Poll: Louisiana GOPers Unsure If Katrina Response Was Obama’s Fault

[Capt. Obvious]

A significant chunk of Louisiana Republicans evidently believe that President Barack Obama is to blame for the poor response to the hurricane that ravaged their state more than three years before he took office.

The latest survey from Democratic-leaning Public Policy Polling, provided exclusively to TPM, showed an eye-popping divide among Republicans in the Bayou State when it comes to accountability for the government's post-Katrina blunders.

Twenty-eight percent said they think former President George W. Bush, who was in office at the time, was more responsible for the poor federal response while 29 percent said Obama, who was still a freshman U.S. Senator when the storm battered the Gulf Coast in 2005, was more responsible. Nearly half of Louisiana Republicans — 44 percent — said they aren't sure who to blame.

....

Brown's handling of the response ultimately led to his resignation, but Bush offered an infamous endorsement of the FEMA chief only days before he stepped down.

"Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job," Bush said.

Let the jokes commence

[Scootaloo]

1. It's not that the water is rising...

it's that the sheer weight of all that stupid is making Louisiana sink.

[Solly Mack]

4. lololol

[Tarheel_Dem]

58. +1

[PotatoChip]

69. !

[sinkingfeeling]

2. We should be giving IQ tests to citizens before they're allowed to vote.

[Hayduke Bomgarte]

7. Or at least

Return to teaching civics in high schools.My incoming freshman daughter and her friends have no idea what civics even means,outside of "civic center".And only that because there are friday night post football game dances there.

[LearningCurve]

13. You may be joking

But I think there is merit in this idea. Maybe not IQ tests, but something that requires a certain level of knowledge of government.

[bobclark86]

45. We tried that...

There used to be literacy tests and questions about the constitution.

Oh, wait. They were part of the Jim Crow laws...

[LearningCurve]

46. Not exactly

Those "literacy tests" were nothing of the sort. Hell, I couldn't have passed several of those in the allotted time. Those tests were also not administered across the board, certain people were grandfathered in. The point of those tests was never to determine if a person had an understanding of government, it was to exclude non-whites from voting.

[ET Awful]

74. As a matter of fact, that's where the term "grandfathered in" came from if I'm not mistaken.

If I recall correctly, it came from laws which said you could vote if your grandfather had voted.

[LearningCurve]

75. You are not mistaken

Since blacks had been recently given the right to vote, few of them had grandfathers who had voted. The opposite was true for whites.

[Cobalt-60]

79. It used to be High School information

Government and constitution.
I thought this came from the Onion at first.

[gopiscrap]

20. I agree

I had to pass a test to become a US Citizen!

[PatrynXX]

47. well if Republicans managed

to pull a jim crow law. most republicans wouldn't pass

[City Lights]

3. We are doomed by the idiocy of our fellow 'Muricans. nt

[Stuart G]

10. Movie based upon the breeding of stupid people...Idocracy...

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0387808/

Yes, there is such a movie....Idiocracy...................

Private Joe Bauers, the definition of "average American", is selected by the Pentagon to be the guinea pig for a top-secret hibernation program. Forgotten, he awakes 500 years in the future. He discovers a society so incredibly dumbed-down that he's easily the most intelligent person alive.

....have fun with the movie...this poll is almost unreal...

[Quantess]

16. I love that movie.

Destined to be a classic.

[Buns_of_Fire]

25. In that case, watch for "Ow! My Balls!", coming this fall to TLC!

I really can't blame the poor republicans, though -- they simply aren't getting enough electrolytes in their diet...

