Katrina Tests Bush's Crisis Skills

[leftchick]

WASHINGTON - After the Sept. 11 attacks, the newly elected President Bush needed to be seen as a strong leader. He gripped a bullhorn at Ground Zero in New York and bellowed to rescue workers: "I can hear you! The rest of the world hears you!"

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Bush — a two-termer shouldering the lowest approval ratings of his presidency — is struggling to prove he can manage a national disaster that will burden his administration for the rest of his time in the White House.

If Sept. 11 was the defining moment of his presidency, Katrina is again testing his mettle as a crisis manager.

Failing that test will mar his legacy.

"There's no question that it will hurt him and it will hurt him significantly," said Norman Ornstein, political analyst at the American Enterprise Institute think tank. "He's still getting the solid support from his base. The question now is whether his performance with the hurricane begins to affect his performance with his base."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050903/ap_on_go_pr_wh/katrina_bush_crisis_manager

mods, I hope this is not a dupe. my search function has gone wacko.

[msongs]

1. what crisis skills? nt

[liberalhistorian]

2. LOL, that's just

what I was about to ask!

[struggle4progress]

15. Ya know, stuff standin in fronta whirlybirds. eom

[WCGreen]

24. Shit Howdy Doody could have lead the nation after 911

JEsus....

How hard was it for him to do what he did....

But every thing, every thing after that....

He has fucked up royaly....

Every thing....

[Cha]

43. The reading skills and photo op skills

bush puts to use when A Crisis Arises!

And, bush will always get "solid support from his base" because they're as whacked as he is.

[liberal N proud]

3. F - He failed and should be ejected from power. n/t

[Sabriel]

23. I guess he's too used to those standardized tests.

He wasn't prepared for the authentic assessment one.

[stepnw1f]

4. You Forgot 9-11

He failed twice!

[Old and In the Way]

6. Counting the Iraq debacle, that's 3 strikes.

He'd be out in baseball.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

25. I guess that means he hit the Trifecta!

Lucky devil... :evilgrin:

[Zenlitened]

5. Well Bush failed the 911 test, however pretty the bullhorn photo-op looked

So it's no surpise he failed this test, too.

All that's left for him his to invade, say, Nova Scotia now, get our troops bogged down and squander billions of dollars with nothing to show for it

Oh, and start calling himself "the hurricane president.'

What an ass.

[Old and In the Way]

8. Call him the Disaster President.

He's been a complete disaster for this country.

[wli]

7. Skills at creating a crisis, more like. n/t

[Olney Blue]

9. Too little, too late.

It's over.

[leftchick]

10. he is doomed when anger wins....

<snip>

"It's hard to find the right rhetoric because he's carrying the baggage of governance and his accountability for the lack of preparedness," Jamieson said. "It's not that empathy doesn't have some traction. It's just that when you're watching television and his empathy is pitted against anger, the anger wins."

[DrZeeLit]

11. Leadership on 9/11... People, people! Remember where he was and

what he REALLY did that day!

Come on! Leadership? He didn't grab a bullhorn until it was all set up to do so.
He sat reading My Pet Goat.
Then flew all over hell's half acre.
When he finally surfaced, he gave the most assine, pathetic "speech," read off a piece of paper. I almost threw up.

I was ashamed then, and now, that this country has been duped by this idiot.

No, he has never had "leadership" skills. What people often perceive is what his handlers let them see ---> PR and photo ops, carefully tuned.

Did you see him turn those two women yesterday, toward the camera.
What a piece of work!

Yeck!

[GoBlue]

12. 9/11 was a pop-quiz. Katrina was a scheduled exam;

for which he had 4 years to prepare. But his response really didn't change.

Grade: Criminal Negligence

[BenDavid]

13. ANyone have a direct connection

to MoveOn.org? Well if anyone does, then tell me I have a suggestion for an ad..... In the first frame show the force of Katrina as it came ashore.... Second frame show the aftermath. Third frame show the guitar that bush received I think on tuesday...with the caption Where was george? fourth frame, caption again, where was george? then show him eating cake or licking his thumb and also include in the picture that ass mccain holding the damn cake....5th frame voice saying, when america needed a leader where was george. then show him reading my pet goat, and then 6th frame...when america was in need of leadership, where was george? and end it with a headline that says president cuts short is vacation by 2 days to fly back to washington....and then his infamous words of august 01 ..."One does not have to be in washington to work". Then final frame WHERE WAS GEORGE? then flash a picture of bush playing the guitar and place the date under it....flash again the pictures of the coast... then flash a picture of him licking his thumb and mccain holding the cake and the date under it, then flash what N.O. looked like....and fade to black with WHERE WAS GEORGE.....and the final shot on the screen...... M I A................AGAIN!

