Wednesday, August 31, 2005

And The President Played On....

Undoubtedly, some readers have seen the photograph of President Bush strumming a guitar in San Diego just 24 hours ago while New Orleans and the surrounding area descended deeper into chaos. The link is here.

At this point, a few things are clear. First, this president has either completely lost his "politician's six sense" about what do to when the spotlight is on, or he's getting some utterly gawd-awful advice from his handlers. Maybe it's both. Second, this is the latest chapter of strange behavior---bordering on the bizarre---when this president is under pressure (remember the antics during the first debate with Kerry, and the inexplicable silence for days after the tsunami in Asia?). One can't look at that photo and feel anything but deep concern that this is the man currently steering the ship during a war. It's extremely worrying, folks.

Over at The Corner, they're getting a little worried as well. Byron York wonders why Bush needs to spend so much time in Crawford:
Even given the wonders of modern communications which allow him to stay in touch with virtually everyone virtually all the time, does the president really need to spend five weeks of the summer based at his home in Crawford? What would be wrong with a two-week vacation? After all, he goes to Crawford at other times of the year, and, of course, he can spend all the time he wants there when he is no longer president.

According to a White House pool report, press secretary Scott McClellan was asked today whether, given the events of August, the president needs a vacation after his vacation. McClellan said, "This is not what you would call a vacation. This is the president's home. He always enjoys coming here. But when you're president, you're president 24/7." That last part is certainly true, but while he is president, shouldn't George W. Bush spend more time at the White House?

This month began with the deaths of 21 U.S. Marines in Iraq, continued through the Cindy Sheehan protest/media circus, and ended with Hurricane Katrina. There is no doubt that, if only from a political and communications perspective, the president would have been in a better position to deal with those issues if he had been based in Washington for much of the month. For one thing, he would have had the stage to himself, given the traditional absence of Congress. For another, he would have been better placed to make those more substantive comments about the war that David Frum and others have called on him to make. And lastly, his message would not have been subject to the distractions of all the vacation/nonvacation talk that inevitably comes up when he spends an extended period of time in Crawford.

There is a proper time for a president to leave Washington, but five weeks is just too much.
Perhaps the answer to all this lies in the following question: Do George Bush's actions demonstrate that he even wants to be president at this point? Wouldn't the nation be better served---particularly during a war and one of the nation's worst natural catastrophes---if he simply stayed on the ranch he so clearly loves, and let someone else formally take over the job he so manifestly dislikes?

52 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

quick, someone get him a copy of "my pet goat" to stare at and wonder what to do for way too damned long!

this administration is a complete failure. a criminal failure!

we are losing our own people now in a huge disaster and the government is more worried about oil and looting than survival of the citezenry!

oh, that's right, most of the "looters" are african american...

racism is alive and well here to folks, and the corporate news is gearing up to blame those too poor or unable to get out for their own deaths. looting? try surviving and taking care of your own because the infrastructure is gone!

that someone at the corner has noticed rather mildly that bush is at crawford an aweful lot is a pretty damned weak response to total immobility in the face of stress. tcr raised a good point here.

so when is dear leader going to fall off his bike next?

8/31/2005 6:20 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

great post TCR, I thought the EXACT same thing when I saw that picture.

8/31/2005 6:24 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Once again, you guys don't get it. Cheney's the president. I honestly don't care what Bush does.

TCR, don't fall down to the same level of ignorance as the American public seems to have. Remember: Cheney is the real president and this ain't about oil.

Any other misconceptions that need to be cleared up? Like how will we pay for Katrina? We won't. The Asians will. At current estimates of $30B in losses, that's only two weeks' Asian support at the $2B clip per day they're lending us.

If I read one more post worrying about the wrong thing, I think I'll scream!

8/31/2005 6:50 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The most recent photos of George remind me of two historical figures: Nero ("fiddling", well.. actually singing) and Marie Antoinette ("... eat cake.")

8/31/2005 7:18 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Bush fixation. Mindless.

We're doomed!

8/31/2005 7:26 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Great post! Just what the hell is going ON???

8/31/2005 7:43 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Wouldn't the nation be better served---particularly during a war and one of the nation's worst natural catastrophes---if he simply stayed on the ranch he so clearly loves, and let someone else formally take over the job he so manifestly dislikes?"

In my opinion, this is not (or should not be) a rhetorical question. This needs public debate, NOW.

8/31/2005 7:47 PM  
Blogger Bravo 2-1 said...

