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McCain Delivers Right Message in New Orleans

By Jeff Crouere

Friday, April 25 2008

Currently 0.00/5 1 2 3 4 5 Rating 0.0/5 (0 vote) This week, in his visit to New Orleans, Republican presidential candidate John McCain re-established his credentials as a maverick by strongly criticizing the Bush administration’s response to Hurricane Katrina. He also delivered exactly the right message in his comments about slow recovery. McCain promised that New Orleans would not be forgotten and he also pledged that the disastrous response to Katrina would “never again” occur. McCain did not back away from criticizing President Bush or Congress for their handling of hurricane recovery. He called the response “terrible and disgraceful” and said that there were “unqualified people in charge” and that “there was a total misreading of the dimensions of the disaster, there was a failure of communications.” Of course McCain is exactly right, as hapless bureaucrats such as former FEMA Director Michael Brown made the disaster much worse.  Brown was not the only bungler, as both Governor Blanco and Mayor Nagin failed leadership tests.     While President Bush waited several days before visiting the devastated region, McCain said he would have taken Air Force One immediately and landed it “at the nearest Air Force Base and come over personally.” In other words, he would have taken charge of a crisis and acted presidential. In contrast, Bush stayed on vacation after Katrina hit and his first impression of the disaster occurred during his infamous fly over two days after the hurricane made landfall.   It is refreshing to hear McCain express such strident criticism of the Bush administration’s handling of the crisis. It shows that he is not going to shy away from telling the truth about the faults of the Bush administration even though Bush is a fellow Republican and can offer great assistance to McCain during the race. In fact, his criticism is right on target as it was a “terrible” response. McCain is also making it quite clear that he will be a hands-on type of leader that is needed in the White House.   The next time a disaster strikes the Gulf Coast or anywhere in the United States, the horrible lessons of Katrina will help insure a more effective response. The ferocious hurricane exposed deficiencies in leadership at not only the federal level, but also at the local and state level. During his New Orleans trip, McCain again displayed his independence from the Bush administration and revealed an understanding of the problems of Katrina that bodes well for his success if he assumes the White House in January of 2009. ---- Jeff Crouere is a native of New Orleans, LA and he is the host of a Louisiana based program, “Ringside Politics,” which airs at 7:30 p.m. Fri. and 10:00 p.m. Sun. on WLAE-TV 32, a PBS station, and 7 till 11 a.m. weekdays on WGSO 990 AM in New Orleans and the Northshore. For more information, visit his web site at www.ringsidepolitics.com. E-mail him at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Bookmark

 

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