Gallup: little outrage, for Bush's ... response to hurricane (only 13% blame him)

Gallup ^ | 9/7

[Uncle Joe Cannon]

September 07, 2005

Public Skeptical New Orleans Will Recover Criticism, but little outrage, for Bush's and federal agencies' response to hurricane

by David W. Moore

GALLUP NEWS SERVICE

...

Despite widespread criticism of the response by Bush and, separately, the federal government, to the problems caused by the hurricane, the public seems on balance only mildly critical. Forty-two percent say Bush did a "bad" (18%) or "terrible" (24%) job, but 35% rate his response as either "great" (10%) or "good" (25%).

...

When asked to identify who was most responsible for the problems in New Orleans after the hurricane, 38% of Americans said no one was really to blame, while 13% cited Bush, 18% the federal agencies, and 25% state and local officials.

...

Few Americans feel that any top official in the agencies responsible for handling emergencies should be dismissed from office -- just 29% say someone should be fired, while 63% disagree.

[.cnI redruM]

I needed a towel for my keyboard and a refill for my water when I read the NRO Corner post last night.

[Pukin Dog]

I am really surprised that the defeated liberal media despite all the incredible blame Bush hysteria and lies in the last ten eight days and all the effort to make the most biased polls did not yet succeed to show that President Bush is to be blamed by majority of Americans for what happen during and after the hurricane. Both ABC news polls and CNN polls failed to do so despite an incredible method of bias that I am sure they have used to conduct these polls.

I'm not.

The worm has turned. The MSM no longer influences the opinions of most of America any more. Thanks to the Internet, most people can find facts on their own. The picture of those flooded school buses that were all over the Internet last week are the reason that the general public is not going along with the MSM on this one.

[Salvation]

**and 25% state and local officials. **

[piperpilot]

My how I love it when the Dims show their true colors and get slammed by the American public for it. It's just too sweet.

[mjustice]

Despite widespread criticism of the response by Bush

What the author fails to mention is that the criticism is overwhelmingly from the media and Hollywood. Most people (even the Bush Bashers) know that a federal response takes time.

MJ

[Rokurota]

That means even a good majority of die-hard Dems (~30%)don't blame Bush. The media's BS is being seen as is.

[RetiredArmy]

This cannot be right. EVERYTHING is Bush, Cheney and Halliburton's fault. EVERYTHING WRONG, ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING!!!

[Polybius]

Gallup: little outrage, for Bush's ... response to hurricane (only 13% blame him)

Why should they?

NOBODY was supposed to be left trapped in the New Orleans flood bowl death trap as 200,000 low-income residents were as a result of the gross and possibly criminal negligence on the part of the Governor of Louisiana, Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, and the Mayor of New Orleans, Ray Nagin, who failed to follow their own evacuation plan prior to the landfall of Katrina.

New Orleans is in a Storm Surge Zone, below sea level, and surrounded by levies that were only designed to withstand storms lass than a slow-moving Category 3 hurricane. That means that any person staying in New Orleans during a Category 3 or higher hurricane is facing a very high risk of death. Katrina was forecast as a Category 5 and hit as a Category 4.

What Is "Storm Surge" and Why It Matters.

The 2004 Hurricane Pam Exercise was modeled on a catastrophic destruction of New Orleans after only a slow-moving Category 3 hurricane. It was based on the assumption that there had been a complete evacuation of New Orleans. Shelters outside of the New Orleans flood bowl had already been identified:

Hurricane Pam Exercise Concludes.(2004 New Orleans Disaster Prediction)

President Bush requested that Governor Blanco allow the Federal takeover of the evacuation of New Orleans, and Governor Blanco, for political reasons, refused:

Behind the scenes, a power struggle emerged, as federal officials tried to wrest authority from Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco (D). Shortly before midnight Friday, the Bush administration sent her a proposed legal memorandum asking her to request a federal takeover of the evacuation of New Orleans, a source within the state's emergency operations center said Saturday..........The administration sought unified control over all local police and state National Guard units reporting to the governor. Louisiana officials rejected the request after talks throughout the night, concerned that such a move would be comparable to a federal declaration of martial law. Some officials in the state suspected a political motive behind the request. "Quite frankly, if they had been able to pull off taking it away from the locals, they then could have blamed everything on the locals", said the source, who does not have the authority to speak publicly.

