Posted on 01/29/2009 12:25:59 PM PST by careyb
I guess she felt she couldn’t do it, 3 1/2 years ago, good grief!
Wow, she is impressive and thoughtful in that clip.
“I guess she felt she couldn’t do it, 3 1/2 years ago, good grief!”
That was not her job.....
The mistake President Bush made was related to public perception. The day he was told ‘Katrina is going to hit NOLA’ he should have returned to Washington DC.
I know, and most of you in the forum know, a President can do anything, from anywhere.
but the symbolism is a big part of the leadership process, and he blew what should have been a easy slam dunk as it relates to this.
He then further compounded the error by not defending himself in those first two days after, when the ‘Great job Brownie’ remark was played over and over and OVER.
OUT OF CONTEXT. We hear that claim all the time, but the context of THAT REMARK is ‘key’.
The President had just finished listening to a half dozen elected officials, many of them DEMOCRAT, singing Brown’s praises. Given that, even if he WANTED TO he couldn’t have evisicerated ‘Brownie’ at that moment.
Most of the troubles (not all, but most) were directly caused by poor communication with the American People in the previous administration. This is the most notable one, but there were many many others.
How sad that a woman of that caliber is wedged on a sofa between those morons.
She’s kowtowing to the libs by not directly telling them that it was their rotten state and local officials that screwed things up so royally.
Fine, defense is one thing, but they really should go on the attack.
90% of the problem with the aftermath of Katrina had to do not with local, state and least of all federal government, but with the diseased entitlement mentality and abject rejection of the concepts of personal responsibility and self-reliance by the denizens of Chocolate City.
Exactly!
Condi, for all of her faults, has been one of the few people from this administration to put loyalty over popularity with the DC cocktail circuit.
I know there is a good amount of animus towards Condi Rice on this forum and the case can be made and made strongly that as SoS she was in over her head. Point taken. But, fundamentally I respect her and her intelligence and I think in another position in the Bush admin she could have been very good.
And after thinking about it, she’s really not defending Bush about Katrina—she’s just defending that he doesn’t hate black people.
Bingo. In politics, if you're on the defensive, you're losing.
It'd be nice to finally see evidence of the actual existance of the fabled Republican Attack Machine about which the libs always complain .
Did Condi expose a hint of racism from those biddies on the View?
I note that they are very concilatory towards her over Bush, whereas White’s that defended Bush receive the full vitriol, especially from Whoopi.
Condi deserves to be treated with respect as a guest on the show, but shouldn’t others who too?
If they had a talent competition, Condi could take on Behar, Goldberg and Walters and make them look like yesterday’s fish. She’s a sports fan with a knowledge of stats; she speaks Russian; and she can play the piano.
Libs always seem to push mediocrity and laziness as a form of merit, thereby redefining the word “meritocracy.” The lazier one is, the more likely (s)he is to stand up to the system; the more (s)he stand up, the bigger a non-conformist the person is. The bigger a non-conformist, the more admired and more deserving of respect. Boy, talk about 1984!
She says that Katrina was one of the greatest disasters FOR the administration and for the country.
WTF? I agree with the latter. Why should a natural disaster be a reason an administration is a disaster? Totally disagree with her there.
Watch, it’s at 1:52.
Condi is so intellectually far above the women on this forum it isn't even funny. (Except for Elisabeth, who is perceptive and sees things differently from the others.) Condi had to speak to them as if they were children so they would understand.
Are there any facts supporting the notion that Bush was responsible for the Katrina debacle? If there aren’t, the dismal media should stop accusing him.
There is a chapter in Bill Sammon’s Strategery that discusses Katrina in detail. There were a lot of state vs federal issues...and Bush was quite gracious to the mayor and governor...he could have exposed THEIR lack of duty and ignored warnings as seen in their lack of preparation.
The problems were
1. That Democratic political hacks at the state and local level were incompetent to perform their duties and refused to work with FEMA because they sensed political advantage instead of disaster for their citizens.
2. The City was built under sea level.
3. The levies were of shoddy construction again because of incompetent and corrupt local politicians.
4. The Corrupt and corrupt local politicians took millions for disaster preparedness and never prepared for a disaster of this magnitude.
5. The MSM and the democratic politicians dumped everything on the administration.
Your explanation of the ‘Brownie’ comment is enlightening. I’d bet Ms. Behar on the video - as well as most folks - are completely ignorant of the context you described. I know I was.
‘Your explanation of the ‘Brownie’ comment is enlightening. I’d bet Ms. Behar on the video - as well as most folks - are completely ignorant of the context you described. I know I was.’
I know, most don’t. Its infuriating, but that was a failure by the Bush Whitehouse. I suspect its what Rove is referring to when he said a couple of weeks ago ‘there were some things we should have fought harder about publicly’.
Whats really important is this. EVERY MEDIA OUTLET had access to the ‘raw video’ including FOX NEWS.
They all held a lynching. It was sucesseful.
Doug Brinkley’s book ‘The Great Deluge’ is a must read for anyone wanting to know what ‘really happened’ in the years leading up to Katrina, what happened in the year before as it relates to the idiot mayor of NOLA and the evacuation plan, and Governor Blanco’s freezing up at crunch time.
Whats amazing is its Douglas Brinkley, not exactly a fan of former President Bush, or Republicans in general. But he lives in New Orleans, he knows all the local and state players, and stayed there during the storm.
Its a helluva book, and a great read.
Actually, there WAS a good evacuation plan, the problem is, the Stoopid Governor Blanco (D-LA) refused to activate it.
It is THE GOVERNOR'S RESPONSIBILTY, not the President's to activate the evacuation. Once she refused, Bush could ONLY have activated it by arresting the Governor and declaring Martial Law.
I agree with you HOWEVER the state and local governments created that needy monster. They should have taken responsibility for the dependents they created instead of blaming the Feds.
Condi is 100% class, 100% brains, and 100% talent.
Bush has always taken the high road, often at his own peril.
But his class should be our example. His low key exit from DC last week, and his graciousness towards Obama, were perfect examples of what a gentleman he is.
I hope he lives the rest of his years in peace.
I agree.
Bush should have headed back that day, rather than given a speech to veterans and playing a guitar.
It is about the appearances.
Perhaps it would not have stopped all of the unfair criticism, but it would have rendered some of it ineffective.
Yep. Water under the bridge...or over the city if you will allow...
Let's be clear, the optics of his response was terrible. In 1965, after Hurricane Betsy, Lyndon Johnson landed in the Deep South and mingled with the people, letting them know that he and the Government would be helping them in short order.
Bush's overflight of New Orleans was the beginning of the end of his Administration. It was fodder for a Democratic Party that wanted to paint the Administration as Out Of Touch.
Rice is right to defend Bush, and history will partly vindicate him, but his mishandling of the aftermath of the hurricane was what killed his second term. People turned him off after that.
As for Rice herself, I have always admired her, and have taken exception to the critiques of her on this board. She was much more of a Palmerstonian in the Second Term, and I was gratified by her hewing to a stricter sense of American national interest, and attempting to disengage us from overseas crusades which are none of our business.
Best,
Chris
Chris,
That’s an interesting and entirely reasonable take, perhaps too reasonable.
You missed the most important point - that the propaganda arm of the Democratic Party (aka The Mainstream Media) found, in Katrina, a way to mislead the public and take Bush down. He tried to overcompensate by giving too much largesse to NO and LA, thus losing support among conservatives as well.
bump
Fortunately, 80% of the city evacuated anyway.
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