[jeffrey_pdx]

38. Go away! 'Bating.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

42. Brawndo's got what plants crave. It's got electrolytes!

Joe: "For the last time, I'm pretty sure what's killing the crops is this Brawndo stuff."
Secretary of State: "But Brawndo's got what plants crave. It's got electrolytes."
Attorney General: "So wait a minute. What you're saying is that you want us to put water on the crops."
Joe: "Yes."
Attorney General: "Water. Like out the toilet?"
Joe: "Well, I mean, it doesn't have to be out of the toilet, but, yeah, that's the idea."
Secretary of State: "But Brawndo's got what plants crave."
Attorney General: "It's got electrolytes."
Joe: "Okay, look. The plants aren't growing, so I'm pretty sure that the Brawndo's not working. Now, I'm no botanist, but I do know that if you put water on plants, they grow."
Secretary of Energy: "Well, I've never seen no plants grow out of no toilet."
Joe: "Okay, look. You wanna solve this problem. So why don't we just try it, okay, and not worry about what plants crave?"
Attorney General: "Brawndo's got what plants crave."
Secretary of Energy: "Yeah, it's got electrolytes."
Joe: "What are electrolytes? Do you even know?"
Secretary of State: "It's what they use to make Brawndo."
Joe: "Yeah, but why do they use them to make Brawndo?"
Secretary of Defense: "'Cause Brawndo's got electrolytes."

[City Lights]

18. Thanks for the info! Will check it out. nt

[Capt. Obvious]

22. Ow my balls!

[Buns_of_Fire]

26. (Which is currently in development for TLC.)

Or SHOULD be, anyway.

[Capt. Obvious]

30. Don't blame me, I voted for President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho

[awoke_in_2003]

50. How great would it be...

to hear the president tell everyone in the House of Representin' to sit their monkey asses down before giving the SOTU?

[WCGreen]

24. It's a wonderful take on the dumbing down of America...

[Politicalboi]

63. Yes it is

Just watched today online, and wanted to find an easier site to watch the movie for a friend, and found this from Mike Judge in an interview with Alex Jones.

Turning to recent scandals involving the IRS’s targeting of conservative groups and Americans who teach the Constitution, Judge commented, “That does scare me, I think I’m gonna make sure to not use the words ‘tea party’ or ‘constitution’ in any of my work….that actually is scary, that’s gonna make me listen to some more Alex Jones.”

[Solly Mack]

5. Damn

[EC]

6. wow...no words.... n/t

[denverbill]

8. 62% of Republicans at one time believed Saddam Hussein was responsible for 9-11.

Why should anyone be surprised by anything these morons think?

[Mr.Bill]

11. I think they still do. n/t

[azureblue]

9. try telling them the truth

That Bush cut the Army Corps of Engineers' budget to the bone for three years, stopping an in place and active levee rebuilding project called SELA. In a nutshell, if Bush had not stolen the SELA budget, the levees that failed would have been inspected and repaired before Katrina hit. Try telling them that Bush was eating cake in AZ while New Orleans flooded. It's all documented.

IOW the flooding of New Orleans is entirely Bush's fault. But they will never admit that, they just close eyes and ears and try to blame Obama.

[Cyrano]

12. The sinking of the Titanic needs to be reinvestigated

Yeah, sure, there will be those who claim that Obama wasn't even born yet. Nonetheless, the Titanic disaster needs to be looked at again.

Who knows where this treacherous fiend named Obama has struck? Wait, he claims to be from Hawaii. We need to look into Pearl Harbor again.

[awoke_in_2003]

51. Does anyone know...

where Obama's grandfather was at the time?

[Thinkingabout]

14. The response to Katrina victims was a tragedy to say the least, there is now a museum

in New Orleans on events, etc to inform about events which occurred during and after Katrina. People was taken to an overpass and dropped off in 103 degree temperature without food and water and left for days.
To hear critics talking about how the people should not be begging for assistance is a shame. I read on critic who said he lived in Fargo and they had a blizzard and neighbors got out and helped others to shovel snow, etc, my question to him had he ever shoveled water, of course this was not the thoughts he had in mind. Yes, Bush flew over and looked down from Air Force One but did not get concerned until days later when the media started broadcasting they were able to get in and through lots of areas but Bush did not care and I have a suspicion it had a lot to do with there being a Democrat governor and mayor but we are all citizens. There are a certain number of people who would back Bush no matter what he did or said. He had a nobody Brownie who he paid back for support in the elections who did not ever plan to do any work.

