Posted on 10/26/2007 7:23:23 AM PDT by rightinthemiddle
President eager to show mettle after Katrina muddle
If there is a lasting image of presidential detachment that has haunted George W. Bush since Hurricane Katrina, it is the picture of him gazing out the window of Air Force One as he flew over the Gulf Coast en route from his Texas ranch to the White House.
It was two days after the storm, New Orleans was 80% flooded, and tens of thousands of people were trapped without help.
But the best their commander-in-chief could manage was a presidential flyover.
"It's devastating," Bush said then. "It's got to be doubly devastating on the ground."
It was. From that moment of inaction, the widespread perception of him as the go-to guy in times of crisis evaporated.
He was no longer the commanding figure who stood atop a pile of rubble at Ground Zero, his arm round a fatigued emergency worker, vowing to get the terrorists. He was the guy who, on his first actual visit to the Gulf, turned to Michael Brown, FEMA's bumbling director, and quipped, "Brownie, you're doing a heckuva job."
So it's no wonder that Bush -- with a year left in his second term and a legacy to consider --has been eager to show things have changed.
Ever since the Southern California wildfires burst into public view late on Sunday, the White House has been at the top of its game. As soon as Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger called for help, Bush declared a state of emergency in California. He followed up by agreeing -- again, at Schwarzenegger's request -- to designate the state a "major disaster" area.
(Excerpt) Read more at canada.com ...
‘Actually, this article is pretty neutral- the author is (rightly) pointing out that Bush not at his best during the Katrina aftermath and mentions that he had done better in the past.’
Yep. the simple fact is the President made a horrific decision by not cutting short his ‘vacation’ in Crawford upon learning the ‘big one’ was going to wipe out the Gulf Coast.
Intellectually, we all know the President can do whatever he needs to do from wherever he is, in Crawford, on AF One, attending a G8 summit in South America.
but the reality is by not heading to the Whitehouse, he failed ‘Leadership 101’ as it relates to the Presidency. He should have recalled the stinging criticism that resulted from his not returning to DC immediately on 9/11/01 to be honest.
This staying in Crawford, from a political standpoint, was one of the worst decisions he’s made in office in my opinion. When you are told a major US city is about to be wiped out, YOU COME HOME FROM VACATION.
Period. By not doing so, he handed the Democrats a gift they desperately needed politically after losing the 2004 election cycle. It led directly - but wasn’t the only reason by a long shot - to the 2006 massacre in the House and Senate.
Just my opinion.
That’s a lot of cheese buses.
Last night the liberal ex-fire marshal from southern California was blasting Bush and the governor on the TV for not moving EVERY fire fighting airplane and helicopter in the entire country to California. I guess he does not think fires anywhere else need to be fought. We had a fire two miles from our house last week and they had to use aircraft to fight it. But then we are a Republican area and I guess we don’t count.
It should be defunded. There is no actuary process and no assignment of risk vs. payment. If FEMA were worth anything, it would charge states or smaller regions for their insurance based on calculated risk. High risk areas such as those prone to hurricanes, tornados, or wildfires would pay a higher premium than those of us in low-risk areas.
And the deadbeat base of the democRAT party would have to pay their premiums for coverage as well.
Perhaps this should be privatized, like about 80% of the rest of government programs.
LOL — Again, looking for blame.
I said the same about Katrina.
You’ll notice this lib fails to natice that the people of Louisiana KNOW who was at fault in KAtrina, and elected REPUBLICANS all over the ticket, including Governor...
In California federalism worked the way it is supposed to. At least the people of Lousiana know the truth. If Blanco had run again, she would have got just one vote: that of her AG.
What planet are you from. The president went to NOLA 3 or 4 times. This writer is a hack that you agree with.
I really don’t think this article is about the disaster response itself, just about how they’re dealing with the political fallout. Hurricane Katrina was a disaster for the White House because they let the opposition set the agenda while this time the WH is pre-empting criticism.
Complete and utter horse crap! Bush was with Nagins and Blanco in New Orleans on Air Force One on Wednesday and asked Blanco to allow the Feds to take over. Blanco said she needed 24 hours to THINK about it.
I get so frikin' tired of "journalists" who don't know a damn thing they are writing about.
If President Bush walked across Lake Ponchatrain, the next day's headline would be, "Bush Can't Swim."
Annoying nit I just have to pick.
The President is not the commander-in-chief of the US, he is only the commander-in-chief of its armed forces.
As a civilian, I have no commander, in-chief or otherwise.
Except my wife, of course.
And to really be sensible they’d have to refuse coverage to anyone who builds below sea level.
And let me add to my other post that the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd responders (city, county, state) during Katrina fell flat on their faces! The 4th responder (the Feds) need to 1st, 2nd, and 3rd responders to be in place in order to get directions as to what is needed.
San Diego does ot have this problem because San Diego County is a REPUBLICAN County!
Lets see.
President rushes to disaster site, blamed for interfering with recovery and politicizing tragedy.
President doesn’t rush to disaster site, blamed for being detached and disconnected from electorate.
Pick one.
Read about the situation in Qualcomm Stadium in SD and compare to that reported in the Super Dome in NOLA after Katrina. No troubles in Qualcommm, Dante’s Inferno in the Super Dome. What is the difference between the two? The so-called MSM will never speculate, preferring to savage the GWB Administration than to blame the poor blacks in NOLA. Of course, there weren’t any poor people in Qualcomm...right.
The fact that the people of LA know who’s responsible does squat for the WH because the rest of the world doesn’t. A lot of that is due to the media, but the WH really screwed up in terms of getting their message out.
THe FACTS did come out, many in the middle of it all, but the MSM Action Line was already set...
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