But they didn't do all that they should have done until after the damage was done.Now, she did go on to point out that I was exageratting in saying that he did NOTHING, and I AM, but not by a whole lot.
You're being generous. They didn't do ANYTHING AT ALL until a few days AFTER the damage was done. And even THEN they didn't do all they should have, let alone could have.
Katrina served as the trigger for the public's loss of faith in Bush. It was the point at which it was no longer sacrilidge to openly quetsion the Iraq War, and it was at that point that the image of Bush as our fearless, stoic, post-9/11 leader begans to crumble. And as it also kicked of the ridiculously high gas prices that started the ball rolling on the recession (which came early in Michigan, where I live) it also led to the dismantling of the myth that these clown could run the economy any better as well.
This will undoubtedly NOT be Obama's finest hour, especially coming a week or so after expandging offshore drilling! But the response thus far and the continued support that will undoubtedly come, has put and will continue to put Bush's Katrina responce to shame. This WILL have a net positive effect on Obama's approval rating in a regionof the country that is otherwose, arguably the most hostile. Could he win LA, MS or AL against a drill-baby-drill Republican in 2012? It's possible. We'll see...
But in the meantime, I dare the Republicans to try and block ANY of the aid and services he sends to the region.
This is not Obama's "Katirna." It's closer (not quite there, but closer) to Obama's "9/11."
I bring this up, becuase there will likely be a lot of discussion in the near future regarding chanegs in energy and environmental policy. That's the silver lining in all of this: that there may finally be some serious political will on the part of the public to, at a minimum, impose some serious and stringent (and long overdue) regulations on the oil industry. Now... I'm not celebrating this disater: Make no mistake, it IS a disaster. And it's sad that it typically takes a disaster to change public opinion. It's equally sad that our commitment to that change tends to fade over time. But if this causes Obama to back track some of that expanded drilling? AND get serious about alternative energy? Maybe for the next few months this short-term disaster will repriortize our thinking so that our short-sighted greed won't continue to trump our long-term interests so easily.
