Posted on 01/21/2009 6:45:30 AM PST by Ebenezer
Prior to Katrina, George W. Bush was a relevant President, with decent approval ratings, a Republican majority in Congress and at least a limited legislative agenda. Post-Katrina, Bush was a failed President, unpopular with the voters, incapable of passing legislation in a Congress controlled by the opposition party. After the incompetent response to Katrina and the public relations debacle shown on national television, President Bush clearly lost not only his stride, but his support. Regardless of what the President said in his final news conference, the federal response was slow and inadequate. The coordination between the various levels of government was wretched and the point person that President Bush entrusted to lead the federal response was an incompetent fool who did not have the credentials for the position.
Instead of doing “a heck of a job’” Michael Brown of FEMA and his federal cohorts were overwhelmed by the ferocity and devastation of Katrina. Instead of flying over the scene of the hurricane, President Bush should have arrived and been on the ground to direct the response and show leadership.. Instead of attending a political event in Arizona and sending in federal relief 96 hours after Katrina hit, President Bush should have canceled his agenda and flooded the region with federal support immediately after the storm washed ashore.
Presidents are expected to plan for the worst and handle emergencies. While the President succeeded after the 9/11 attack, he failed to lead after Katrina. Eventually, federal relief poured into the region and many people risked their lives to save victims, but the images of local residents screaming for food, flooded in their homes and crying for help were not forgotten by the American people.
The next year after Katrina, the Republicans were routed in mid-term elections, losing ground in both the House and Senate. It was even worse in the 2008 election, which was a referendum on the Bush presidency. The American people spoke loudly and clearly that they had enough. Now the Republicans are fighting for survival in a hostile political environment and President Bush is one of the major reasons for the GOP decline.
Overall, the Bush legacy is certainly mixed not only due to his handling of Hurricane Katrina, but also due to his response to the other major events in his administration: the 9/11 terrorist attack, the Iraq war and the financial crisis. While his aggressive response to 9/11 has helped keep our nation safe since the terrorist attacks, his response to the other major events of his administration have been unsatisfactory.
In his last few months in office, President Bush has extended the debt obligations of this country by several trillion dollars. In a recent interview, the President boasted that he “abandoned free market principles.” This is not what voters expected from a supposedly conservative President. This is money that will never be paid back. This country is facing so much debt that future generations will be in the financial hole for decades. This President will go down in history as the biggest of the big spenders. He turned surpluses into deficits, doubled the national debt, added government entitlements and new bureaucracies and became bailout crazy.
Today, in my view, he deserves a grade of C-. Although his tax cuts were helpful to average Americans and he appointed two good Supreme Court judges, his negatives clearly outweigh his positives.
Of all of the mistakes of this administration, the response to Hurricane Katrina should rank among the worst. The President’s image and popularity never recovered from Katrina. It is an open question whether historians will change that image. At this point, his prospects for redemption are doubtful at best.
Actually his final plunge came when he lost his base. And that occurred with the insane headlong push for amnesty.
Louisiana had a worthless Democrap governor and a moron Democrap mayor in New Orleans. THAT was the problem.
The Democrat Media used the flooding of New Orleans as a stick to beat on President Bush. They would have used it as such, NO MATTER WHAT HE DID. The media IGNORED Democrat Blanco's and Democrat Nagin's malfeasance in office.
Get this straight.
The Democrat Party Propaganda Machine deliberately and purposely ignored Democrat Party politicians' malfeasance, and invented accusations to throw at the Republican Party.
The so-called "news media" are not news media at all. They are partisan propagandists. Nothing they say should be taken at face value, particularly when it might be derogatory to Republicans.
The media slandered President Bush. And lots of Americans swallowed their lies.
It's that simple.
Because Congresscritters were just innocent by standers as usual. Who insisted the Dept of Homeland be created after 9-11? Congress. Who moved practically all Federal assets into that new Dept.? Congress. Who moved FEMA into that huge bureauacrcy? Congress. Who washed their hands of all responsibility? Congress. Who is the biggest collection of clowns and asshats in the universe? Congress.
