Sunday, April 27, 2008

McCain and Katrina

I have from time to time criticized Bush for his ham handed handling of the PR part of his job. Now we have McCain saying things that are untrue
and only reinforces the nonsense spewed by the MSM.


Next, McCain took up Bush-bashing. Touring New Orleans, he repeated the Democrats' view of Hurricane Katrina as, pre-eminently, a story of Bush administration incompetence. On ABC this morning, Chris Cuomo, of all people, asked McCain about his attack on President Bush:

Chris CUOMO: John McCain is taking direct aim at the Bush administration. The senator toured New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward as part of his "forgotten places" tour and sharply criticized the response to Hurricane Katrina, calling it disgraceful. He said the leadership failure after the disaster could be traced straight to the top, and he told our Claire Shipman it would not have happened on his watch. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MCCAIN: I've come here and told these people, "Never again. Never again will a disaster, either natural or manmade, be mishandled in this fashion."
It may be that the Hurricane Katrina mythology is so irrevocably fixed that McCain loses little by subscribing to it. More troubling is his willingness to bash the Bush administration's economic record, contrary to his own prior, more reasonable, statements.


McCain's staff needs to do some research.

Jason van Steenwyk is a Florida Army National Guardsman who has been mobilized six times for hurricane relief. He notes that:

"The federal government pretty much met its standard time lines, but the volume of support provided during the 72-96 hour was unprecedented. The federal response here was faster than Hugo, faster than Andrew, faster than Iniki, faster than Francine and Jeanne."

For instance, it took five days for National Guard troops to arrive in strength on the scene in Homestead, Fla. after Hurricane Andrew hit in 1992. But after Katrina, there was a significant National Guard presence in the afflicted region in three.

I write this column a week and a day after the main levee protecting New Orleans breached. In the course of that week:

More than 32,000 people have been rescued, many plucked from rooftops by Coast Guard helicopters.

The Army Corps of Engineers has all but repaired the breaches and begun pumping water out of New Orleans.

Shelter, food and medical care have been provided to more than 180,000 refugees.

Journalists complain that it took a whole week to do this. A former Air Force logistics officer had some words of advice for us in the Fourth Estate on his blog, Moltenthought:

"We do not yet have teleporter or replicator technology like you saw on 'Star Trek' in college between hookah hits and waiting to pick up your worthless communications degree while the grown-ups actually engaged in the recovery effort were studying engineering.


McCain should also add that if you choose to live in a nice city with lots of charm, even if it is below sea level, then it is your business. Just don't expect Aunt Matilda in Omaha to bail you out when the flood finally occurs.



2 comments:

  1. I'm flabbergasted! Is Mr. McCain a Republican? The economy did well until the 2006 election when the Democratic party took over the Congress. President Bush is unable to take any measure to rectify any problems re:unemployment and housing. Will they allow him to drill oil in Alaska? Mr. McCain should brag about the GOOD times we had for 6 years. I know because when things are good in USA, they're good in Canada.

    Mr.McCain probably watched Katrina on CNN. I've never seen so much soap-opera in my life. I sympathized and donated money. At the sametime, I wanted to tell people, "Get moving. Stop waiting for the whole world to put food in your mouth." I couldn't understand either why they rebuilt a city where they already had had a flood.

    We do stupid things too in my country. You don't want to know...

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  2. McCain is very much an enigma. But he is also a fighter. Perhaps getting his nose bloodied will get his attention when the GE gets here.

    In the meantime it would be to his advantage to not anger his base.

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