Last night, Bush stood naked in front of the entire world, exposed for the weak leader he always was, but was able to fool the world into believing he was a can do leader in the wake of the 9/11 disaster. Katrina and his performance, before and after,has dealt a fatal blow to that perception.His invoking tax cuts and enterprise zones, the age old remedies drawn from the Republican playbook, ring so hollow and laughable, that even his own party hacks can be heard groaning.His appointment of Karl Rove as the Reconstruction Czar, coming so soon after the sacking of Michael Brown, negates whatever goodwill he was trying to gain from his speech.
The entire Republican agenda of the past twenty odd years starting with the Reagan years and culminating in the current Republican disarray from Iraq to New Orleans, is now a shambles.The massive reconstruction effort he has promised in his speech, like everything else, is going to turn out to be a joke. Like the Third World aid programs, this too will be a handout to the haves led by Cheney’s Halliburton.The poor will be the worse off for it.
One hopes that this will be the end of right wing Republicanism. Couldn’t happen to a more deserving bunch, IMO.