{"id":6056,"date":"2005-12-12T10:45:08","date_gmt":"2005-12-12T15:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/?p=6056"},"modified":"2005-12-12T10:45:08","modified_gmt":"2005-12-12T15:45:08","slug":"about-that-plan-for-katrina","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/about-that-plan-for-katrina\/","title":{"rendered":"About that plan for Katrina…"},"content":{"rendered":"

About three months ago, the federal government’s response to Hurricane Katrina was an international fiasco. Bush’s handling, in particular, was widely derided, his competence further came into question, and his approval rating fell even further. Time magazine reported a couple of weeks after the storm hit that the Bush gang had crafted a “Three-Part Comeback Plan<\/a>.” Part One of the plan looks almost quaint in retrospect.<\/p>\n

The first: Spend freely, and worry about the tab and the consequences later. “Nothing can salve the wounds like money,” said an official who helped develop the strategy. “You’ll see a much more aggressively engaged President, traveling to the Gulf Coast a lot and sending a lot of people down there.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That was then. Now, Bush hasn’t seen the Gulf Coast since Oct. 11. The massive Marshall Plan-style rebuilding hasn’t happened and the “comeback plan” looks like a rough draft written on the back of a napkin. Consider what Time’s Mike Allen heard<\/a> last week from Bush aides.<\/p>\n

White House strategists believe they have ended the slide in Bush’s approval ratings, which lately have been topping 40% again. “It’s time for the Bush comeback story!” one coached Time for this article. “The perfect storm has receded. We have better news in Iraq, oil prices are down, and Katrina has kind of fallen off the radar screen in terms of public concern.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s a fascinating juxtaposition. They see improvements on the war and gas prices, but they don’t see Katrina’s devastation at all. It’s not the situation on the Gulf Coast has improved; it’s that the situation now lacks political significance. If people in DC aren’t talking about the hurricane anymore, then Bush’s failures lack salience, which makes it easier to sell a “comeback story.” <\/p>\n

In September, the president pledged<\/a> to “do what it takes” and “stay as long as it takes” to rebuild New Orleans “higher and better.” Now, however, New Orleans doesn’t matter nearly as much, not because the conditions have improved<\/a>, but because the political world has moved on.<\/p>\n

It’s the politics of incompetence followed by the politics of limited attention spans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

About three months ago, the federal government’s response to Hurricane Katrina was an international fiasco. Bush’s handling, in particular, was widely derided, his competence further came into question, and his approval rating fell even further. Time magazine reported a couple of weeks after the storm hit that the Bush gang had crafted a “Three-Part Comeback […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6056\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}