Hurricane Katrina Fallout Hurts Bush

[mirror]

Hurricane fallout hurts Bush, could hurt Republicans

Hurricane Katrina delivered a heavy political blow to President George W. Bush, potentially crippling his second-term domestic agenda and undermining Republican prospects in next year's congressional elections, political analysts said on Tuesday.

"There's going to be significant and long-term damage to Bush, especially because this disaster comes on the heels of a slow bleeding of his approval ratings over the past year that accelerated over the summer," said Cal Jillson, a political scientist at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

Before the hurricane struck, Bush's approval ratings had fallen to some of the lowest of his presidency -- 45 percent in Fox News and Gallup polls taken at the end of last month and 41 percent in a CBS poll. Voters were expressing growing disenchantment with the war in Iraq and high gasoline prices.

Now, those prices have skyrocketed and Americans face a winter of high prices at the pump combined with heating oil prices that are double or higher what they were last year.

Obviously Hurricane Katrina is turning into a serious political nitemare for Bush and the Republicans. And now there are going to be Congressional investigations as well. Americans know their geography and they know that Katrina covered at four Gulf states, so who else who be looking after four states except the federal government. I mean who else but the federal government deals with an incident covering four states. Of couse it is the federal government.

[Montgomery Burns]

Obviously Mirror has overdosed on the LLL Kool-Aid.

Mirror, the American public is not as gullible as you.

[crazymf]

I have to wonder about anybody that immediately uses a natural disaster for political gain. The wind was still blowing when the anti Bush hollering started.

What a bunch.....

[mirror]

I have to wonder about anybody that immediately uses a natural disaster for political gain. The wind was still blowing when the anti Bush hollering started.

What a bunch.....

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It certainly doesn't look good to see The Republicans, following one of the plays in Karl Rove's dirty tricks book, attacking and trying to blame the NO Mayor Ray Nagin, while Bush is accusing Democrats of playing the blame gain. Quite the crew!

[Black Dog]

I have to wonder about anybody that immediately uses a natural disaster for political gain. The wind was still blowing when the anti Bush hollering started.

What a bunch.....

I think there's a couple of ways to respond to this: first, there's nothing saying an apropriate amount of time needs to pass before politics coems into play. After all, the G.O.P was quick to use the tragedy of 9-11 to their advantage to push through their political agenda. Second, as 9-11 showed, there's only a small window of opportunity to demand accountability from this administration. It took two years for the administration to allow an investigation into 9-11, and even after that catastophic failure of the AMerican security apparatus, no one was fired and no one was held accountable. This is the "I didn't do it" administration: with people like these in charge, one needs to strike while the iron is hot if one wants any answers.

[mirror]

Waffling on Katrina could cost Bush dearly:

The mishandling of the hurricane response - which left tens of thousands of mostly poor African Americans stranded in swampy New Orleans without food, water, electricity and police protection for four days - has provoked ire not only among the American public and opposition Democrats, but also among his own Republicans.

Even Bush's former Secretary of State Colin Powell was dismayed.

"Not enough was done," he told ABC News in an interview Friday. "I don't think advantage was taken of the time that was available to us, and I just don't know why."

To stem the tide of criticism, not only Bush but also Vice President Dick Cheney, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other top officials have been touring the region to talk about the hurricane efforts.

The White House and leaders of Bush's Republican party repeatedly said it's not the right time to point fingers, while hastening to add that disaster relief is the responsibility of local and state governments.

For the American public, the slow response sent an unsettling message: despite the post-2001 terrorist attacks and ensuing federal efforts to improve response, Washington could not be counted on in the pinch.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and its Director Michael Brown took the brunt of criticism, not only from Democrats, who called for his head, but also in startling rapid-fire challenges from the broadcast media.

They demanded to know how Brown, who claimed he had no idea about a chaotic, violent collection point for New Orleans flood refugees had missed two days of live broadcast coverage from the scene.

Cheney got a whiff of public animosity Thursday in Mississippi, where a bystander hurled an expletive at the vice president - dutifully recorded in the transcripts.

Bush's behaviour during the storm added to public scepticism.

Before the storm hit, he was calling for people to heed evacuation instructions. But after Katrina crashed ashore, Bush barely broke a step from his scheduled routine.

Quite the group. It is painfully obvious Bush and the Republicans are in serious political trouble. I think it is only going to get a lot worse for them from here on in.