The signs have been there from the beginning. Page 160 of (hardcover) Plan of Attack, after Scowcroft published his "Don't Attack Saddam" piece:

"Neither Scowcroft nor Bush senior wanted to injure the son's self-confidence. So Scowcroft largely shut up in public, though he did not change his view."

Hunter S. Thompson once dubbed him The Child President.

8/31/2005 7:50 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The most recent photos of George remind me of two historical figures: Nero ("fiddling", well.. actually singing) and Marie Antoinette ("... eat cake.") ??

Oh, you mean Like THIS?

8/31/2005 8:23 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

TCR, Bush was NEVER there.
It's only taken 5 years for this to be glaringly obvious to the public.
Bush is a damaged human being. We have a mentally ill president at a crucial juncture in history. He needs to be removed from office.

8/31/2005 8:56 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

When do we start talking about the "I" word. This is outrageous!!!!

8/31/2005 9:06 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

what would Repubs be saying right now if we were talking about a President Clinton playing his saxophone while this was happening??

8/31/2005 9:07 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yes, the greatest natural disaster in a century and our President is out strumming a guitar. Unbelievable! What can you expect about a person that jokes about not finding WMDs.

Garry Trudeau was on Charlie Rose last night. It was a repeat from a year earlier. He crossed paths with Bush at Yale. It was a funny story if you get a chance to hear it; funny in the sense of Bush the party guy isn't so far fetched. Garry is very honest about his interpretation of the Bush royalty. Oh, that was another thing Garry said about Bush. He is mean spirited and gets in your face and personal; and he is very good at it. Garry thought that might be the reason they keep Bush restricted.

I think this goes along with what I've heard and read, that Bush wants the power, but he doesn't want the job of governing people in a democracy.

9/01/2005 12:47 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I've never made the complete leap to say someone in the administration had a hand in 9/11, but I believe at a minimum the environment from the top-down was set to at least allow 9/11 to happen.

Destroying FEMA - so is the same thing happening now with our natioanl disaster prepareness. We all know Bush hates government, so is he just letting it fall a part on his watch?

Hurricane Politics - "Now, faced with a far bigger and deadlier disaster, the Bush administration faces at least two difficult questions: Was it ready to deal with the long-predicted flooding of New Orleans? And is it ready to deal with the long-predicted terrorist attack that might some day strike another of our big cities?"

"A better leader would have flown straight to the disaster zone and announced the immediate mobilization of every available resource to rescue the stranded, find and bury the dead, and keep the survivors fed, clothed, sheltered and free of disease.

The cool, confident, intuitive leadership Bush exhibited in his first term, particularly in the months immediately following Sept. 11, 2001, has vanished. In its place is a diffident detachment unsuitable for the leader of a nation facing war, natural disaster and economic uncertainty."

I guess that happens when you aren't authentic in the first place.

9/01/2005 1:12 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm with Hunter S. Thompson. I've always see a child when I see GW. A person not yet aware that he is bridled with responsibility.

9/01/2005 1:25 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The Katrina disaster is a calamity of "Shock and Awe". This was a natural disaster. Does Bush realize or is he oblivious of the same disaster he has created In Iraq to satisfy his ego? He has not gone to Iraq to take a look at his man made "Chef-d'oeuvre". The Iraqis are with no potable water, no electricty and the sewage is running through the streets for two and a half long years, and $300 billions have been spent already. The dead were innumerable, but he did not care. He and Pat Robertson
allegedly communicate with God. So God
( and I am being facitious here), has unfortunately brought the disaster to his feet so he can take look at it and repent for what he has done in Iraq.

Spiritually speaking, I believe
this was God's hands to let Bush wake up and commensurate with other people
in their misfortune, especially when he
was the author of their disaster.

Would Bush take the call?

9/01/2005 2:47 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

So NOW it seems people are beginning to see that Nero (bushie) has brought disaster to this country, and he is going to do it for another 3 YEARS to us.
He showed us just how much he cares by flying over the area on HIS way to Washington.
HE DID NOT CARE ENOUGH TO BOTHER STOPPING IN THE AREA, BUT THEN THE WEALTHY HAD LEFT AND THE POOR A NOT WORTH BOTHERING WITH.

While this country "burns" the GOP is continuing to be a doormat for him and they care only that the corporations and the wealthy are taken care of.

To THE rest of us - vote for us, but otherwise get lost and don't bother us.
THAT IS WHAT YOU CALL CONSERVATIVE COMPASSION!!!

