George Bush Saved The Gulf Coast
by Big Dog on Sep 2, 2008 at 00:10 Opinion
Hurricane Gustav is losing strength by the minute though it will likely stall out and cause flooding in some areas along its path. However, the levees in New Orleans held, for the most part, and though there will no doubt be some flooding, the devastation will be nowhere near what it was during Katrina. This is because of George W. Bush.
Now I know George Bush did not rebuild the levees, he did not drive the evacuation buses and he did not open shelters to house people. In fact, all he did was lead from the top and provide assistance that state governors requested. But since the left blamed him for all the failures that occurred when Katrina hit, it is only fair to give him all the credit for the successes that occurred during this disaster.
It would seem ridiculous to give him ALL the credit when the five Gulf State REPUBLICAN governors worked together to ensure success by planning early and requesting federal assistance in a timely manner. However, since the president was to blame when state and local leaders were woefully inadequate he must be credited with the success when other leaders do their jobs well.
During the 2006 election season and during last week’s Democratic Convention we were reminded about the failures during Katrina. The stories about Americans being abandoned never mentioned the Democrats in charge of Louisiana as part of the problem. We were (and have been since Katrina hit) led to believe that this was a failure of George Bush and his administration.
Now that things went fairly smoothly during Gustav Americans must be reminded of how well the plans worked with REPUBLICAN leadership. America must be informed that George Bush did a great job when he was not hamstrung by a Democratic governor who was afraid to ask for help and too overwhelmed to demonstrate real leadership.
George Bush saved the Gulf Coast. I bet the Democrats who laughed about this disaster approaching are taking a second look. You see, when real leaders are in charge the probability of success increases.
I wonder if the MSM and the Democratic party leadership will acknowledge this amazing feat that President Bush pulled off. I imagine not since they were blaming him this far into Katrina and they have not said one word of praise since Gustav arrived.
The five Gulf Coast Republican Governors all worked well together and coordinated with the federal government. They were not lying in a corner sucking their thumbs like Ray Nagin during Katrina (he did a much better job this time) and they were not on TV crying about the destruction like Blanco did back then. They were leading people to get things done. Thank God Louisiana has Bobby Jindal as its Governor this time around.
I have little use for New Orleans and have been soured since the way people acted about Katrina. Having said that, I am glad that people evacuated and that the levees held. Those who stayed behind did so at their own peril and they are the only ones responsible for their fate. I pray for them and the rest of the Gulf Coast as Gustav exits and Hannah and Ike prepare to make their presence known.
Let us pray that the people down there get things back in shape before the next one hits.
Tags: blanco, Bush, gustav, jindal, katrina, leadership, nagin
In a sense you are right, but in another sense you are wrong. Many on the left blame only Bush. You on the other hand blame only the local leaders, mainly Democrats. Those are both flawed. The select committee on the Katrina disaster (I think correctly) found fault and placed blame on all levels of government both federal and local and found many key things hindered local law enforcement and relief crews on the ground.
You ignore the federal government’s role in disaster assistance and preparedness. To quote just the executive summary: “Critical elements of the National Response Plan were executed late,
ineffectively, or not at all” and this is why many people blame Bush, the head of the executive branch which if I’m not mistaken contain the White House, FEMA, and DHS, all of which are partially responsible for what went wrong during Katrina.
Adam, I’d like to ask you this:
If you hire someone to do a job who’s credentials say they are capable of doing said job, and they don’t do a good job & the other people in charge of other divisions that they have to work with also don’t do a good job, how responsible are you for their failure?
Depends on the job, I’d say. Am I running a business or am I running the United States of America?
I’m not one who blames Bush 100% for Katrina, but the Bush administration’s greater willingness than other administrations to hire people based on loyalty and not ability plays a large role I think in the blame for the federal governments failures in Katrina in other areas.
The simple truth for NOLA, Katrina and responsibility falls primarily on state and local government. With the long history of New Orleans there was plenty of time and resources to arrange for adequate protection or at least the best available at any point in time. A failure to meet the challenge is a failure of those who have chosen to live there and those in charge of state and local government. The rest of the planet is not required to cover their butts each time a hurricane threatens.
It makes about as much sense to blame the Fed for this as it does for people in, for instance in the state of CA, where houses are sometimes built on stilts and then the owner’s act surprised when they fall down or slide into the abyss.
A NOLA resident on Nightline yesterday complimented all concerned over the outcome with Gustav. He seemed to believe everything worked. Since Gustav weakened to a category one, how can he be so confident about things working right. If a category three or higher shows up, he may be quite distressed about how badly things go.
“I wonder if the MSM and the Democratic party leadership will acknowledge this amazing feat that President Bush pulled off. I imagine not since they were blaming him this far into Katrina and they have not said one word of praise since Gustav arrived.”
They will somehow try to take credit for it.
It was great to see this level of organization this time around. It was impressiv, less than 10,000 remained in the city.
Adam,
If you read any of my past posts on this subject you will see that I said that there were failures at the federal level. The federal government was not without prblems but people expected it to do what it is not set up to do.
I also, rightly so, placed most of the blame on state leaders. That is not to say, nor did I ever, that they are solely responsible, just that they bear most of the blame.
Also, all presidents hire people based on loyalty. Clinton gave Foster a job, and his police buddies. His FEMA guy was a rodeo clown.
If you ask me it seems that presidents keep bringing back retreads from previous administrations.