Bush bungled Katrina crisis, say Britons

[struggle4progress]

AN overwhelming majority of Britons believe that President George W Bush has mismanaged the response to Hurricane Katrina, a Sunday Times poll has found.

Fully 86% of people said his handling of the crisis was “bad” or “very bad”, while 70% said he was a generally incompetent president.

By almost three to one, 63% to 23%, people think the response to the hurricane would have been speedier and more effective if most victims had been white and middle class. By 67% to 19% they think race and class divisions in America are as bad as ever. <snip>

The poll uncovers deep hostility to Bush; 57% agree and 23% disagree that he is “one of the worst presidents America has ever had”. By 66% to 18% they think he is generally “not trustworthy”, and by 68% to 21% that he is “not really concerned about the fate of ordinary people”. <snip>

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1775072,00.html

[onecent]

1. The Brits are VERY smart!

[MnFats]

2. usually they are. but hey, they went in on the Iraq war...

...and Tony Blair even helped sell it.....

[sonicx]

5. Most Brits are against the Iraq war

Blair went anyway. They couldn't kick out New Labour in the election, because the alternative (Tories) is worse.

[JohnLocke]

9. Why not the LibDems, then? (nt)

[sonicx]

12. I just read that the Lib Dems are going to pledge support for

the flat tax in the next election.

If New Labour wins next time, it'll be by default (much like the last one).

[Greeby]

11. The "None of the Above" party won the last election

60% turnout, which by definition meant that Labour was returned to power by 22% of the electorate.

When you consider Thatcher came to power on 80% turnout, it's pretty pathetic

[Don Claybrook]

3. I'm so proud to be an American now

Where's Lee Greenwood? He should be here in a spandex getup singing his signature song (or is that his only song) for the 47,523'rd time.

[Gregorian]

4. The hurricane is only half of the picture.

Pan the camera back, and you see the rest of the picture. The funding is even more critical and damning than his response to the emergency. From his inaction during the crisis, and denial of preventative funding, it is nearly conclusive that he intended to create disaster in New Orleans.

[Laelth]

6. Agreed.

Cutting the budget of the Army Corps of Engineers is just plain stupid, but that's exactly what shrub did. Now we're paying for his domestic pennypinching (much of which is a result of his boondoggle in Iraq and foolish tax cuts for the rich). To any sane person, this looks like criminal negligence.

-Laelth

[indepat]

7. Tens of million of Americans are eat up with RW religiosity or ideology,

and tens of millions more by indifference/ignorance, so the popularity numbers for a Repug will never mirror the Brits' grim numbers.

[Feron]

8. Well when you have Bush butt-boys Jindal and Vitter saying...

that Bush dropped the ball, then you know that it was a FUBAR of herculean proportions.

[delete_bush]

10. Well, I bet they wouldn't be saying that

if they watched Fox, read Nat'l Review and the Wash Times, and listened to Rush and his pals all day.

I mean, where do they get their news, from the BBC, the Times, the Guardian?

[Hekate]

13. Karen Hughes to the rescue

Or not. Let's see her try to propagandize her way out of this one.

The problem, Ms. Hughes, is that Britain -- and the rest of the world -- are watching newscasts not censored by your pals. Why should they believe you over their own eyes?

Hekate

#Why won't the Chickenhawk cross the road?#
#Why isn't the Chickenhawk waitin' on the levee?#

[cliss]

15. That's the problem. As they desperately look around

for a White Knight, they dredge into their Cadre of Clowns. All they have are losers.

Bush only hired incompetent Loyalists, and that's all he's stuck with.

Bush is finished.

[conflictgirl]

14. What? I thought the rest of the world was concerned with the looters!

:eyes:

[texpatriot2004]

16. yeah, that's what Karen Hughes said. n/t