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Obama Lashes Bush For 'Breaking His Promise' To New Orleans
The Telegraph (UK) ^ | 1-30-2007 | Alex Massie

Posted on 01/30/2007 4:19:04 PM PST by blam

Obama lashes Bush for 'breaking his promises' to New Orleans

By Alex Massie in Washington
Last Updated: 2:01am GMT 30/01/2007

Barack Obama, the Democrat presidential hopeful, used a visit to New Orleans yesterday to contrast President George W Bush's stubborn determination to persevere in Iraq, and his apparent unwillingness to do the same in the rebuilding of the hurricane-hit city.

During a special hearing of the Senate Homeland Security Committee in the city, Mr Obama said the President had broken his promises to the people of Louisiana by failing to do more to rebuild the city after it was hit by Katrina 18 months ago with the loss of at least 1,695 lives.

"In the weeks after Katrina, an ashamed nation looked at what had been allowed to happen here and said 'Never again. Never will we turn our backs on these people. Never will we forget what happened here'," he said.

"The President came down and said, 'We will do what it takes, we will stay as long as it takes, to help citizens rebuild their communities and their lives'.

"Just 18 months later, we heard not one word — not one word — in the President's State of the Union address about New Orleans," Mr Obama noted. "And so I have one more set of questions to ask today: 'Are we willing to do whatever it takes? To stay as long as it takes? Are we in danger of forgetting about New Orleans?' "

The city's fate has become a leitmotif for Democrats seeking their party's presidential nomination. Democrats suggest that the federal government's sluggish response to the disaster symbolises Republican incompetence and indifference in equal measure.

Democrats argue that rebuilding the ruined city is an essential litmus test for the administration and that the failure to make swifter progress demonstrates a failure of national will.

"I hope we get some answers to the questions today because rebuilding the city of New Orleans is not just good for the Gulf Coast or the state of Louisiana, it's good for our nation," said Mr Obama. He questioned whether the federal government was doing its part to help New Orleans rebuild.

He noted plans to raze several low-income housing developments, adding that "I haven't seen concrete plans to meet the long-term housing needs of all the displaced people in New Orleans".

Mr Obama and Hillary Clinton, his rival for nomination as the Democrat candidate for the White House, were, however, slower to embrace the political potential and symbolic resonance of New Orleans than former vice-presidential nominee, John Edwards.

Mr Edwards, the other member of the Democratic "Big Three", announced his own presidential campaign against the backdrop of the city's battered Ninth Ward last month.

Mr Edwards used the city's plight to illustrate his populist message that America is increasingly divided along economic as well as racial lines.

Feelings ran high at the committee's hearing as a protester shouting "Stand up for Justice" interrupted Senator Joseph Lieberman as he opened the hearing. Though the protester was removed from the committee room at the Louisiana State Supreme Court, his message was met sympathetically.

"It's hard to come back here more than a year after Katrina without feeling that emotion," said Sen Lieberman, the committee's chairman. "We're here to say that we understand the work is not done, to put it mildly."

After the hearing concluded the Senators were given a bus tour of the city so they could see how much more work remains to be done in New Orleans' poorest neighbourhoods.

Donald Powell, the president's co-ordinator for the Gulf Coast recovery effort, said the administration was doing all it could to support the reconstruction effort, but said that more time was needed.

"President Bush is committed to rebuilding the Gulf Coast and rebuilding it stronger and better than it was before hurricanes Katrina and Rita," he told the committee.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bush; neworleans; obama; promise
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1 posted on 01/30/2007 4:19:05 PM PST by blam
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To: blam

Someone needs to just tell this empty suit to STFU.


2 posted on 01/30/2007 4:20:51 PM PST by mkjessup
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To: blam
Hey Obama .. I know you like to have your picture taken with Superman

But tell me how one can rebuild an entire city/state in one year???
3 posted on 01/30/2007 4:21:14 PM PST by Mo1 ( http://www.gohunter08.com)
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To: blam
EMPTY SUIT cries foul. LOL. What colossal pandering.
4 posted on 01/30/2007 4:21:58 PM PST by onyx (DEFEAT Hillary Clinton, Marxist, student of Saul Alinsky & ally and beneficiary of Soros.)
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To: blam

Mississippi is recovering quite well, Osama.