Good thing we now have a president who can walk on water.
(I wonder if, in a pinch, he could make busses float as well?)
Jeff Crouere doesn’t understand that managers delegate, and subordinates get the work done. President Bush could have gone to New Orleans with a trainload of cheerleaders and megaphones and nothing would have been done any differently. But don’t try to tell that to these media drama queens.
DemoRats sabotaged the 2006 elections with another crisis called Hurricane Katrina.
Remember, they cannot waste a opportunity from good crisis to do things they couldn’t normally do. Just happened there was a congressional election in a couple months and the rats used the publicity to their advantage, true or not true.
Katrina wasn’t Bush’s fault. We all know that. But the rats welfare state made it a crisis of race and insensitivity.
The response of Texas durig the NO debacle was exactly what the response in Lousiana should have been. We took in peopel, cleaned them up, gave them food and care, both physica and spiritual and then resettled them. We protected their families.
I read recently, that the Federal response to Katrina was the FASTEST, and LARGEST Federal Government response to a natural disaster ever. I’m not sure this is true, but I can certainly think of none that match it in either fashion. If you want to see a BAD federal response, have a look at Hurricane Hugo.
The primary failures here were:
1) Abysmal response from state and local officials,
2) Horrible PR from the Bush staff.
I pretty much agree with the premise of the article... Bush’s approval numbers were never the same afterward. But, as one who grew up on the gulf coast, lived through many hurricanes, and spent several year living in the political cess-pool known as Louisiana.... I personally believe the federal response was awesome in scope and effectiveness.
Fecklessness, was the problem.. and, it originated with Kathleen Blanco.
Even if he did, the headlines in the NYT would be, "President Bush Can't Swim."
The Katrina response was a setup by Blanco, Nagin and the DNC to embarrass the Bush administration. It succed politically, although at a trmenuous cost in lives and suffering.
The Bush administration lost the PR war over Katrina badly and never recovered.
Personally, I felt that the AG should have prosecuted both Blanco and Nagin over their deriliction of duty in the face of the disaster. It may have not worked out in the courtroom, but, as the Republicans should have learned from the Delay fiasco in Texas, the pre-trial publicity would have been enough ( and the AG could have requested endless trial delays to string it out)!
She was just following orders from her DNC masters.
Here is history....exact timelines, who said what when, pressers, who called who when, what decisions were made when.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1472974/posts
Hurricane Katrina Live Thread, Part VIII
Hurricane Katrina Live Thread, Part VII
Hurricane Katrina Live Thread, Part VI
Hurricane Katrina Live Thread, Part V
Hurricane Katrina, Live Thread, Part IV
Hurricane Katrina Live Thread, Part III
Katrina Live Thread, Part II
Hurricane Katrina Live Thread, Part I
Tropical Storm 12
Horrendous from those who had ample warning to move and chose not to do so.
How many moons orbit your planet?
“but the images of local residents screaming for food, flooded in their homes and crying for help were not forgotten by the American people”
Processed oats, while communities all over the nation were scrambling to get aid to the victims, the Democrats (with the help of the MSM) were waging a political war against the president .... The suffering of thousands was secondary to Pres. Bush being discredited. I believe that truth will prevail and both groups (Katrina blew away the last vestiges of their credibility) will reap what they have sown .... unfortunately it will probably rock this great nation when it happens.
If this is correct, then the Democrats sacrificed the lives of thousands of innocents to win the 2006 and 2008 elections. This is as bad as what Saddam Hussein did in the the Gulf Wars and hat Hamas is doing now. Monumental incompetence is one thing, but this is pure evil.
Interesting...so Nagin and Blanco had NO responsibility in the whole affair? Their only job was to pick up the phone, tell Bush to come fix things, and then go back to surfing the web in their offices?
Really? What a laugh.
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