One year after Hurricane Katrina, the people have not forgotten:
“Bush did nothing for the people,” said one Republican, Joseph Ippolito, 75, a retired highway superintendent from Bayville, N.J. “Bush didn’t have the proper people in office to take care of Katrina. The whole administration is wacky — and I voted twice for him.”
Fifty-one percent of the people are dissatisfied with the way Bush responded to the emergency and 44% still have little or no confidence in his administration to handle a similar emergency, should it arise. This is quite different from Bill Clinton’s experience. When the Oklahoma City federal building was bombed, Clinton was able to rise to the occassion, show true compassion, and win the trust of the people. His sagging Presidency rebounded, and his reelection was assured. Not so, for Bush. His reputation remains in tatters.
“This is a real black mark on his administration, and it’s going to stay with him for a long time,” said James A. Thurber, director of the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies at American University. “It will be in every textbook.”
But Bush oh so wishes that we would forget Katrina, forget My Pet Goat, forget the August 6th memo, forget his frantic flight to Nebraska, forget his promise to wage a crusade, forget that he didn’t even know the difference between Shi’a and Sunnis before he asked Richard Clarke to find phantom evidence against Iraq…
Yes, if we can forget all of that, then maybe we can see him again standing on the rubble with his bullhorn, talking tough and making us feel better for a half a moment. Never in history has a politician attempted to get more mileage out of a single photo op. For me, Bush will always be reading My Pet Goat.
“I couldn’t stop watching the president sitting there, listening to second-graders, while my husband was burning in a building.” -Lorie van Auken.
That is my image. I even wrote an article (.pdf) about it. For many others, the image is of Bush peering out Air Force One as New Orleans drowned. Here’s Senator Susan Collins (R-ME):
“Unfortunately, it may be hard to erase the regrettable photo of him on Air Force One looking down at the destruction and devastation below,” she said. “That’s a searing and very unfortunate image that doesn’t reflect the president’s compassion.”
Anyone that expects compassion from George W. Bush has paid no attention to his curriculum vitae. He started out blowing up frogs with firecrackers and he hasn’t let up or changed his ways for anyone. With over 40,000 innocent lives already on his hands, he has nothing left to lose. If there is a hell, his place in it is secured.
