Perception Shifting

I'm not trying to make more of this than needs to be made, and I'll probably get some flack for it, but it strikes me as both a political and a human mistake for this picture, hell, this event to be allowed to take place during the very moments that a horrible toll was being exacted on a large swath of the southern coast.

It gets worse, however, for the President.  As New Orleans lay underwater, as Biloxi and Mobile had been wiped clean along the coasts, he gave a speech in California in which he led off, as almost a sidenote, with a few brief words about Katrina, and then proceeded to flog his almost stump-like speech that he's given around the country for the past two weeks about Iraq (full text of the speech is here, courtesy of Americablog).

And, let's tell the truth, the whole country thought that, as Katrina was approaching landfall, it wasn't going to be as devastating as it was.  Even after the she had hit, the horror that happened once the water started rising and levee's started breaking wasn't fully imagined.

But, by the morning after, we all knew.  We could all see it.  This whole country was captivated by the utter destruction.  And the President was still on vacation.

It wasn't until two days after the fact that the President deemed it important enough to cut his vacation short.  Even today, the reports out of Louisiana are that the Louisiana National Guard are still being mobilized, and haven't been inserted into the disaster area.

I'm sure I'll be accused of politicizing this tragedy. Fine, I'm guilty.  But I don't think it is inappropriate to mention this: On two separate occasions, this President has been in office during major tragedy.  In both cases he has been slow to act, be it in a school house in Florida, or a ranch house in Texas.  I also don't think it is inappropriate to mention that, in 2004, while the President was in the middle of a campaign, he couldn't get to Florida quickly enough to stand next to his brother and hand out water bottles to hurricane victims, but this time he could hardly be bothered.  I don't think it is inappropriate to ask what would have happened if Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi had still had their full compliment of National Guardsmen on hand.  I don't think it is inappropriate to mention that the President felt that it was okay to go about business as usual, giving the same speech he'd given dozens of times in previous weeks with barely a mention of the tragedy that was already well-established.

And, for God's sake, I don't think it is inappropriate to say that it is incomprehensible that this President felt it was acceptable to stand by, literally playing his fiddle, while an entire city was underwater.

Comments

[jo-fo]

Dylan, with all the knee-deep shit our President is getting himself into, I don't think that there's a way NOT to politicize this tragedy. It is unfortunate that it has to be that way, but W's lack of action doesn't give us many options.

For my two cents on the matter, as you mentioned with his brother Jebby, you can bet your ass that if this hurricane had hit Florida or worse, come close to Chimpy's ranch in Crawford that he would have been all over it like a loose chad on an election card.

What amazes me most, also as you said, that the Right Wing is still going on full-blaze about Iraq during this tragedy. Talking points! Talk about wearing ear muffs and blinders.