Today was a very good day for George W. Bush

[stevedeshazer]

He managed to defuse Mayor Ray Magin's impassioned plea by being seen with him in a "safe" part of NO.

He snubbed the Democratic governor, Kathleen Blanco, and made thinly veiled comments about HER handling of the crisis, supporting the Republican meme that this crisis is the fault of the local governments.

He managed to step in, even five days too late, and make Louisiana look like a failure, and saw to it that "refugees" who were "abandoned" were bused to Texas, making Houston and Governor "Goodhair" Perry look good.

He got national television coverage of himself hugging black children.

There's a lot of criticism even in the mainstream press, to be sure, but the Bush team accomplished today what they absolutely are the best at: covering their asses and blaming SOMEONE ELSE.

He rehabilitated the bruised images of Trent Lott, Thad Cochrane, and Haley Barbour by appearing with them and praising them on television and taking credit for stepping in, just as images were breaking in the media of the long-awaited supply trucks.

Make no mistake, this was a very good day for Bush and the Republicans. And it was and will continue to be blasted on millions of radios and televisions, compliments of the right-wing media apparatus.

The only question is whether it will be enough to offset the anger, which for most Americans will be forgotten in about a week.

Yesterday was a bad Bush day. Not today.

[melissinha]

1. Make no mistake

Governor Blanco submitted a request before the Hurricane following all the protocol that they are saying she didn't follow.


I heard volunteers with boats were told to wait overnight until Bush arrived so that they could make a good show upon his arrival.. not for his benefit but for the camera.

[Cha]

6. That's interesting...just what we

suspect cause bushwa doesn't operate any other way.

[stevedeshazer]

12. These tactics work.

We may not like it, but it's true.

At the end of the day, the people who are for him or against him remains the same.

[melissinha]

30. although I am as cynical as you are...

I suspect that given current poll numbers... the "for him" column are only die-hards, then there are die-hard progressives, then there are people who bought the "Republicans will keep you safe because they worship the military" propaganda that catapulted the whole "with or against us" patriotic drum beat.

Now that the administration has proven that they are inadequate at securing safety,maybe that majority column will see the truth... oh yeah and there are more Democrat veteran congressmen, go figure.

[Cha]

2. Not Enough!

People see right through this SHIT..this SHIT is just another flavor of koolaid for the addicts.

[StClone]

3. Never forget 9-11 and never forget the truth of NOLA

Maybe it wasn't LIHOP but the utter incompetence and callousness of Bush and the Republicans SHOULD never be forgotten no matter how Rove and the think tank wonkers wry neck the truth.

[Birthmark]

4. Nope. It was another baaad day.

He was caught attempting to manipulate with a photo-op while Fox News (of all networks) exposed that the situation hasn't improved one whit. Bush's attempt to manipulate has failed, as will all such attempts in a post-Katrina America. He can't unabandon the dead.

[msgadget]

5. I don't know that it was quite the success

because even the right wing papers people read this morning were critical - openly or mildly - of the response, blaming him, not Blanco, and what he said constrasted too sharply with what was being shown on tv. Granted those who love and adore him will pull from the rhetoric what they need but, no, I don't think this was a slam dunk. It was, for most of the nation, a rather weak showing in the face of so much ugliness.

[Erika]

7. His too late, too little has irritated the media

They see him as incompetent, which he is.

[FloridaPat]

8. The public has been watching this disaster for 6 days. I include

Sunday because we were watching the preparation too. I personally have been watching it 4-10 hours a day. He was on what, 1-2 hours today? Saying the same crap he's always been saying. The public has been screaming for days "where's the water, where's the food, where's the NG, where's the buses". I don't think * has wiped out that image. We've been watching truth for 6 days. Real truth. One truth we've seen - everything the government has told the media has been a lie. Everything.

[Ilsa]

9. Don't forget how he praised Mike Brown.

No way was he going to let his boy take any blame for this.

[DemsUnited]

25. "Brownie" is going down in flames, believe me.

He said some criminally stupid things the last few days. Plus, his "resume" is being floated around and it is laughable that this clueless guy was given FEMA director position.

[stevedeshazer]

37. He'll be the ceremonial fall guy.

There's a long list. He'll be forced out.

