The big three--LA Times, Washington Post, and NY Times--all weigh in today with long analyses of the inundation and collapse of New Orleans. While citing failures by officials at all levels of government, they make clear that the primary responsibility rested with the federal government, and in almost every way imagineable the officials in charge, up to and including the president, screwed up.
Well, the sources the Post used seem intent on saving Bushy by intimating that he was concerned from the start but suffered from a lack of accurate and timely information, as well as incompetent managers on the ground and hostillity between the Bushies and the governor of Louisiana and mayor of New Orleans, both Democrats. I'm not sure the Post version will fly. If Bushy were that aware and concerned, he should have acted more forcefully from the start.
Time and Newsweek have polls showing that Americans have become wary, if not disapproving of Bushy's abilities. They don't see that his government can do much against a human-made or natural disaster, either.
It's clear that the feds had the manpower, money, goods, gear, and jurisdictional power to take the lead in a disaster that quickly overwhelmed local and state authority--throughout the Katrina strike zone, not just New Orleans--but the Bushies were too incompetent and derelict to act.
The Washington Post also reports today that this same out-of-touch Bushy wants to have a policy for delivering a pre-emptive nuclear strike against terriers with WMD--presumably the ones they stole from Iraq. That's a terrifying thought.
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