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.
I agree, the response was horrendous - the state and local response. Oh, you don't realize that the state has primary responsibility for evacuation and initial disaster relief? You don't realize that Blanco rebuffed efforts to federalize the response? You don't realize that Nagin spent Saturday figuring out whether he had the legal authoritity to force a mandatory evacuation? You don't realize that the state turned down federal offers of help to evacuate those in nursing homes? You don't realize that the state turned the Salvation Army assistance of food and water away from the Superdome?
You've been here five years and are still that ignorant of the facts?
KATRINA WAS THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE GOVERNER, NOT PRESIDENT BUSH!!
Honestly, it’s a wonder Bush stood tall while recieving all this calumny.
See post 33 and my post 41 - yep, some people apparently think that.
Bush’s biggest problem regarding Katrina is his inability to defend himself and lay the blame where it belonged. He always thought he was above answering to scurrilous attacks.
We have thousands of people still living in gubmint paid for housing and Billions of dollars were made available to those that needed it... and even more people that did not. Katrina has turned into nothing but another welfare program. Like I said... the left and the press only lie about Katrina... but then they lie about everything.
LLS
Katrina was the largest most massive federal response to disaster. It was also arguably the most swift.
It has little to do with photo ops in New Orleans and much more to do with Blackhawk helicopters riding on Navy ships that tailed Katrina all the way to New Orleans so they could instantly snatch deviant locals who refused to heed Federal warnings to leave.
More importantly, Katrina is the story of local democrats like Blanco who saw the disaster and suffering of New Orleans residents as a unique Partisan opportunity. By refusing to issue various emergency orders== as was done in the neighboring state of Mississippi— Blanco and others saw an opportunity to use the anti-Bush media to foist their own deliberate misconduct on the President of the United States.
Let’s stop and think about this. Killing innocent human beings in a political rhetorical ploy is part of the Democratic governor game plan in this nation. A similar stunt was later used by the democratic governor of Kansas.
This is what happened and we would do well not to forget it or refuse to speak the power of the matter.
Well, Brown was not a good FEMA head. But the heart of the problem was that Bush stood there and let the press and the Louisiana politicians run all over him, and never did a THING to explain what the real problems were—for instance, a governor who delayed the entry of the National Guard from other states for several days while she bought designer dresses, and a Mayor who had packed the NOLA police department with as many as 1/3 phantom employees, so he and his buddies could steal their “salaries.”
Yes, Bush did lose a LOT of credibility over Katrina, because as was too often the case he never even tried to counter all those lying critics.
I'm not much on conspiracy theory stuff, but I do believe this. The way Blanco has periodically popped up to stick another knife in Bush's back is evidence of her being "handled" - she just not savvy enough to do that sort of thing on her own.
No, I am not ignorant of the facts. I agree with everything you stated. However, Bush decided to shoulder the blame without pointing out the process that should have taken place as you mentioned. You and I are preaching to the choir, but the media is going to report only what they wish. Bush knew/knows the facts when it was going on, and made a blunder thinking that people would see what happened — Guess what??? They only saw what the media portrayed. Bush should have been in front of a microphone within hours pointing out the real facts, but he didn’t. Who is to blame for that?
How much have we spent on Katrina?
GWB failed when he appointed a crony to head FEMA in lieu of promoting from the agency within where there is vast experience in moving supplies and anticipating situations. How can a former horse auctioneer be head of FEMA? Simple, make a lot of donations and someone within the admin will lobby to have you placed in a fed agency so it will look good on your resume for a future career in private industry or government. This is nothing new in Wash DC (look a Panetta appt into the CIA by BO) but it is a practice that has to stop or one day some political appt will screw up in a critical agency and cost this country lives or money.
I happen to agree with the spirit of this. President Bush was a doer, for sure. But he was a lousy communicator. He was comfortable with small groups but he was very poor at communicating a vision to the country as a whole and getting it to buy in. I think that the contrast between him and Barak Obama is why Obama won the election. Say what you will about Obama, but he gives a good speech. He can get people fired up.
Now comes the hard part. The man who set a record in the Illinois Senate for voting “present” must now follow up words with deeds. He’ll find that much harder.
I happen to agree with the spirit of this. President Bush was a doer, for sure. But he was a lousy communicator. He was comfortable with small groups but he was very poor at communicating a vision to the country as a whole and getting it to buy in. I think that the contrast between him and Barak Obama is why Obama won the election. Say what you will about Obama, but he gives a good speech. He can get people fired up.
Now comes the hard part. The man who set a record in the Illinois Senate for voting “present” must now follow up words with deeds. He’ll find that much harder.
Good point.
I guess then, textbooks are not written by historians.
I worry too, about the whitewashing the press is likely to do on the Obama Presidency. Sadly, the press has a great deal of power, because in a perfect (or even sane) world their job is to inform (as you said). Unfortunately for the most part, they have become an arm of the Democratic Party. But a good deal of the blame lies with a lazy public who is more interested in entertainment than information. I suppose Obama is a cool story if you don’t know anything about politics. My liberal neighbors are so excited. It’s all I can do to be civil to them (and I like them—they’re nice people).
The Media doing the work of the rats had a perfect opportunity to do so because Bush is a punching bag as he never fought back and he had eroded his support with his moderate stance on too many important issues. By the 2006 elections he had steered the party into a decline. Still, there was a chance to have pulled out of the nose dive before the 2008 debacle had he done the right thing on immigration (75% of the country was behind that) and second he should have been more proactive in the coming election by noting some of the questionable associations and programs of the democrat candidate. The summation would be Bush was tone deaf so whomever he had who was supposed to guide him through potential media disasters should have been working parking cars.
I worked alongside the feds in rescue boats for over a week. In what way, exactly, was the response "horrendous"?
I think this is more a case of the Democrats doing what they always do when other tragic events such as school shootings occur... they use it for political gain. The regional evacuation plan (which Nagin pretty much followed to the letter) had been in place for several years. Though it turned out to be woefully inadequate with regards to Orleans Parish and the use of effective mass transit, I doubt that it was crafted by the DNC to ensure a high body count.
Exploiting such situations is no less evil than orchestrating them, IMO.
I remember hearing that responses had to be delayed due to apprehension about what the rescuers were going to face from the people that they were sent to help once they got there.-you know, like the guy who FIRED SHOTS at a RESCUE HELICOPTER-my understanding is that one action delayed things quite a bit-nearly a day.
It was a state/local government failure, exacerbated by the deplorable conduct of some of the people of New Orleans.\
However, Bush should have fought back when the media jackals and others smeared him-he didn’t. Now we’re all suffering.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.