I believe you have it exactly right. Incompetence cannot explain the pattern of behavior we have seen, except for Mayor Nagin.
It was a trap. And the full-court leftist attack was orchestrated.
But President Bush pre-empted one jaw of the trap by taking the initiative before the hurricane made landfall, and he avoided the other jaw of the trap by staying within his legal authority.
When you’re in a state of shock over seeing something horrendous such as Katerina , your emotional reactions are overruled by rational faculties. In that state of mind, you just want answers — you don’t want to be bothered with the facts. So your brain can then be molded as the Left desires. This is the psychology used so effectively by Democrats throughout history, and that mentality is being exploited and manipulated by the mainstream media. Back-biting, playing the race card Liberals have become overnight experts on disaster rescue operations. WHY Ray Nagin ignored his own city’s disaster plan, as well as federal emergency declarations, and failed to evacuate those people in his city who needed help the most. I guess that’s just the sort of administration they are. Nagin, naturally, was lightning-quick to broadcast a foul-mouthed outburst against the federal government for his own incompetence. And the mainstream media is in full propagandist mode pursuing a line of irrational, counterproductive nonsense. They are trying to strike while most of the country is still in shock — when the most flagrant lies are easiest to pass off as truth. The Left, CNN, ABC and other main stream media’s accusations that " Bush denied poor blacks" are fed by images of the worst of the worst in this disaster and is being used by Democrats in their mission to undermine the President.
It's bad enough that New Orleans and a considerable stretch of the Gulf Coast got wiped out by Hurricane Katrina, without bringing the race card into play. Politics has no business playing a part in the suffering these people are going through, yet some are ready to jump on the bandwagon to make sure their party is next to occupy the White House.