George Tenet, Paul O'Neill, Richard Clarke, and so on.

Never George W. Bush. Never.

Next year, Brown will receive a Medal of Freedom and a better job.

[napi21]

10. I think you're wrong on this one. There's way too many TV programs

asking the same question..."What took so long?"

Many of the tipical Pub slanted guys are slamming the Feds. Oh I know Rove sent Shrub out today to TRY to improve his image, but I don't think it worked!

[stevedeshazer]

15. I'd love to be wrong.

The "what took so long" thing will fade with time. Most of our citizens have short memories.

*sigh*

[demgrrrll]

49. You would love to be wrong? Great! You are.

.

[OneTwentyoNine]

11. Not hardly.......

NO ONE is dismissing what they've seen for the last 4 days just because Bush puts his arm around some kid.

[Bumblebee]

13. No -- it was a horrid day for him as the weekend will show

[1932]

14. Good morning. Bad afternoon. All press I've seen not forgiving him.

He did the best he could to diffuse. That's what you saw and liked. But none of it worked. This is too big.

The ideas about class and race have taken over. They were in John Edwards' email and the themes in that email have been repeated on NewsHour, on the MSNBC fundraiser and elsewhere.

[stevedeshazer]

18. I assure you I didn't "like" it :)

I'm just trying to be realistic and not get my hopes up that Bushco will suffer any consequences beyond the next few days and weeks.

[bunny planet]

57. You seem to forget that there are widespread 'national' implications for

the blivet's incompetence and criminal negligence. Gas prices, heating oil prices, and economic downturn will continually remind even the most callous Americans, those who might have been willing to forgive and forget *'s monstrous behavior this week, of what a tremendous f*ck-up he really is. I don't think there will be many more 'good'days for His Fraudulency.

[Clark2008]

40. Wes Clark pounded home the fact that there was no leadership.

Which NEEDS to be repeated over and over and over again.

[1932]

41. This is bigger than leadership. It's about what WE as a NATION beleive in.

It's about believing that there shouldn't be an America that works great for the rich, powerful people at the top and then leaves people on the bottom to die on the streets.

There are a lot of people besides Bush who believe in the ideology of greed and survival of the fittest and drowning the government in Lake Ponchatrain. This isn't just about getting rid of Bush. It's about making sure that we elect people who don't believe in their corporatocracy free market bullshit, and do believe that not only should we REALLY have equality of opportunity, but that more equality of outcome isn't a bad thing either.

[Clark2008]

50. Leadership of the right kind would never have allowed our

country to sink into such a divide.

Bush's kind of leadership means leading the rich in a march over the backs of the poor.

They kind of leadership to which Clark was speaking means that a leader should challenge all the parts to work as a whole for the common good.

You're correct in that we should elect people who don't believe in absolute free markets to the detriment of the people of this nation, but the fact remains that the people don't have the choice of good leadership in many of their candidates and end up voting for the lesser of two evils.

[1932]

55. It's what we believe in as a nation that matters the most.

There are so many differnt "leaders" responsible for (ie, causes of) the poverty and the decay of instracture and social services that has caused the misery we've seen over the last week.

Our country is experiencing a polarization of wealth and our politics reflect an ideology of greed and accepts a hierarchy with the extremely wealthy at the top of a high pyramid and everyone else way at the bottom, a survival of the fittest attitude towards economics where nobody questions insider stock deals of millions of dollars, and accepts the tax code and all the other things that concentrate wealth.

Americans deserve better leadership, but we also deserve a goverment that reflects their values. We deserve to have a nation where the government embodies and expresses the beliefs that we've all had reaffirmed by this tragedy -- that we don't leave poor people behind, that race isn't an excuse to let people suffer, that we need good infrastructure and services supported by a broad tax bases, and that it's wrong for America to divide America into classes of people who get vastly different outcomes.

Also, I don't believe for a second that every politician representing the effected areas was merely the lesser of two evils. I'm sure that there are some wonderful, committed people representing those hurt by this storm. But we're all working within a very bad system that does project our values.

I think not to talk about this just in terms of better leadership, but to also keep talking about what we believe -- what society should be like, and it's not just that FEMA should have been called in earlier.