[azureblue]

44. the facts:

February 2001
Bush’s first budget proposed more than half a billion dollars worth of cuts to the Army Corps of Engineers for the 2002 fiscal year. Bush proposed half of what his own officials said was necessary for the critical Southeast Louisiana Flood Control Project (SELA)—a project started after a 1995 rainstorm flooded 25,000 homes and caused a half billion dollars in damage.

Bush did this to offset the tax break he gave to the top 1% of rich Americans. The first major economic initiative pursued by the president was a massive tax cut for the rich, enacted in June of 2001. Bush signed his massive $1.3 trillion income tax cut into law-a tax cut that severely depleted the government of revenues it needed to address critical priorities.

February 2002
Bush provided just $5 million for maintaining and upgrading critical hurricane protection levees in New Orleans—one fifth of what government experts and Republican elected officials in Louisiana told the administration was needed. Bush knew SELA needed $80 million to keep working, but the he only proposed providing a quarter of that.

February 2004
The SELA project sought $100 million to repair the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain levees, but Bush offered only $16.5 million. The Army Corps of Engineers asked for $27 million to pay for hurricane protection upgrades around Lake Pontchartrain—but the White House cut that to $3.9 million. Gaps in levees around Lake Pontchartrain & the Industrial Canal, which were supposed to be filled by 2004, were not filled because of budget shortfalls. Repair work on the levees, including the ones that failed, was stopped due to lack of funds.

A COMPARISON OF PREVIOUS HURRICANE RESPONSES:

President Nixon -- August 1969 when Cat-5 Hurricane Camille hit roughly the same area as Katrina, President Nixon had already readied the National Guard and ordered all Gulf rescue vessels and equipment from Tampa and Houston to follow the Hurricane in. There were over 1,000 regular military with two dozen helicopters to assist the Coast Guard and National Guard within hours after the skies cleared.

President Clinton -- September 1999, Hurricane Floyd -- Cat-3, was bearing down on the Carolinas and Virginia. President Clinton was in Christchurch, New Zealand - meeting with President Jiang of China. He made the proclamation that only Presidents can make and declared the areas affected by Floyd "Federal Disaster Areas" so the National Guard and Military can begin to mobilize. Then he cut short his meetings overseas and flew home to coordinate the rescue efforts. All one day BEFORE a Cat-3 hit the coast.

President Bush (41) -- August 1992 -- was in the midst of a campaign for re-election. Yet, he cut off his campaigning the day before and went to Washington where he martialed the largest military operation on US soil in history. He sent in 7,000 National Guard and 22,000 regular military personnel, and all the gear to begin the clean up within hours after Andrew passed through Florida.

George Bush (43) -- August 2005 -- Cat-5 Hurricane Katrina bears down on New Orleans and the Mississippi gulf. Both states are down nearly 8,000 National Guard troops because they are in Iraq -- with most of the rescue gear needed.
Bush is on vacation. The day before Katrina makes landfall, Bush rides his bike for two hours. The day Katrina hits, he goes to John McCain's birthday party, The day Katrina hits, he goes to John McCain's birthday party, and lies to old people about the multi-billion-dollar pharmaceutical company welfare boondoggle.
People are dying, the largest port of entry in the United States (and fifth largest in the World) is under attack. Troops and supplies are desperately needed. The levees are cracking and the emergency 1-1/2 ton sandbags are ready, but there aren't enough helicopters or pilots to set them before the levees fail. The mayor of New Orleans begs for Federal coordination, but there is none, and the sandbagging never gets done. Bush goes to San Diego, to play guitar with a country singer and lie to the military about how Iraq is just exactly like WWII. The levees give way, filling New Orleans with water, sewage, oil and chemicals. Ten percent of all US exports, and 50% of all agricultural exports ordinarily go through this port. It is totally destroyed. Bush decides he'll end his vacation a couple of days early -- BECAUSE HE HAS TICKETS TO A PADRES GAME.
.

