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Clinton's Disaster Response Took Longer Than Bush's
NewsMax.com ^ | Sept. 13, 2005 | NewsMax.com

Posted on 09/13/2005 8:26:42 AM PDT by kddid

Critics say President Bush's personal response to the Hurricane Katrina disaster was too little, too late - with an Air Force One flyover the day after New Orleans' levees broke and a trip to Baton Rouge two days later.

President Clinton, other the other hand, got glowing reviews for responding to his administration's biggest disaster, the Oklahoma City bombing - even though he took a day longer to arrive on the scene than Bush did last week.

New Orleans' levees broke on a Tuesday - and Bush had his own boots-on-the-ground just three days later on Friday. When the Alfred P. Murrah Building exploded on Wednesday morning, April 19, 1995 - President Clinton didn't travel to the scene for four full days.

And when he finally arrived, there was no grumbling by troubled pundits about the delay. In fact, Clinton's response to Oklahoma City is remembered to this day as the turning point of his political fortunes.

Writing this week in New York Magazine, John Heilemann recalls Clinton's April 23 speech about the bombing:

"With breathtaking subtlety and nimbleness, Clinton used that act of terrorism to illustrate the dangers of the wild-eyed anti-government rhetoric then in vogue among the Gingrichian GOP—a move that set him on the road to political redemption."

The real difference, of course, was that Clinton had a sympathetic media that was just as anxious as he was to blame the disaster on right wing Republicans. Bush, on the other hand, faces a press corps that couldn't wait to use Katrina against him.

The double standard becomes even more obvious when reaction to Katrina is compared with what remains the worst law enforcement debacle in U.S. history - the Clinton administration's decision to rout the Branch Davidians from their encampment at Waco.

More children were killed in that April 19, 1993 assault than died in Oklahoma City. Yet the Clinton administration received little if any blame - and no one was forced to resign.

In fact, after then-Attorney General Janet Reno publicly accepted responsibility, she was hailed as a hero by sympathetic reporters, an irony that's likely not lost on Bush's allegedly "disgraced" ex-FEMA Director Michael Brown.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: katrinafacts

1 posted on 09/13/2005 8:26:43 AM PDT by kddid
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To: kddid

"Clinton's Disaster Response Took Longer Than Bush's"

Doesn't matter. It's still Bush's fault. Bush could have issued a proclamation directing the storm away from NOLA and the damage would still be his fault. Too much blue sky? Bush's fault there is a drought. Too much rain? Bush's fault there is climate change.....yada yada yada....


2 posted on 09/13/2005 8:31:26 AM PDT by tracer_bullet (Tracer Bullet: visible under all light conditions, traveling at high velocity)
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To: kddid

Give Clinton a break. I'm sure it took a while to pull his pants up.


3 posted on 09/13/2005 8:31:47 AM PDT by neodad (Rule Number 1: Be Armed)
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To: kddid

Does Clinton's response time include decisions made while sodomizing the help?


4 posted on 09/13/2005 8:34:30 AM PDT by Spok (Est omnis de civilitate.)
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To: neodad

More likely, he had to get that tent back over Monika.


5 posted on 09/13/2005 8:35:38 AM PDT by highlymotivated (If American ever falls, a STINKING LIBERAL will be behind it.)
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To: kddid

A better example would be the 1997 Floods in North Dakota, I recall Clinton resonded much later than Bush did, yet the press gave him glowing reviews then as well.


6 posted on 09/13/2005 8:37:12 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: kddid

Oklahoma city responding was easy, bubba had prior knowledge of the bombing...


7 posted on 09/13/2005 8:41:09 AM PDT by aspiring.hillbilly (!...The Confederate States of America rises again...!)
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To: kddid
Of course, if Al Gore were the president of the socialist republic states of amerika, the hurricane would not have dared strike the USA! /sarcasm still on.
8 posted on 09/13/2005 8:41:40 AM PDT by RetiredArmy (All democrats are ENEMIES of the Republic!)
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To: dfwgator

Or FEMA's response to Hurricane Floyd and the floods afterwards. Apparently in Clinton's FEMA, they were unaware that a hurricane could ... cause widespread flooding.


9 posted on 09/13/2005 8:43:35 AM PDT by dirtboy (Drool overflowed my buffer...)
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To: dirtboy
Or FEMA's response to Hurricane Floyd and the floods afterwards. Apparently in Clinton's FEMA, they were unaware that a hurricane could ... cause widespread flooding.

That, combined with the fact that clinton had taken all the dykes to Washington DC with him.

10 posted on 09/13/2005 8:55:09 AM PDT by VRWCmember
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To: kddid

Slick willie never NEVER went to NYC following the 1993 bomb attack on the WTC.


11 posted on 09/13/2005 8:56:37 AM PDT by OldFriend (MAJ. TAMMY DUCKWORTH ~ A NATIONAL TREASURE)
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To: kddid

he would have been there the next day if it had involved babes instead of bombs.


12 posted on 09/13/2005 8:58:46 AM PDT by smonk
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To: kddid

John Heilemann, Rumpkisser.


13 posted on 09/13/2005 9:00:02 AM PDT by sauropod (Polite political action is about as useful as a miniskirt in a convent -- Claire Wolfe)
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To: tracer_bullet

Waco and Oklahoma City are BOTH George Bush's fault. He and Karl Rove planned both events while snorting cocaine together and enslaving black people.


14 posted on 09/13/2005 9:00:19 AM PDT by GianniV
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To: OldFriend
Hah! Can someone remind Katie Couric of that? Maybe if Clinton made a strong statement at the WTC following the '93 bombing, things would've turned out differently? Can NBC do a poll asking that??

How many bad things happened in '93 - Clinton's inauguration, Somalia, WTC bombing, Waco. Remember how much of a frightening debacle it was when he became President? I was just graduating college and still was shocked at the complete ineptitude of his administration.
15 posted on 09/13/2005 9:04:00 AM PDT by GianniV
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To: kddid

When you're dealing with the American news media, you're dealing with hypocrites who don't know a heck of a lot.


16 posted on 09/13/2005 9:11:47 AM PDT by popdonnelly
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To: kddid

Talking about a demoncRAT run city and state, the Prez will never get any points by the media or demoncRAT politicians. Their MO is the "Blame Bush" filthy spew. I'm still wondering where ole Mayor Nagin of NO came up with the 10,000 dead hype when only 400 bodies have been found especially with all those school buses that could have been used to ferry these 400 out of the city but instead are under water. Yep, Nagin and Blanco have a lot to answer for if the media would just focus in but we know they won't.


17 posted on 09/13/2005 9:28:12 AM PDT by lilylangtree
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