[OneGrassRoot]

54. ABSOLUTELY!!!

Couldn't agree more. Well said.

I've been saying the same thing. It's all well and good to get these criminals out of office, but then what? There are lots of American citizens who actually LIKE the way they think. Even if the masses were in agreement, we'd have to start from scratch...everything is so corrupt. But I'm willing to start from scratch. Maybe our kids will see the benefits.

[kstewart33]

16. Not according to the reporting on NBC Nightly News

They were quite critical, in fact, the most critical I've seen Brian Williams and company be.

[stevedeshazer]

20. I just watched that whole hour, it was great!

Will anyone remember a year from now before the elections?

I hope so. Like I said upthread, I'd love to be wrong on this one.

[kainah]

17. started well, turned bad

He needed a bullhorn moment today and he most definitely did not get it.

If you doubt how badly this is turning on Bush, get the transcript of tonight's Newshour (not yet available) and read David Brooks comments. Bobo is mad and when Bobo is mad, Bush's world is endangered.

[stevedeshazer]

24. I'm watching it right now! n/t

[Old and In the Way]

19. Not a particularly good day. I think he overplayed his hand.

If he had done it Wednesday, latest Thursday, he might have scored better points. Overall, he took another hit on his creds. I think it will end up costing him about 5% ultimately. It's not like NO happened in a vacuum. This was more miserable failure proof. It will be interesting to see if Plame and other stuff start to get more traction again....all of these are starting to pile up.

[stevedeshazer]

22. 5% would be good

I'm dying to see some new polls. :)

[Imagevision]

21. Don't think people will forget how Bush handled US. crisis!

tonites tv coverage for a weekend has gone none stop and I don't have cable. Remember Paerl Harbor - remember 9-11 and we sure as hell aren't going to forget New Orleans...NEVER!!!

[NJCher]

23. PR, the be-all and end-all of strategies

All hail bush, master of PR.

PR--the instant answer to incompetence, stupidity and fly-by-the seat of your pants management. Nothing else matters. Corpses can be floating down the river but if the pretzeldent looks good, who cares. It's all about looking good.

PR can fool all the people all the time.

Here's to a good day for bush. :toast:





Cher

[stevedeshazer]

26. You get it.

It's the ONLY thing these guys do well. Unfortunately.

[fooj]

32. IMO, the line of HUMANITY has been crossed.

PR? In order to have a groovy photo-op the sick bastard had two helicopters behind him when he landed in Mississippi. Just for show. Wouldn't it be nice if those photo-op moments were used to save lives?

He said this is unacceptable! Then he turns around and gives his buddy "Brownie" congrats for a job well done. America was watching. Believe me.

Peace.

[NJCher]

35. ummmm

That was :sarcasm:

I used to be a PR manager for one of the top 3 advertisers in the U.S.

There are limits.

The day's images were full of suffering people. Bush's sly digs at the incompetence of local officials will not be noted by anyone but his own sick, petty, pathetic-excuse-for-human-beings base.




Cher

[stevedeshazer]

38. Didn't get the sarcasm.

Really, I hope you are right, and I respect your credibility. But we'll see.

[fooj]

27. There are still 40,000+ people

at the Convention Center and the Superdome...they made the infirmed walk to the helicopter rescue area and then told them they took too long and made them go back to the Center. The anchors and reporters are having meltdowns because of the horror and the truth of the situation. People know that those clips of Shrub were not live. They cut and pasted the propaganda together. People are through. I'm sure of it.

The extreme show of "help and assistance" seems to be nothing but lip service. As usual. Shrub is nothing but PR. Period.

[melissinha]

34. I know its gruesome

but what will be the point in time that the last person leaves the makeshift ghettos and scattered attics(and believe you me, they are depressingly similar to Eastern european Jewish ghettos), when will that be.... we cannot speak of the next step until the rescue is complete.

Yeah... I wonder what the ratio between spin and disaster relief planning was ..... cause I've seen enough freepers out there spinning their heads off.

Wonder what the President's handicap was when his constituents were drowning.

