The Misguiding Republicans

Dick Morris wrote this New York Post editorial where he suggests that, yes, team Bush failed to respond effectively to the emergency in Louisiana, and as a result many more people died than it was necessary, but once the President gets his act together, this disaster will be a huge boon for his presidency.

Day after day after day, people will see a massive flow of federal aid to the hard-hit area. While the storm's intensity and the catastrophe it caused concentrated into a few days the horrific experiences of the poor victims, the rebuilding process will take months and years. This process, likely to become a theme for Bush's second term in the way 9/11 dominated his first one, will ultimately become a presidential strength.

I disagree. Yes, the reconstruction will take years, and it will be under everyone's eyes, but it won't be a pretty process. We already see how the usual suspects (i.e. Halliburton) are benefiting from the billions of dollars already approved for the recovery effort. People won't be pleased to see that the rich gets richer and the poor gets nothing.

This is not Iraq where people can be easily kept in the dark: we are not there, just the journalists, and the Pentagon is pretty much free to do anything it wants without much oversight. New Orleans is big, but not the size of France, and we all will be able to see the kind of reconstruction that goes on. A huge skyscraper, a mall where there was a residential area, a parking lot where poor people had their homes, won't go unnoticed. And judging from Bush's history, the stage is set, I'm afraid, for a lot of political scandals.

I don't think Bush will benefit from any of it. Also because the survivors will demand answers, once they get back on their feet. And if they don't, it's gonna be worse. They'll demand help, jobs, subsidies, homes, schools. The situation will be far from pretty for a long while.

And why don't I trust Bush's ability to succeed in gaining from the tragedy like he did with 9/11? Because, like I said in a previous posting, he's done. He doesn't act like he cares anymore. He doesn't act like he wants the job anymore.

Furthermore, look at the post-war planning in Iraq. Inexistent. And that was a planned event. Here, he's just stumbling around like a drunken sailor. And don't forget that New Orleans is still flooded; the bodies are just being recovered (just this morning they found 40 bodies in a hospital;) we don't know how many homes in the city will have to be knocked down, or how long that will take. I heard they're quickly setting up temporary living areas, but real homes are a different thing.

And people who have lost everything, have nothing to go back to, even when a home is rebuilt. All they'll do is look for a job and try to start over. But always with an eye to the investigations about what went wrong, who screwed up... and how to get back at them (that's why Bush is being criticized by Republicans as well as Democrats; everyone knows he screwed up and has nothing to lose; might as well point the finger at him.)

No, I don't think this will be an advantage for Bush. He lost his motivation the day after he won re-election. Now he's just coasting toward January 2009, when he'll finally be able to go back to his ranch for good, enjoying the rest of his life as a rich white men, riding his bike and chopping wood.

A failed president.