9/01/2005 8:16 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Interesting read:

August 31, 2005
"No One Can Say they Didn't See it Coming"

By Sidney Blumenthal

In 2001, FEMA warned that a hurricane striking New Orleans was one of the three most likely disasters in the U.S. But the Bush administration cut New Orleans flood control funding by 44 percent to pay for the Iraq war. (...)

A year ago the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers proposed to study how New Orleans could be protected from a catastrophic hurricane, but the Bush administration ordered that the research not be undertaken. After a flood killed six people in 1995, Congress created the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, in which the Corps of Engineers strengthened and renovated levees and pumping stations. In early 2001, the Federal Emergency Management Agency issued a report stating that a hurricane striking New Orleans was one of the three most likely disasters in the U.S., including a terrorist attack on New York City.

But by 2003 the federal funding for the flood control project essentially dried up as it was drained into the Iraq war. In 2004, the Bush administration cut funding requested by the New Orleans district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for holding back the waters of Lake Pontchartrain by more than 80 percent. Additional cuts at the beginning of this year (for a total reduction in funding of 44.2 percent since 2001) forced the New Orleans district of the Corps to impose a hiring freeze. The Senate had debated adding funds for fixing New Orleans' levees, but it was too late. (...)

The Bush administration's policy of turning over wetlands to developers almost certainly also contributed to the heightened level of the storm surge. In 1990, a federal task force began restoring lost wetlands surrounding New Orleans. Every two miles of wetland between the Crescent City and the Gulf reduces a surge by half a foot. Bush had promised "no net loss" of wetlands, a policy launched by his father's administration and bolstered by President Clinton. But he reversed his approach in 2003, unleashing the developers. The Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency then announced they could no longer protect wetlands unless they were somehow related to interstate commerce.

In response to this potential crisis, four leading environmental groups conducted a joint expert study, concluding in 2004 that without wetlands protection New Orleans could be devastated by an ordinary, much less a Category 4 or 5, hurricane. "There's no way to describe how mindless a policy that is when it comes to wetlands protection," said one of the report's authors. The chairman of the White House's Council on Environmental Quality dismissed the study as "highly questionable," and boasted, "Everybody loves what we're doing." (...)"

>http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,372455,00.html<

9/01/2005 9:23 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

No one talks about Bush replacing the head of FEMA from someone who was a professional with a background in emergency and disaster management, with someone whose main qualification was that he was on of the president's main political fixers from Texas. But he left to cash in on Iraq and was replaced by someone whose qualification was college buddy.

9/01/2005 11:35 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Editorials Raise Questions About President's Response to Katrina--and Lack of Preparations

Published: August 31, 2005 10:30 PM ET

(...) One of the most stalwart conservative newspapers in the nation, the Union Leader of New Hampshire, today blasted Bush's response to the great Gulf Coast hurricane.

"A better leader would have flown straight to the disaster zone and announced the immediate mobilization of every available resource to rescue the stranded, find and bury the dead, and keep the survivors fed, clothed, sheltered and free of disease," the editorial declared. (...)

On Thursday, after the president returned to Washington, The New York Times mocked his speech: "George W. Bush gave one of the worst speeches of his life yesterday, especially given the level of national distress and the need for words of consolation and wisdom. In what seems to be a ritual in this administration, the president appeared a day later than he was needed. He then read an address of a quality more appropriate for an Arbor Day celebration: a long laundry list of pounds of ice, generators and blankets delivered to the stricken Gulf Coast. He advised the public that anybody who wanted to help should send cash, grinned, and promised that everything would work out in the end."

The Washington Post, meanwhile, called for a close look at what should have been done differently, saying "[...] This administration has consistently played down the possibility of environmental disaster, in Louisiana and everywhere else. The president's most recent budgets have actually proposed reducing funding for flood prevention in the New Orleans area, and the administration has long ignored Louisiana politicians' requests for more help in protecting their fragile coast, the destruction of which meant there was little to slow down the hurricane before it hit the city. (...)"

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001052874


See also:

Somebody in Biloxi is pissed:

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001052870

9/01/2005 11:39 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

dear lord, and this is actually the sound of his base...

and third eye also has a point, this is no longer about bush...

we have destroyed ourselves by allowing the dismantalling of our own nation and the take over of complete corporate interest...

also, the fact that asia will likely be the broker that gets the money to us rather than our own gov, states flatly that this country isn't just on the skids for soverienty (being bought changes that you know), we have the end in sight and the global dynamic has changed forever.

9/01/2005 1:08 PM  
Blogger Bravo 2-1 said...

There are people dying at the convention center and we can't get 32 or 48 or maybe 100 Seals and Marines there with emergency supplies and maybe some hope?

This presidency has to stop today.