The Southeast Louisiana Evacuation plan supplement, revised in 2000, page 13, read paragraph 5, stated:

5. The primary means of hurricane evacuation will be personal vehicles. School and municipal buses, government-owned vehicles and vehicles provided by volunteer agencies may be used to provide transportation for individuals who lack transportation and require assistance in evacuating. In spite of that,over four hundred New Orleans publicly owned buses remained parked in neat rows and 200,000 low-income New Orleans residents were left trapped in the ¡§New Orleans flood bowl¡¨ (as scientists call it) in the face of the incoming storm surge.

Those 400+ buses, at 70 passengers per bus, could have taken 28,000 of those low-income citizens per trip out of New Orleans on the inbound lanes that the Governor and Mayor inexplicably left unused during the evacuation.

As a result, 200,000 of the poorest residents of New Orleans were left trapped din a disaster waiting to happen with no where to go but the Superdome.

While 800,000 of New Orleans' residents with private transportation were being saved, 200,000 of New Orleans', low-income residents were left abandoned by the Governor and the Mayor in the New Orleans flood bowl to face a Category 4 Hurricane Storm Surge.

If the levies had failed catastrophically instead of at a few certain point as they did, the death toll would have reached Hiroshima proportions.

[SteveMcKing]

Watch CNN trash their own poll as "unscientific"... (then why are you promoting it?)

[Psycho_Bunny]

Despite widespread criticism of the response by Bush and, separately, the federal government, to the problems caused by the hurricane, the public seems on balance only mildly critical.

Very telling wording.

[gswilder]

Ultimately, this Bush blaming is going no where. If the dems thinks this will harm him, or they can impeach him over this, they are in dream land.

Americans see and understand the magnitude of this disaster. They are smart and understand to some extent what it takes to respond to something like this. And they see the unfortunate way some in NO have responded to this. (refusing to leaving, looting, shooting, etc)Americans know the local/state government play the key role before and right after the hurricane. They see the thousands of troops on ground and hundreds of helicopters in the air. They saw how quickly the feds took care of things once they arrived. Only the ultra leftist of kooks truly believe Bush would not respond to certain areas because of their class or race status. People who don't agree with Bush's policys know he is a decent, honest, caring, god fearing man.

As this goes on for weeks and months, the memories of the couple of days we were all frustrated with the response will fade away. People will see how quickly things come back to some level of normalcy. Already, we are seeing progress on fixing the levees and lowering the water levels. Trade is returning to the Mississippi river. Refineries and pipelines getting back online weeks quicker than predicted. Parts of the city NO will start opening back up within the next 7-14 days in my opinion. The good stories. The heroic stories will start to get out.

All of us wanted the response to be quicker. Of course all us wanted this disaster to never have happened. But natural disasters happen. People are hurt and killed. It's sad an unfortunate. But most Americans do understand the big picture. That's why no one is buying it's Bush's fault.

[MNJohnnie]

Watch CNN trash their own poll as "unscientific"... (then why are you promoting it?)

I wasn't. Never said anything at all about CNN. Guess you better try to ACTUALLY read the posts for a change Steve instead of just firing off a knee jerk whiny response.

[Larry Lucido]

I blame Bush that so few people blame him.

[MeanWestTexan]

Poor CNN. Best efforts failed.

First the memos, then the Witch in the Ditch, now this.

[tellw]

I think what's happened is that a lot more people than we realize are listening to talk radio to get news/commentary on the hurricane than simply watch the MSM. It's really been on talk radio that the state/local officials have been subjected to broadcasted criticism. MSM still doesn't get it that reflexive Bush-bashing is a loser for them.

[Husker8877]

And all 13% are on the news shows nonstop.

[MNJohnnie]

In fact Steve, I went back an read the whole thread. No one say anything about CNN trashing their own polls. Kind of curious why you are making things up now?

[jveritas]

We definitely have the Radio talk shows and the internet, the great Free Republic:) However we are way behind on TV and print publications (newspapers, magazines). I always wonder why not one or few conservative billionaires decide to establish a conservative cable news network. This conservative cable news network will be successful beyond belief because at least 70% of people who watch cable news constantly are either conservatives or lean conservative. TV is an important field we need to make progress on, newspapers do not worry me as much because they are dying.

PS: We cannot count on Foxnews to be a conservative network, not what so ever.

[SteveMcKing]

I did'nt mean YOU, it was a rhetorical question that one should ask of CNN.... sheesh.