[Thinkingabout]

54. Thanks for the information, I visited NO in November after Katrina struck, there was still a stench

of body odors, holes in roofs which people beat their way out after the streets was flooded and other roofs where recovery teams removed bodies from attics after the people had to enter to escape the water. This is very sad our nation turned their backs on the folks, it was racial slurs against those who did not leave but this storm took lots of folks by surprise. Until you are faced with situations like this you don't know what you would do yourself.

[malaise]

15. The stupid burns

These sheeple are robots

[KamaAina]

17. Well, he was a first-term Senator

from a state that's on the same river as Louisiana, so it's entirely plausible.

[penultimate]

19. Kind of an odd question though...

Last edited Wed Aug 21, 2013, 02:27 PM - Edit history (1)

But you have to wonder what world those 29% of the people live in... I would love to hear them explain their thought process.

I can overlook the ones who said they don't know, because they may not blame Bush themselves and they found the Obama part to be WTF-ish...

[Harry Monroe]

29. The thought process is that rage overcomes reason

It's pretty simple really, they see "blame" and "Obama" in the same question and the reptilian part of their brain kicks in. Like the proverbial Pavlovian dog, they've been conditioned to blame Obama for everything. A poll question with Obama as one of the choices? Doesn't matter what it is about, Obama has to be the choice for them!! No other choice matter!! Obama and blame, that's all they saw. Rage overtook reason and they didn't bother to think about the question for two seconds to see that their "reasoning" for choosing Obama was completely wrong and invalid.

As a native Louisianian, I am ashamed of how far that state has fallen.

[penultimate]

34. Exactly what I was thinking...

It's just a knee-jerk response based on their twisted rage. Which is why I'd love to see them try to explain how they came to that conclusion. I don't even see how they could stretch to come up with that conclusion, so they'd have to admit they were wrong. Well, I guess they could come up with some crazy theory, but they'd have to dive pretty deep into tinfoil hat land to do it.

[benld74]

21. Input was done with crayons, right?

[mfcorey1]

23. How low can they sink? Good grief!! eom

[Harry Monroe]

27. In another poll...

....more Louisiana Republican Teabillies blame Obama for the Titanic sinking than President Taft.

They also blame Obama more for the Hindenburg disaster than President Roosevelt!!

Oh the humanity!! I weep for the future of my home state, Louisiana.

[NOLALady]

61. A Local talk radio program

said that a poll described Mississippians as the dumbest state. But, I think the poll is wrong.

That honor must go to my fellow Louisianians!

[TheLion]

28. Three in ten, eh?

If only three in ten Lousianna Republicans are that moronic, they've certainly made great improvement.

[jimlup]

31. Some of these people are scary ignorant

God what can we do???

[maui902]

32. Not sure how to fix it, but one of the primary reasons for the incredible division in our country is

an alarming lack of knowledge of the facts. It's just breathtaking that anyone could believe President Obama (then Senator Obama) had anything to do with the response to Hurricane Katrina. I was already prepared for the inevitable blame he'll receive for things that happen after he is no longer the President, but to blame him for things occurring before he took office is just cluelessness on a whole other scale. While watching Carly Fiorina this past weekend on This Week, I was once again amazed that someone who is recognized as a business leader could continue to claim that the U.S. is driving up deficits, when in fact the deficit is going down-rapidly. Both David Plouffe and Rep. Ellison reacted by shaking their heads and trying to say no, but on the show went without George Stephanopoulus stopping the dialogue to challenge Fiorina's obvious misstatement. Subsequently, Plouffe corrected her statement, but viewers who don't read or work to understand the issues too often just accept a misleading narrative. Although the national debt continues to grow, and will do so as long as we run any deficit (which is the norm), it is not rising nearly as fast as it was previously under Bush and the first four years under Obama because we the deficit is decreasing rapidly.

