still taking cheap shots all these years later.
The back and forth on Bush/Katrina is interesting. My recollection is that there was some discussion in the WH as to whether Bush should fly in. Some of the political types thought he should. The operational guys pointed out that Louisiana was a wreck, logistics were all snarled, and the last thing that was needed was for a president to swing by for a photo op. That would require hundreds of people to drop whatever they were doing and suspend relief efforts to escort a pol. Bush agreed. Yes, but if Bush had been less of a Bush, it might have occurred to him that:
- He's the President of the United States, and the Secret Service takes orders from him, not the other way around, and ...
- if Louisiana was a wreck, the infrastructure of the bad guys would be snarled too, and it might have been within the realm of possibility to put together a "lite" security package and do a quick in-and-out visit that would show that he cared about the politics of the situation without putting himself in too much physical jeopardy.
After all, he visited a forward base in Iraq when there was still fighting going on, didn't he? I bet the Secret Service had to have a few things explained to them before they signed off on that one.