With Rita bearing down on Houston right now I wonder how this will pan out for Bush Co.
If there is mass destruction like Katrina he has no choice but try to “be prepared” this time and make it look like they learned from their mistakes and make sure the recovery goes smoothly. If it is a mess again he’s in a world of hurt with people crying “how could this of happened again?! They have absolutely no control of the situation.”
On the other hand, if recovery and aid goes smooth as silk I can still see a Bush bashing coming a mile away with comments like:
“There must be more white people in Houston, that’s why they helped them but not us.”
“The only reason they got aid quicker is because it was his home state of Texas.”
“Of course they protected Texas, thats where all his oil is.”
None of which are grounded in reality but will still arise from the pissed off victims of Katrina.
Best-case scenario for Bush would be if the local response is so excellent that it obviates the need for immediate Federal aid.
That way, the blame filters down to the New Orleans and Louisiana governements which are run by Democrats, the credit goes to the Houston/Galveston and Texas governments, run by Republicans, and the Feds are seen as irrelevant in the big picture of disaster assistance.
If massive Federal help is indeed necessary in the short term as it was in New Orleans, there will probably be the kind of sniping that you’re projecting.
I’d say the logistics of supporting a massive SaR effort in Texas (if its necessary…my fingers are crossed it isn’t) would be much easier than it was in NO. The road infrastructure alone is vastly different than that going into and out of NO.
to answer the actual OP, I’d say Bush is generally in a ‘lose-lose’ situation reguardless of what the issue is…at least with those who are critical of Bush beyond all reason. Certainly he has enough to be criticized on…but there is a rather large segment in the country (and on this board) that is going to criticize Bush reguardless of the issue at hand. This will be one of them. Only if the hurricane doesn’t hit at all will Bush not be blamed for something…and even then he MIGHT get some blame that the hurricane missed Texas but hit NO. A certain ‘black leader’ might just imply that bush somehow managed to cause the hurricane to miss Texas…or perhaps redirect it to hit NO.
I of course would never bash Bush unless he deserved it. Rita is nowhere near the danger for him that Katrina was. It will blow in, the affected cities will get wet and there will be some short-lived coastal flooding. There will be no tens of thousands of people stranded in a shelter and there will be no babies dying of thirst and they won’t be picking people off their roofs with helicopters. The federal purse will be opened for the repairs and in a few weeks things will be essentially back to normal. Katrina was a once in a century event, Rita may be as strong or stronger but aiming for a much less vulnerable area.
If the feds have to manage an emergency in Texas because of Rita (which I hope doesn’t happen) and they handle it competently (which I hope they do), then that will reflect well on Bush, IMO. And that’s fine: I want the federal government to do a good job serving its citizens, and I don’t mind if some of the credit for good performance goes to a leader I don’t have much respect for. If he earns some credit with a competent performance of his job, let him have it.
However, I see no reason why anyone should expect that a good response to Rita should let Bush (or anybody else, for that matter) off the hook for a bad response to Katrina. No matter what Bush does, some pissed-off victims of Katrina are going to grumble about him to some extent, and I think he’s earned that and will just have to put up with it.
The American public, not being God, are under no obligation to extend total forgiveness to a sinner once he repents and reforms. They’re allowed to keep on criticizing him for stupid things he did earlier.
I will freely admit that there isn’t much that Bush can do that would make me happy, but I think he’s already done something stupid re: Rita – he’s visiting Texas before the storm hits.
So people who should be working like madmen making sure all preparations are in place, are diverted to managing a Presidential Visit – somebody is going to be given the task of making sure that there are mountains of supplies available for a nicely staged photo op. Streets are going to be closed, traffic diverted, etc etc – everything that’s involved in any presidential visit under the best of circumstances.
Bush could’ve said “I am monitoring the situation extremely closely, and I’m confident that federal and local officials have the situation in hand. My presence will only be a distraction from the important work these people are doing.” But no.
So he’s really screwed either way – either he looks distant & remote (as in Katrina), or he gets in the way.
I think Bush will be puked on, no matter what. If Rita and the following events are handled poorly - or just not perfectly enough, it will be pointed to as a SYSTEMIC FAILURE! If everything clicks and runs properly and efficiently, people will scream that he is favoring Texas. He’s screwed either way.
If he personally stays away, the chorus will be “that guy don’t care” and if he goes there, he will be attacked for favoritism or getting in the way, or diverting much needed “something or other”.
He can’t win, no matter what. No matter what, someone will be waiting to atack. It’s things like this that make some of us glad we never were presidents.
Sure, Bush is in a lose-lose situation here, but that’s his own fault. Nothing he does is going to resurrect the dead corpses that resulted from his bungling of Katrina and the fact that another hurricane came right after it that calls attention to his previous errors is just bad timing (for him anyway). He’s handling it all right this time around, but that’s what he’s supposedto do in the first place! Does he want a goddamned cookie for it?
Yup, I came up with the same point over lunch with my wife today. Bush is fucked either way. If the response goes poorly it drives home the previous screw-up. It the response goes well it emphasizes how much better Katrina could have been handled if he’d been more on top of things.
Unfair? Yes. But it’s his own doing. If the federal response to Katrina had been prompt and efficient his approval rating would be in the 60’s right now. He dropped the ball then and now he had to suffer the consequences.
You forget that after 9/11 and through the early invasion of Afghanistan, Bush had the good will of most Americans and people around the world with him. He has since then provided more than enough reasons necessary for the criticism against him. As our presidient, I for one, would like to see him actually do something right to the point of knocking it out of the ballpark for once. But he has raised the bar so high, I doubt he could clear it with a trampoline.
Rather, I’m expecting to see more stuff like Haliburton, KBR, etc. involved in more no-bid clean up contracts once Rita has passed through. He keeps fouling his own nest.
I think some people would blame W for whatever he does (mainstream media included), in that case it doesn’t matter, so it allows him to do anything.
After that there will allways be people who honestly disagree with the action taken, but this will happen no matter what the decision is.
I do feel N.O. was a failure on the local level, and the local gov’t personel in TX knows what happened in N.O. and are determined to not be seen as that incompentent - even before they get a pep talk from W.
I also wonder if those on the left generally feel that it is a federal issue and those on the right feel that it is a local issue, which would explain why a dem-local, 'pub- federal didn’t work out as each expected the other to act.