5 posted on 01/30/2007 4:23:23 PM PST by Buck W. (If you push something hard enough, it will fall over.)
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To: blam

Nothing to see here folks, New Orleans is dying. The emotions of Americans are drained, pouring money into RAT holes. It's just to say we can remember how it was once. But it will never be again. Nails are in the coffin, MOVE TO HIGHER GROUND...you do believe in global warming, and you know that the creek will rise, so move...UP.


6 posted on 01/30/2007 4:23:28 PM PST by rovenstinez
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To: blam
"In the weeks after Katrina, an ashamed nation looked at what had been allowed to happen here and said 'Never again. Never will we turn our backs on these people. Never will we forget what happened here'," he said. "

Tell that to Ray Nagin, Mr Hussein Obama.
He s the one that left school buses standing while his own people drowned to death.
7 posted on 01/30/2007 4:23:34 PM PST by ShawTaylor
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To: blam

"we will stay as long as it takes, to help citizens rebuild their communities"

TO HELP> HELP

Not give away like there is no tomorrow on people that will piss it away or put trust into the same effing politicians that caused so much of the problems to begin with.

Re-elect Nagin after that?

SCREW THEM.


8 posted on 01/30/2007 4:24:12 PM PST by Names Ash Housewares
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To: blam

IMHO, GWB did a very very very stupid thing when he walked out on the WH lawn that day. It will haunt him for two more years and beyond.


9 posted on 01/30/2007 4:24:23 PM PST by Marine_Uncle
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To: Buck W.

isn't it amazing that everyone cites new orleans..and NO ONE will dare say mississippi or alabama..both of which are moving on without the crying and screaming..

if he wants to know why n'awlins isn't moving along quickly, simply compare the leadership of louisiana, mississippi and alabama..


10 posted on 01/30/2007 4:25:19 PM PST by GeorgiaDawg32 (I'm a Patriot Guard Rider..www.patriotguard.org for info..)
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To: blam

So sick of the constant whining from Liberals about poor New Orleans.


11 posted on 01/30/2007 4:26:33 PM PST by Rosemont
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To: blam

I'm from Lake Charles. We had a little storm too. Her name was Rita. We were devestated. We rebuilt. We didn't move to Houston to live off the government's teat. You don't hear Hussein Obama talk about us too much.


12 posted on 01/30/2007 4:27:04 PM PST by Hazwaste
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To: blam

Personally, I am sick and tired of NO crybabies. I have had it with every lefty politician that cries the blues about NO.

Pave the place and be done.


13 posted on 01/30/2007 4:27:12 PM PST by alarm rider (Fear of Hillary is the distinguishing feature of the average and even well educated conservative.)
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To: blam

Obama and Nagin, double chocolate in 08.


14 posted on 01/30/2007 4:27:15 PM PST by billhilly
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To: blam

Congressman Jefferson won't share the spoils with him unless he backs up the lie.


15 posted on 01/30/2007 4:28:09 PM PST by Steamburg (If we don't want our nation bad enough to protect it, it won't be ours long.)
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To: blam

obviously Obama is not willing to do whatever it takes when the security of our country is at stake. e.g., Iraq.

But, as long as there are govt. handouts in the pipe for N.O., the failed Dem Utopia, well, we should by all means do whatever it takes.


16 posted on 01/30/2007 4:29:04 PM PST by sappy
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To: blam

Barack Hussein needs to shove it up his skinny ass sideways and twist it.


17 posted on 01/30/2007 4:29:29 PM PST by Chi-townChief
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To: blam

Exactly what promises were broken? And what are the people of New Orleans going to do to rebuild their city? Galveston was rebuilt. San Francisco was rebuilt after the earthquake. Other hurricane-devestated areas have been rebuilt. Why does the Federal Government have to do it all?


18 posted on 01/30/2007 4:30:05 PM PST by popdonnelly (Our first obligation is to keep the power of the Presidency out of the hands of the Clintons.)
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To: blam

Obama? I remember him. Wasn't he running for President a few months ago or something?
Whatever.... Old news. The Obama fad disappeared faster than Tickle Me Elmo.


19 posted on 01/30/2007 4:30:19 PM PST by Lancey Howard
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To: Hazwaste
"I'm from Lake Charles. We had a little storm too. Her name was Rita. We were devestated. We rebuilt. We didn't move to Houston to live off the government's teat. You don't hear Hussein Obama talk about us too much."

Thanks for weighing in and giving real insight from that area. I am in Houston and we got the Katrina "evacuees" aka criminals. They just got an extension (i.e., free ride) to August 2007!

20 posted on 01/30/2007 4:31:05 PM PST by avacado
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