AP (via WP): White House Trying to Regain Footing

[UpInArms]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/06/AR2005090601231.html

WASHINGTON -- The Bush White House is known for its ability to remain in control of its message and image, sliding out of crises with barely a scratch. Not this time.

Despite day after day of appearances by President Bush aimed at undoing the political damage from a poor response to Hurricane Katrina, the White House has not been able to regain its footing, already shaken by the war in Iraq and a death toll exceeding 1,880.

<snip>

"I think it's clear we're in damage control now," said Norman Ornstein, political analyst at the American Enterprise Institute think tank.

It's a troubling position for Bush, already suffering the lowest approval ratings of his presidency.

The mistakes have come one upon the other.

Even as Katrina was bearing down on the Gulf Coast that Sunday night and early Monday, Aug. 28-29, and the national hurricane center was warning of growing danger, the White House didn't alter the president's plans to fly from his Texas ranch to the West to promote a new Medicare prescription drug benefit.

...more...

[skooooo]

1. never never never will they regain their footing

they must GO!

[UpInArms]

3. best paragraph was on page 2

"It's going to be almost impossible to overcome the perception about the president that he didn't show compassion and didn't get control of the policy failures," American University political scientist James Thurber said. "The vivid images that are coming across the television are really destroying his image as a leader."

[corkhead]

8. Reality is ruining this poor Preznit's image

[renate]

27. the facts are prejudiced against him

:nopity:

[calimary]

23. YAY! Glad to hear it!

Too bad that part of it's squirreled away on page two. Maybe the press is starting to wake up...

They're the biggest offenders and enablers of the bunch. We've had NO watchdogs. NONE. Everybody just went along, protecting their backsides, afraid to say the emperor is running around naked. MAYBE, just MAYBE, things are changing.

We can hope, anyway.

[fooj]

2. We cannot afford to have these traitors in office for one more minute!

Peace.

[AlCzervik]

4. That is a good article.

kicked and nominated!

[Gregorian]

5. Paging Fitzgerald.

If you think your're in damage control now...

I just pray that either Roberts is put on hold, or that we can legally repeal some of the things this fake cowboy president has perpetrated on America.

Oh, and here's a swift kick!

[skooooo]

6. This is the calm before the storm for Bush.

[JNelson6563]

12. No, they're in the eye of hurricane

wait till the eye passes over.....whoooo-boy!

[AlamoDemoc]

7. Kicked and recommended

[killbotfactory]

9. they've been in damage control since day one

i can't believe they've kept it up so long.

[AZBlue]

10. They're done

It's too late. They've made mistake after mistake after mistake, fueled by their arrogance and self-righteousness. It's about time they meet the consequences of their actions!

[skooooo]

13. What can happen tho?

Republicans won't impeach, so what else is there?

[babylonsister]

19. Repugs might if they value their own careers; no one

wants to go down with a sinking ship. So a girl can dream...

[kster]

21. I think they

will, NOW anyway.

[cliss]

35. There's LOTS that can happen.

LOTS. Think of the American public, standing up by the MILLIONS. Demanding that this man gets out. Washington won't be able to stop it.

I guarantee it. SO much of this country is built on good-will, faith and trust in the system. When people stop co-operating, the whole machinery stops working.

I have a lot of faith in Americans. For sure: they are slow to act. But when they do -- watch out.

[Merlot]

37. Maybe the thought will creep up on some Americans that this

could be them next. It may be the worst wake-up call ever.

[calimary]

26. Sure hope so. I don't think our nation can withstand, or risk, three more

years of this kind of "leadership."

I said to my guy the other day - one thing we know for sure is that bush was never a Boy Scout. Boy Scouts are taught to leave the campground better than they found it. The same cannot, and WILL NOT be said about our country by the time bush is gone. However soon or far away in time that may be.

[CantGetFooledAgain]

29. Great meme

"American cannot take the chance of three more years under George W. Bush".

[countingbluecars]

11. Great article.

Thanks for posting.

[The_Casual_Observer]

14. He even sent his own mother and father out on a pathetic

and undignified pr campaign.

[anitar1]

38. Sent the parents out to the AstroDome and Babs put her

foot in her mouth. CNN was playing a recording of her nasty little speech this morning. Inferring that everyone there was on the dole and aren't they lucky now!

[leftchick]

15. bush** does not care about americans

hopefully they will finally get it. Oprah's show was devastating and resonates with MILLIONS.

