Democrats Debate Katrina, 2008 Style

[Wayward Episcopalian]

Cross-posted from The Wayward Episcopalian: Nathan on New Orleans.

The Democratic candidates for President briefly discussed Hurricane Katrina during their debate on PBS Thursday night. While it's refreshing that the mainstream media (if Tavis Smiley can really be considered MSM) finally asked the candidates about rebuilding the Gulf Coast, I'm quite disappointed in the way it played out. The question was relegated to the 30-second answer bin, not 60-seconds, and was pretty absurd - should Gulf Coast residents be allowed to return home per UN internally-displaced-person laws?

I know the debate has already been discussed, but I just got this up on my own blog, so please forgive the lateness. A brief analysis of the candidates' answers is below the jump.

Watch the answers on YouTube (the embed doesn't seem to work here).

Talk about a ridiculous question. No one's trying to stop residents from coming back! And who cares about UN laws right now, the UN has nothing to do with this! To be fair, said law does require the government provide a way back for the IDPs, but nevertheless, couldn't they have asked about putting forth comprehensive plans, fixing the Road Home program, reforming FEMA, fixing education, fighting crime, or repairing the wetlands?

Thankfully, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, John Edwards, and Barack Obama stepped away from the question to talk about the broader problems in New Orleans. Clinton highlighted her comprehensive plan for the region, Biden spoke of first responders and hospitals, Edwards talked about himself before saying the recovery czar should report directly to the President, and Obama agreed with Edwards. Bill Richardson tried hard, bless his heart, but one of the things he said was, "We need to make sure that we eliminate the ten percent match." Uh, Governor? Congress did that last month. Way to be on top of things. Chris Dodd just talked about the UN law and the importance of rebuilding, but did not delve into specifics. Dennis Kucinich spoke of a Congressional hearing, which is nice, but no one cares about the third tier. Mike Gravel talked about... um... Iraq, actually... but he's also third tier (which is about six tiers too high, if you ask me).

All in all, there's no way an answer to that kind of a stupid question can alter my analysis of the candidates' Katrina plans, which you can read here (outdated, though - I'll be updating Edwards and Dodd this week). Nevertheless, it's a high profile discussion of Katrina recovery, and that's a good thing, so please take six minutes to watch the video above. I'd post the transcript in full, but that might violate copyright rules - you can read it here instead.

Cross-posted from The Wayward Episcopalian: Nathan on New Orleans.

[Wayward Episcopalian]

1. Lack of Katrina Coverage

DAMN YOU, MSM!