Comments on: George Bush Saved The Gulf Coast

By: Big Dog

Big Dog — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:39:52 +0000

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.

By: Greek George

Greek George — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 19:23:23 +0000

It was great to see this level of organization this time around. It was impressiv, less than 10,000 remained in the city.

By: Victoria

Victoria — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 18:04:12 +0000

“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.

By: Stanford Matthews

Stanford Matthews — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 16:27:48 +0000

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.

By: Adam

Adam — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 15:01:50 +0000

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.

By: Reason

Reason — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 14:31:29 +0000

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?

By: Adam

Adam — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 12:20:14 +0000

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.