[MisterP]

33. 9-11 is Clinton's fault; Giuliani forgot 9-11; cons pretend that we had $1B deficit in '09

and the other $12B is all from "redistribution to the poor": THIS IS THEIR WORLD; they only get their new from Fox (proven by a study) and that's used to pretend that libs have a similar bubble or echo chamber
and they pretend that libs get their worldview the same way (pace MSNBC's partisanship--which is used to defend O's conservative policies)

[Bossy Monkey]

35. He was already black, for gosh sakes!

Also, this is as good a time as any to say, "Thank you, Captain Obvious!"

I don't need the sarcasm tag for either of those, do I?

[Capt. Obvious]

37. No tag needed

[Snake Plissken]

36. I has to be either Obama's fault or Clinton's fault

Because Clinton was the president before it happened and Obama was the president after it happened. It could also be the fault of the president who is elected in 2016, assuming a Democratic Candidate is elected President.

[malthaussen]

39. Does Anybody Really Know What Time it is?

-- Mal

[Aerows]

40. For Heaven's sake

Even Louisiana Dems aren't sure. Case in point: Mary Landrieu.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

41. You're missing the link to The Onion, you know. nt

[Lobo27]

43. I have a feeling that the movie Idiocracy!!!

Is going to come true.....................................

[another_liberal]

48. "Yeah, Obama did that . . ."

"He lost us the Civil War too!"

[TDale313]

53. Yeah, a lot of them are still fighting that one.

[awoke_in_2003]

49. WTF? nt

[NOLALady]

52. OMG!

Only 28 per cent of Louisianians have good sense.

I am so embarrassed.

[The Wizard]

55. Obama's biggest problem is

he's only half white.

[DinahMoeHum]

56. If ignorance is bliss, these Bible-belters are in a state of rapture.

And if said rapture ever comes, I'm claiming their property and possessions.

[Tien1985]

57. That's just... No.

I can't even fathom that level of stupidity right now.

[WinkyDink]

59. Okay, THIS? is actually very disturbing to me. This isn't some OTHER area's RECENT HISTORY here.

[underpants]

60. `*``*``the lines are blurred`*``**`*`**``

This has been the point of RW media and their followers (MSM and dashboard believers). 2001 to 2009 didn't happen. Obama did the bailouts, "Obama phones", Obama created the deficit....etc.

[Scalded Nun]

62. You just can't fix stupid

You have to fight it (tooth and nail), but you just can't fix it.

[Beartracks]

64. Ignorance by design. n/t

[Scurrilous]

65. K & R

[blkmusclmachine]

66. Not that stupid.

Just lying.

[JI7]

67. is it any wonder it's so hard to make obvious changes for the better

when you have idiots like this electing idiots into office

[jtuck004]

68. Time to get him out of his crate again...

[Douglas Carpenter]

70. knr

[theHandpuppet]

71. The stupid -- it BURNS!!

[Botany]

72. Katrina = 2,000 dead + 3,000 more later ... Sandy = 100 dead

Who can forget bush showing up 5 days later and looking at an old weather satellite photo
of the storm w/Brownie?

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/.a/6a00d8341c630a53ef01348070d192970c-600wi

[Douglas Carpenter]

73. If they did a poll asking if they thought Barack Obama was involved in the assassination of JFK - I

would bet a significant portion would say yes and a larger number would say they didn't know. Considering Barack Obama would have been two years old at the time - that wouldn't necessarily deter them from thinking is was plausible.

[MFM008]

76. I always say the gop is stupid

now it is shown to be a fact.

[Boom Sound 416]

77. 29% of Louisiana republicans can also see Russia from their house!

[Bill USA]

78. Jesus!!

recommended and bookmarked!