9/01/2005 1:43 PM  
Blogger Roy said...

In response to the article
"No One Can Say they Didn't See it Coming"

I agree completely but the article leaves out a small fact that we have seen this coming long before the Bush presidency. Unfortunately the US government is reactionary therefore problems do not get solved until they arise. Here is an article BEFORE Bush was president warning about those levee's

2000 article

For those of you who do not want to read it here is the best quote.

"If it were left to residents and city officials, the status quo would prevail. One city official says of the flooding and subsidence, "We are below sea level and we do get floods sometimes, but it's not a real serious problem. You can still purchase flood insurance." Another city official expressed faith in the current levee system."

News Flash: Corporate interests have controlled government long before Bush.

9/01/2005 2:06 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Domestic affairs don't get you in the history books - that takes a war. W has his eye on the big picture - his legacy as a war president. This other stuff won't matter any more after we rout the terrible terrorists.

And if we don't, it still won't matter.

9/01/2005 3:37 PM  
Blogger Nathan said...

Thank you for your post TCR. I couldn't agree more especially with the point you hit on, specifically that Bush doensn't seem to want to be President anymore.

I see this too.

I see it not only in his face, but Schwarzenegger's face and others. I can't help but think back to the designer/scientist in iRobot who was trapped by his own creation.

To me these gentlemen probably were once very principled and had very good ideas but slowly the machine that is behind them (the machine that created them in this case) takes more and more of that personal integrity and humanity away from them so that they have to change from saying that CO2 is problem to not even recognizing a problem. They give more and more of themselves and their beliefs until it isn't even George Bush anymore. Just ghostly puppets.

Perhaps the face of the machine is best epitomized by Cheney, but even he does not have full control as evidenced by the gay issue he, in his own way, spoke against.

Power and money and established political/corporate machines are taking away not only individual men's souls, but starting to chip away at our nation's soul. Let us change this.

nathanbutnet.blogspot.com

9/01/2005 4:41 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The underlying problem is the same- these guys (this adminsitration) really just doesn't care about this other stuff...not people dying (its for a worthy cause- or it's not our fault)-he poor? who needs them? Why rebuild New Orleans (dennis HAsert)-we don't care about these people's lives or deaths.

christian my foot...compasionate my ass....
WAKE UP AMERICA!!

9/01/2005 4:59 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

That all begs the question whether the GOP gang in the administration and the Hill had any indegrity to begin with. The white house probably doesn't know how to spell it, hey rich folks don't need it, that what money and influence is for.
Poor people, use them and throw them away afterwards. They are of no use anyway they just clutter up the place - this policy is called gop compassion.
I doubt that this calamity will become menagable soon not with this punch of Keystone cops running FEMA. They should have mobilzed all the troops in the area ready to move in as soon as the wind died town.
Really the speech in California was much more important and critical and preparation, ghee what the hell for, the well-to-do folks had left and for the rest!!!
The suffering in the area with be going on for month and Bush will use all the empty retorics for how it is not his fault, it is the fault of the liberals, the press and not forget the democrats.

9/01/2005 5:27 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Maybe now people will start to realize that there are consequences to electing people to run the government who don't think that government should actually do anything. Like you know when a disaster occurs and it turns out that for 4 years the agency that is supposed to respond to disasters has been run into the ground by political flunkies?

9/01/2005 5:37 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

hear, hear.

9/01/2005 6:34 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

We can't say they don't care. The Dept of Homeland Security wants us to know that September is National Preparedness Month.

I'm going to jump off a cliff now...

9/01/2005 7:02 PM  
Blogger Hume's Ghost said...

I don't think there's any doubt left in my mind: George W. Bush is the worst president in American history.

9/01/2005 7:38 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This is the most stupid topic I have ever seen on this blog.

At least the Hurricane knocked that Harpie, Cindy Sheehen off the front page.

Lets talk about Casey Sheehan for a while.

PenDragon

9/01/2005 7:59 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

On 9/10/01 Bush was already strongly in the running for worst president ever. He's had a lock on it since 9/12, when he planned to invade Iraq instead of concentrating on Bin Laden.

9/01/2005 8:08 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Bush does seem to be the Master of Disaster; I think that is called the Peter Principle in mgmt.

Arianna used the Bush phrase we hear often, "Are people dying over here becasue we're fighting them over there."