[gokar]

46. Why was $$ spent on superdome instead of fixing the levies?

[montana500]

28. wrong

nm

[caligirl]

29. thousands died from Sunday toi Monday and NO is gone.

It happened on his watch. He is still on the hook for this.

[stevedeshazer]

36. The same was said about 9/11

And Enron, and Iraq, and the deficit, and on and on.

[Jade Fox]

31. You know what?--that's crap...

Everytime Humpty Dubya falls off his wall it gets a little harder to put him
back together again.

I don't think he's going to survive this.

[fooj]

33. Check this out! Not very good PR, to be sure.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4596909

They are LOCKED in the SUPERDOME with Geraldo (of all people) begging the guards to let them out to just walk around or get some fresh air.

Not a good day. King Pissypants "good days" are over.

Peace.

[GettysbergII]

39. Bush had lost credibility before Katrina hit.......

He's beyond help of photo ops. The only way he lasts through the next 3 1/2 years is if he can manage to get away with using Homeland Security/FEMA to permanently suspend the constitution. And you know he will try that sooner or later and its looking like sooner.

[Contrary1]

42. I'm surprised he made it back to DC in one piece,

so in that aspect; I would also consider it a good day for Smirk.

[gokar]

43. Well thought out post....n/t

[rumpel]

44. I think they were India (Indians) merely based on the inntonation of the

way they spoke? Anyway, minority.

[gokar]

45. The "real" cause of delay in sending water & food was--->

The huge beaurocracy a.k.a. Homeland security dept. Since
Fema is no longer autonomous, they can't do anything unless
the bosses at HLS clear it. That means tons of meetings before
any action takes place. I should know, I once was part of the
federal beaurocracy.

[BootinUp]

47. Another perspective

I believe Bush and Rove are still a long way from climbing out of this hole.

From tonights Newshour on PBS:

An event to change the American mindset?

JIM LEHRER: David you said in a column this week that natural disasters, like Hurricane Katrina, exposed the basic fault lines in American society. Your thesis, please sir?

DAVID BROOKS: Well, what you get is you get these meteorological storms and then these political storms because in the moments of extremists people see who's up and who's down, who's at fault and who is suffering. So, for example in 1897 there was the famous Johnstown Flood, a pond owned by millionaires including Andrew Carnegie flooded the town of Johnstown. The public anger over that helped spawn the Progressive Movement.

snip

JIM LEHRER: And okay, now, move it to Hurricane Katrina and what we are seeing down there now.

DAVID BROOKS: I think it is a huge reaction we are about to see. I mean, first of all, they violated the social fabric, which is in the moments of crisis you take care of the poor first. That didn't happen; it's like leaving wounded on the battlefield.

So there is just -- in 9/11 you had a great surge of public confidence. Now I think we are going to see a great decline in public confidence in our institutions. And so I just think this is sort of the anti-9/11 as one of the bloggers wrote.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/political_wrap/july-dec05/bop_9-2.html

[Hippo_Tron]

48. Disagree, Bush can't manage good PR anymore

He looks like a total fucking idiot while he's trying to comfort the victims. People here in Louisiana are PISSED at him and Hastert's comments certainly didn't help.

Blanco is getting a lot of positive play for the "shoot to kill" order, which I very reluctantly agree was necessary.

Nagin is also pissed as hell and is certainly fighting back against this Republican "blame it on the local government because they are Democrats" tactic.

[Kenroy]

51. even significant numbers of Freepers were aghast

at his poor performance.

No, George won't have any good days for quite awhile.

[sendero]

52. I think...

... that PR only works when it is believable, just like any form of a lie. It has to be believable.

When it is not believable, it works against you. Sure, the 30% idiot-contingent is going to buy it. But the middle grounders, the people who are still observing reality and reaching a conclusion - they are going to finally and once and for all see this administration the way we've seen them for years.

To wit, more worried about the image of things than the substance, even in life or death situations.

[TheCowsCameHome]

53. Today is still a bad day for him. Gas prices didn't drop, did they?

He still has that anchor around his neck.

[robbedvoter]

56. I agree. Post 911 there was bad press up to Friday. Who here remembers?

It was so well whitewashed after the bullhorn spectacle that even people here (but not from NYC) think "he found his voice".