There is no way I will let the Bush Administration off the hook for the botched response to the after-the-disaster catastrophe in New Orleans. However, I will make these concessions for him, as well as Brown and Chertoff. Even though the president seemed clueless while touring the devastation (telling survivors that they should go to a shelter, when there was no shelter nearby, etc.), he did seem genuinely outraged about the federal response, and stated as much in public. A rarity. Now let’s see if he is true to those words by making heads roll. I just hope that the simultaneous arrival of the National Guard and relief supplies to make him out to be a big hero, ie, Bush shows up and things happen. That would be the most eggregious case of capitalizing on misery for political gain.
I’ll even cut Brown and Chertoff some slack. CNN did a blistering comparison of statements made by both men with the reality that was being reported on the ground. Brown and Chertoff praised efforts that were non-existent, or at the very least, wildly inaccurate. While this did make them out as fools to most of the world, their comments are most likely based on intel given them by advisors. I can just hear the conversation with their underlings, "You made me out to be a liar, or worse, incompentent on national TV!" I’m betting the only heads that roll will be assistants whose names we will never know.