Ringside Politics With A Punch

Prior to Katrina, George W. Bush was a relevant President, with decent approval ratings, a Republican majority in Congress and at least a limited legislative agenda. Post-Katrina, Bush was a failed President, unpopular with the voters, incapable of passing legislation in a Congress controlled by the opposition party. After the incompetent response to Katrina and the public relations debacle shown on national television, President Bush clearly lost not only his stride, but his support. Regardless of what the President said in his final news conference, the federal response was slow and inadequate. The coordination between the various levels of government was wretched and the point person that President Bush entrusted to lead the federal response was an incompetent fool who did not have the credentials for the position.
 
Instead of doing “a heck of a job’” Michael Brown of FEMA and his federal cohorts were overwhelmed by the ferocity and devastation of Katrina. Instead of flying over the scene of the hurricane, President Bush should have arrived and been on the ground to direct the response and show leadership.. Instead of attending a political event in Arizona and sending in federal relief 96 hours after Katrina hit, President Bush should have canceled his agenda and flooded the region with federal support immediately after the storm washed ashore.
 
Presidents are expected to plan for the worst and handle emergencies. While the President succeeded after the 9/11 attack, he failed to lead after Katrina. Eventually, federal relief poured into the region and many people risked their lives to save victims, but the images of local residents screaming for food, flooded in their homes and crying for help were not forgotten by the American people.
 
The next year after Katrina, the Republicans were routed in mid-term elections, losing ground in both the House and Senate. It was even worse in the 2008 election, which was a referendum on the Bush presidency. The American people spoke loudly and clearly that they had enough. Now the Republicans are fighting for survival in a hostile political environment and President Bush is one of the major reasons for the GOP decline.  
 
Overall, the Bush legacy is certainly mixed not only due to his handling of Hurricane Katrina, but also due to his response to the other major events in his administration: the 9/11 terrorist attack, the Iraq war and the financial crisis. While his aggressive response to 9/11 has helped keep our nation safe since the terrorist attacks, his response to the other major events of his administration have been unsatisfactory.
 
In his last few months in office, President Bush has extended the debt obligations of this country by several trillion dollars. In a recent interview, the President boasted that he “abandoned free market principles.” This is not what voters expected from a supposedly conservative President. This is money that will never be paid back. This country is facing so much debt that future generations will be in the financial hole for decades. This President will go down in history as the biggest of the big spenders. He turned surpluses into deficits, doubled the national debt, added government entitlements and new bureaucracies and became bailout crazy.
 
Today, in my view, he deserves a grade of C-. Although his tax cuts were helpful to average Americans and he appointed two good Supreme Court judges, his negatives clearly outweigh his positives.
 
Of all of the mistakes of this administration, the response to Hurricane Katrina should rank among the worst. The President’s image and popularity never recovered from Katrina. It is an open question whether historians will change that image. At this point, his prospects for redemption are doubtful at best.