Posted on 04/24/2008 11:14:50 AM PDT by CarmichaelPatriot
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - John McCain toured still hurricane-damaged areas of New Orleans and declared that if the disaster had happened on his watch, he would have immediately landed his plane at the nearest Air Force base. The Republican presidential candidate is campaigning this week in what he calls forgotten areas of the country. He offered a pledge Thursday to New Orleans residents that their situation will not be forgotten and that such a botched disaster response will never happen again.
McCain was unsparing in his criticism of the Bush administration. He said Congress must share some of the blame, too.
Drawing a sharp contrast to President Bush, McCain said he would have landed his plane "at the nearest Air Force Base and come over personally."
He sure seems to working hard to lose votes.
Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda Johnny?? Well, that’s an easy game to play, especially when you’re not having to make the REAL decisions at the time things are goin’ down.
BTW, I’m sure enjoying the passion exhibited in this thread, and here I thought I was all alone!
Which kind of explodes the Accepted Freeper Wisdom that local governments let Katrina sneak up on them.
I look at it this way, McCain is going to piss me off about 70% of the time, but Hillary and Obama would piss me off 100% of the time.
“Let’s not make this political?”
That would be fine, but it is the DEMS that made this political on the very first day the hurricane hit! Just like they made the Iraq War political. Then the media dutifully follows their lead...and now John McCain falls right in step with them, just like he always does!
This is the problem with our party..the republicans. THEY NEVER FIGHT BACK AGAINST THE LIES AND DISTORTIONS OF THE MEDIA AND THE DEMS!! I will never understand it!
As far as the monies for the levees disappearing down a State run RAT HOLE being ‘unsourced’...here:
Also, just google NO levees and see the money corruption involved in the local a state gov, and why the money was never put into good engineering.
“I’m sure Bush thinking back would say: If I knew the darn STATE government wasn’t going to do “the right thing”...I would have overridden them....”
“”That may not have been legal. The Feds were fairly begging the LA Governor to declare an emergency BEFORE the hurricane actually struck so that they could begin an evacuation.””
you are correct about the legality of such:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posse_Comitatus_Act
Yes.....long topic indeed. I don’t want to go there, either.
Can you imagine the logistical nightmare of landing a 747 unannounced, at a deserted airport with no ground crews (how would you even get out of the plane without deploying the emergency slides?), and the screams of what a "grandstanding cowboy looking for a photo-op" Bush was that would have resulted? He would have caught absolute hell from the media for adding chaos to an already-chaotic situation when he couldn't actually physically assist anyone. It would be pointed out endlessly that his role as President was to delegate and deploy assistance. Whatever Bush did, it would have been deemed "wrong," that was pre-ordained.
But McCain would have done it differently! I suppose he would have landed somewhere and swum to the rescue. Or dangled from a grappling hook out of the 747, plucking people from their roofs. And it wouldn't have been grandstanding, it would be because he really CARED! And his friends in the media would have nominated him for a Nobel Peace Prize or something. Whatever, he would have just handled it SO much better than the evil moron Bush!
This election is a nightmare, HillObama present the gravest peril to our nation and are the only reasons I may vote for McCain under extreme duress. Yet nearly every day brings a new pronouncement from him that makes it even harder to consider voting for this raging egomaniac who adheres to the fictional universe the Left has constructed. I shudder to think of the depths he will plumb in the days to come -- he has so many, many days left in the campaign to further offend conservatives!
That McCain is the BEST outcome realistically available in this election is both disgraceful and terrifying.
You are falsely implying that flood control funds were diverted to other projects. The article you cite doesn’t say that. The only relevance is that the Army Corps insisted on spending money to dredge the MRGO, even though almost all locals pleaded to have this highway of death closed down.
Don't you mean Federally FUNDED, locally designed, locally managed and funds locally siphoned?
So your point is what? Let's be like them?
No, I don’t. The Army Corps has accepted complete responsibility for what went wrong. Do your homework.
Thank you!!!
I thought I could force myself to vote for him because of the Supreme Court and the Fairness Doctrine, but I simply cannot abide this person.
Better an authentic Democrat in the WH than someone like McCain wearing an (R) after his name.
McCain Says Federal Katrina Response `Disgraceful’ (Correct)
By Edwin Chen
(Corrects to say approval rating at lowest of his presidency in fourth paragraph.)
April 24 (Bloomberg) — John McCain toured a New Orleans neighborhood still reeling from Hurricane Katrina and issued a new and scathing critique of the ``terrible and disgraceful’’ failure of the Bush administration’s response to the disaster.
McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, said that had he been president he would have immediately visited the area after the storm hit in August 2005. While he’s been critical of the administration’s Katrina response before, the Arizona senator’s remarks today were some of the sharpest he’s used.
``Never again will a disaster of this nature be handled in this terrible and disgraceful manner,’’ McCain said after a walking tour of the Lower Ninth Ward, a predominantly black neighborhood that was devastated by Katrina. ``History will judge this president,’’ he said. ``This was an unacceptable scenario.’
The New Orleans stop was part of McCain’s outreach to voters in economically struggling regions of the country and to black voters who historically have voted overwhelmingly for Democratic presidential candidates. He also has been seeking to show how he would be different from fellow Republican Bush, whose approval ratings are at all-time lows for his presidency.
McCain also blamed the spending habits of Congress, one of his signature campaign issues, for part of the devastation suffered in New Orleans.
``I would also place some of those responsibilities on the Congress, which funded pork barrel projects that were not only not needed but certainly not as important as some of the projects that were needed here,’’ he said.
The hurricane is blamed for more than 1,100 deaths, most of them in New Orleans. Thousands of the city’s residents were left homeless by flooding. For days, people seeking refuge at the Super Dome were largely left to their own devices there, without adequate food or water or sanitation.
``All I can say is, it will never, ever happen again,’’ McCain said after his walk, accompanied by Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, a Republican.
To contact the reporter on this story: Edwin Chen in Washington at echen32@bloomberg.net.
Don’t vote for the frakkin’ skinjob.
Are you saying there are no local or state races or ballot issues to vote in either?
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