Ted Koppel on Nightline had a very interesting discussion with Michael Brown the Under Secretary of HLS for Emergency Preparedness. Someone needs to start holding the people in our government accountable. The hurricane was not a surprise, yet they talk about bringing aid, not yesterday, tomorrow, but in days. Mr. Brown is either incompetent or just totally over his head in this job. He was totally clueless about the large poor population in New Orleans. They are suppose to have been in the Gulf region for 3 or 4 days now, and they don't have a command center established.

Did you hear Bush on Good Morning America today?

"I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees."

It has been written about, researched, and talked about for years.

But this is the same thing Bush said about hijacking planes, even though they had an August 6th PDB memo in front of them.

Why is President Bush always surprised? Why doesn't he anticipate these things? As our leader that is his job to protect and govern the citizens, all citizens, and he should be thinking, planning, and implementing.

I think he is too isolated. He only wants to be seen in from of pre-screened, pre-approved audiences, and I think he is really getting inadequate or incorrect information to run our country. I think Bush really needs to talk to the people, not his base, to the country as a whole. We need answers to some very serious questions. And Congress :-(

9/02/2005 1:16 AM  
Blogger Bravo 2-1 said...

And it is OK to play politics at times like this. The military is under civilian, administration control. They are stretched thin fighting Bush's war over trumped up evidence. FEMA is a federal agency as well. Bush, the most political of animals, only wants people to not play politics because he'll lose this round bad.

9/02/2005 7:51 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Am afraid the chicken has come to roost to us BIGTIME.
He will go home to Crawford and wallow in his money and privilege of being an ex-President, while we are left to slowly pick up the pieces of this country that once was a working and careing nation.

Curse on him and his family in eternity.

9/02/2005 12:07 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Am afraid the chicken has come to roost to us BIGTIME.
He will go home to Crawford and wallow in his money and privilege of being an ex-President, while we are left to slowly pick up the pieces of this country that once was a working and careing nation.

Curse on him and his family in eternity.

9/02/2005 12:07 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Am afraid the chicken has come to roost to us BIGTIME.
He will go home to Crawford and wallow in his money and privilege of being an ex-President, while we are left to slowly pick up the pieces of this country that once was a working and careing nation.

Curse on him and his family in eternity.

9/02/2005 12:09 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Am afraid the chicken has come to roost to us BIGTIME.
He will go home to Crawford and wallow in his money and privilege of being an ex-President, while we are left to slowly pick up the pieces of this country that once was a working and careing nation.

Curse on him and his family in eternity.

9/02/2005 12:09 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Am afraid the chicken has come to roost to us BIGTIME.
He will go home to Crawford and wallow in his money and privilege of being an ex-President, while we are left to slowly pick up the pieces of this country that once was a working and careing nation.

Curse on him and his family in eternity.

9/02/2005 12:09 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Am afraid the chicken has come to roost to us BIGTIME.
He will go home to Crawford and wallow in his money and privilege of being an ex-President, while we are left to slowly pick up the pieces of this country that once was a working and careing nation.

Curse on him and his family in eternity.

9/02/2005 12:09 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The thing that would be really hilarious if the situation weren't so desperate is that Bush not only strummed his guitar while New Orleans went under, when he was done with that he ate some CAKE with John McCain.

The two biggest historical metaphors for rulers' neglect of the needs of their subjects and Bush photo-ops both of them on the same day, calling up not only the image of Nero, but of Marie Antoinette.

Life with the Bushians is truly becoming Monty Pythonesque.

9/02/2005 1:35 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

USA Today had an interesting story, "Piecing together the story of the weapons that weren't", of how the Iraq war was politicized and sold. Bush was going to war with Iraq come hell or high water. Certainly reads like the PNAC philosophy of world order.

I don't know how you feel about it, but I was looking at the Weekly Standard and they lead this week with a journal cover of "The war President, Year 5". Who knew we were at war in 2000? But hurricane, where? Our country's largest natural disaster. So what! Oh hum.

9/02/2005 5:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

thx TCR........good post.

9/03/2005 9:17 AM  
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Anonymous Anonymous said...

Good comments. But, I do not agree with most of them. People sure have a lot of time on their hands.

3/14/2006 4:52 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

George Bush doesn't hate government, George Bush LOVES government. He's done nothing but expand it since he took office. If you've been watching, he's even expanded it in places where he takes crap for cutting tiny amounts of it.

VOTE LIBERTARIAN - it's not just Bush, BIG GOVERNMENT is the problem!

3/19/2006 8:16 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Good comments. But, I do not agree with most of them. People sure have a lot of time on their hands.

3/19/2006 8:17 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Good comments. But, I do not agree with most of them. People sure have a lot of time on their hands.

3/21/2006 4:54 PM  
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