I don’t know if it’s been pointed out much, but like a lot of somewhat conservative independent minded voters, there were two things that really made up my mind that George W. Bush was as bad as everybody else was saying. One was his nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court, and another was his administration’s response to Hurricane Katrina. Iraq and Homeland Security already left me feeling queasy, and these two events caused me to give up on GWB in disgust. Unfortunately, both revelations came too late to vote about it.
I think Obama has already had his Harriet Miers moment, in the debt negotiations, and now comes Hurricane Irene. He’s disappointed his followers in terms of ideological principles, and if there’s any New Orleans moments on the East Coast forthcoming, he could persuade them – as Katrina persuaded me – that their guy can’t be counted on even in terms of basic administrative competence. And they might figure as I did, what the hell, let’s give the other side a try, or just stay home on Election Day.
Heavens to Betsy, I’ve made up my mind about an issue? Gosh, that makes me an SDMB anomaly, I know.
But I’m not even criticizing Obama. I’m just saying this is one more political risk for him and it will be interesting to see how it unfolds. Unbunch your triangle pants, comrade.
Oh no, not you. You’re not criticizing him, just expressing concern.
No way is the debt ceiling deal his Myers moment. Everyone can see that he was facingmassive resistance from the Pubbies. It’s odd that you would even compare the two: an unforced error by Bush, versus a less than ideal result coming out of a brutal, contentious negotiation by Obama.
As China Guy points out, Obama’s on the case. As usual.
The funny thing is that in the Miers case and in the debt ceiling negotiations, resistance was coming from similar (though not exactly equivalent) quarters. Bush did feel compelled to withdraw Miers, after all, following massive backlash from the right.
And you don’t think the left regards Obama’s performance as an unforced error? Many, many people were pointing out that Obama could have gotten the debt ceiling raised as part of negotiations over extending the Bush tax cuts back in December.
Missed edit window: “massive” backlash from the right may not be the whole story, though, and of course there was resistance from other quarters. But I do remember Limbaugh crowing how members of his fringe were able (in his view) to kill the Miers nomination.
The Myers nomination and Obama’s work on the budget aren’t remotely comparable.
With the SCOTUS nomination, all Bush had to do was find a safe conservative choice.
By contrast, everyone knows that the economy and related budget issues present a huge challenge to everyone in government and the nation as a whole.
Why compare the two?
By all means, get to work putting installing Perry in the White House. By that time, the work the Obama administration has done will bear fruit, and your boy can take the credit.
I’m an independant and not a Obama follower, so I do appreciate your *concerned *posts raising up these points you’ve been wondering. If I didn’t know better, I’d say its a page straight out of the IBM sales book "always cast doubt on the competition.
Hurricane Irene is not going to be nearly as bad as Katrina was. Katrina made landfall as a Cat 3 right near a metropolitan area that was being protected by levees with known design flaws. Irene made landfall as a weak Cat 1 on sparsely populated barrier islands and will weaken as it moves up the coast. There is no comparison between the two storms. This will likely cause severe problems for a few people, but not the widespread deaths and destruction that Katrina caused.
Sure, but mishandling this would make him Bushian. It does not matter what he does the Repubs will bitch. Fox will claim it was screwed up. i am sure they are recording those programs right now. No sense waiting til the last minute.
I’m not, anymore. Fortunately, about the time I was ready to throw a brick at my TV, which was interminably showing the mayor of New York droning on, and on, and on, and on, and . . . then! . . . they changed to the governor of New Jersey droning on, and on, and . . . the ball game started.
We did have a scare story on the news last night that we’d all better go buy gas, even if we don’t need it.
In fact, D.C. appears to be a bit west of the main track, and Martha’s Vineyard appears to be a bit east of the main track. (So far.) Six of one, half a dozen of the other.
Only because they haven’t prepared for it. A Cat 1 or a tropical storm shouldn’t really be cause for much alarm, certainly not the tales of the apocalypse being predicted.