[pushycat]

16. The damage is not finished

Bush will keep doing what he's been doing with impunity until he is stopped. So far, he can't be stopped. He has so much help from the MSM - people just try forget about bad news and try to concentrate on good things just to stay sane.

'Damage control' for whom? How about Katrina victims and their families? Maybe that stink tank, AEI, has some ideas for helping real Americans instead of making stupid statements in Bush's defense.

My governments' apathy and narcissism is stunning.

[onecent]

17. IF America doesn't get rid of Bush and Cheney through all of

this...THEN I AM ASHAMED to be an American anymore.

FUCK HIM...and cheney, rummy, rice, karen ALL OF THEM.

[BadGimp]

18. Is it TIPPING POINT yet?

I mean if this is not it, when the fark will it happen?

How much suffering and death do we need to endure for the sheeple to turn over from their face down prone position and say "HEY!!"?

[bpilgrim]

20. "I think it's clear WE'RE in damage control now," - RW THINK TANK

the M$M whores better start identifying these FAKE RW think tanks correctly now. ALL the media BS gotta stop NOW!

:argh:

peace

[trekbiker]

22. that was a good report of the reality... screw that heartless Bush

[icymist]

24. "We don't have time to play the political game right now"!

What he really means is "We don't have a political game at this time to play right now"! HA!

[Pacifist Patriot]

25. They cannot recover.

They controlled the movements of the press in Iraq. They're not embedded now.

[Joe Chi Minh]

28. They've certainly lost it in the UK,

which is actually very significant for them.

Tonight on BBC Newsnight, one woman referred to the "man-made catastrophe", enunciating the term quite slowly and deliberately.

Paxman, on the other hand, turned a characteristically mendacious and reptilian neocon senator participating in the discussions via satellite, incandescent, by musing whether * wasn't suffering from a kind of "political autism", responding to human traumas in wholly inappropriate ways.

[VegasWolf]

30. All thanks to Bush's new Faith Based FEMA! nt

[neuvocat]

31. He was 22% when this hit.

Needless to say it will only get worse for the Bush admin, especially with their mouthpiece (Rove) on the ropes.

[VegasWolf]

32. "W" is for water. nt

[robbedvoter]

33. Title has been changed already: Newsview: White House Falls Out of Step

[dchill]

34. "Trying to Regain Footing"

And this is the ONLY rescue operation being run out of the White House at this juncture.

[peacetalksforall]

36. I don't think anyone should say that they made mistakes. These were

cunningly planned and executed actions against the people. It's all about credibility. They are becoming decreasingly credible. They based everything they had on their faith in themselves and their arrogance for carrying it off. They miscalculated. They are not brilliant.

Their decreased credibility is what is happening to them. They are failing on credibility, not mistakes of the normal kind. The light is coming on for more people. That is what is happening.

They have been transparent to a sufficient number of people who could analyze, specialize, doubt, lose their fear of speaking out (especially in light of the great patriotism swell) and this sufficient number of people who had radio, e-mail, and BLOGS to gain confidence in accepting the doubt eating at them.

The doubters and knowers listened and dug deep and figured out what did not sell well. Slowly, the stories from the victims came out and the technologically inclined put the clues together. There has been a grand leak from the doubters and knowers to the former stalwart believers. (The exception will always be the born-agains who think Bush is god.

I now believe that their think tanks came up with a plan to do harm to a city that represents all that is abhorrent to hypocritical self-proclaimed moral saints. Their number one target is San Francisco and that back-up plan is still probably on the shelf waiting for an earthquake, but they got the second city of depravity because of a hurricane starting with a 'K'. In addition to depravity - they struck a trifecta - vengeance against depraved people, destruction of a depraved city, displacement and elimination of Blacks. Because they combined a disaster with known engineering weaknesses.

I believe they also wanted to measure the degree that they could hide their actions to destroy, determine the cut-off point for declaring or abandoning martial law, measure the degree of tolerance with ineptness vs degree of trust and credibility. And as always they want central governance that weakens state and local authority while they create a situation where the state and local authorities use state and local monies ('cause they've stolen our central bank for their own use and toys to control us).

They say - they want state's rights.
But, they really want - an SS national rule.
And - the use of national money for their own private and secret sub-government wars (stolen from us) for their agenda at home and abroad. The more national money used, the less they have to put their hands on to take for friends.

No, it's not a mistake = it is a serious miscalculation of agenda and arrogance. They are losing because everyting they are doing is not acceptable. Not credible. Not acceptable.