I have to finally give Bush a little credit, tough as it is for me to do. He finally stepped up and took responsibity for the federal response to Hurricane Katrina. Yes, the federal response was abysmal. No, it wasn’t all the fed’s fault. Yes, Bush should have publicly accepted reponsibility a week ago. But at least he’s finally doing what a leader should: admit when things aren’t going well.
I’m hard-pressed to think of a previous instance where Bush has done this. Could he be turning a corner?
I think the emphasis should be on “federal response”. As head of the executive branch of government, he is taking responsibility for the supposed problems with FEMA. The same FEMA which had a two day FASTER response than they did with Hurricane Andrew in 1992.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05254/568876.stm
I do not think it is a coincidence that Ray nagin has been somewhat more subdued in his admonitions since the cavalry arrived. After all, this is they guy who left 400+ school buses empty to drown and who REFUSED an offer from AMTRAK to evacuate 900 special needs residents on a train they were moving out of the region. Instead the train left EMPTY!
Bush will take his lumps for sure, but everyone knows that while he is the head of the snake, there are many scales yet to come. Bush can now focus on getting past the public ire and make it right.
Also, just as a personal interest…how many bloggers feel that race played a part in the slow response? I am just curious.
Several hundred on a train … out of tens of thousands of evacuees. Can’t say it would have made much of a difference. I don’t blame Nagin if he decided to focus on other things.
As for the buses, they are pretty much useless if you don’t have drivers. With only thirty of New Orleans’s police officers showing up at one point, I’m betting that bus drivers were also in short supply.
As for your last question, I don’t think its racism. Ineptitude is more likely. On Blanco’s part, on Bush’s part (by way of Mike Brown), and Nagin’s part, in that order.
The Mayor should have used every resource at his disposal to evacuate anyone that he could. There is no excuse for turning down an offer of help, even if it was for a “mere” nine hundred people. Calling Nagin and Brown “inept” is letting them off easy.
Ok. That is a fair assessment.
I still feel like the guy (nagin) was talking so loudly to divert attantion to some of his own miscues. Like I said the 900 seat train was offered to take SPECIAL NEEDS residents out of harms way. 900 special needs residents, I bet, would constitute a larger drop in the bucket of special needs residents and it ended up leaving empty. How many people (sic. special needs residents) at the convention center would have rather been on that train??? Regardless, I am liking the Amtrak guys for making the offer…usually you only hear bad things about amtrak, like when a tanker train with vats of acid or nuclear waste fall into lake michigan because the driver was hopped up on some creeping red, sao paolo north slope trip weed. But, rarely does a private company have the foresight and concern to do the right thing…even if their help was refused.
I concur that the issue has more to do with ineptitude than race.