[Name removed]

14. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Corgigal]

17. I SAY

Fuck Ben Stein.

Pretty much covers it.

[meganmonkey]

20. Enjoy your pizza

:)

[JoFerret]

16. Performance with his base...

...if David Brooks is any measure - he is in deep doo-doo with many of them.

Still - he will always have the freepers!

[leftchick]

28. 20% freeper base with NO critical thinking skills

that is it!

[tanyev]

18. All George Bush proved two days AFTER 9/11 was that he

was a strong cheerleader. Now he can't even do that, apparently.

[peacefreak]

29. that has been my thought for the past few days.

That's what people get for electing a cheerleader. (My apologies to all the intelligent, well educated cheerleaders...)

[nothometoday]

19. WHAT skills???

Russia would have had a better response to a fire in Siberia...........

[AlCzervik]

21. A bullhorn does not a leader make and as far as his legacy is concerned?

"Worst President ever"

[truthisfreedom]

22. and he gets.... an F!

total failure.

but what did we expect? he's the casual president. he couldn't get off his ass on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday...

[cmdrxog]

26. yes .... total failure

couldn't even make it to the test on time. On the other hand he is scoring high with a certain class.

[aquart]

27. MAR his legacy? That IS his legacy.

Only American president to destroy an American city.

[Magleetis]

30. The only reason

Booosh looked good after 911 is that he handled that emergency with Clinton's FEMA.

on edit: Wow I made it into the 500 club. What a hell of a time to get there.

[TankLV]

35. Correction: He didn't look good after 911 either!

But because the whore media kept TELLING US THAT LIE, and we wanted so desperately to believe, NO MATTER THE EVIDENCE FOR US ALL TO SEE RIGHT IN FRONT OF OUR EYES, the sheeple bought it wholesale!

[VegasWolf]

31. Just sayin, last time Chimp's ratings were this low, we had 9/11. nt

[0rganism]

32. and bush FLUNKS MISERABLY

So much for the "soft bigotry of low expectations", eh?

[VegasWolf]

33. Bush wil go down in history as the Atlantis President! nt

[TankLV]

34. Breaking News: He's FAILED - MISERABLY! Just like he did on 911!

Revisionist history, no matter how hard they try - BUSHCO ALSO FAILED MISERABLY ON 911!

[anotherdrew]

36. just where would this piece of shit bush have learned "crisis skills" ?

what a joke

[bluestateguy]

37. George W. Bush has no experience, no gravitas

He lacks the experience to be president.

He also has no foreign policy experience.

[LisaL]

38. Test over. Bush's crisis skills-none.

[Nevernose]

39. There's a No-Child-Left-Behind joke in here somewhere

But I'm in more of a bitter humor today than a joke-making one, so damned if I can find the NCLB joke.

[Lisa]

40. this teacher gives him another "F" (he's getting quite a collection!)

Sorry, Dubya -- but you didn't even bother completing the exam!

[damntexdem]

41. What? Do you mean that ...

faith-based hydrology doesn't work?

[DemInDistress]

42. Regarding 911 and the bullhorn

what kind of reception might our fearless leader have received if that
Aug 6 2001 PDB was leaked on Sept.13 2001? For 8 months following 911
both bush and cheney denied any prior knowledge of 911,then on May 15 2002 the NY Post ran a front page story,"911 shocker,BUSH KNEW prez was warned about terror attacks before they happened".Yet on Sept.14 2001 chicken george visited the carnage at Ground Zero and lied through his teeth with that bullhorn..

[Redstone]

44. He can't find his ass with both hands. Why would we expect him

to be able to "manage" all this?

Even Rove isn't as good a bullshitter as he used to be. NOBODY bought yesterday's "coincidence" of the huge convoy rolling into New Orleans (shown to us exclusively by Fox News, no less!) just before The Savior Of New Orleans descended from the clouds.

Redstone

[classysassy]

45. That buffoon

was put in office by five morons and we the people were too stupid or freighten to reject him,so who do we blame? let the finger pointing start we are all responsible for this mess.

[rocktivity]

46. PUFF PIECE ALERT (Bush Fails Katrina Test Miserably)

Actually, he failed it in 2003 when he pulled LA's levee reconstruction funding and didn't formulate a joint evacuation plan in conjunction with state and local government. "Marring" his legacy? His legacy has been obliterated!

:puffpiece:
rocknation

[Auntie Bush]

47. That's like giving a first grader a CALCULUS test to test their math skill

[NYC Liberal]

48. TestS? How about TestED?

Bush had his chance when we first heard about how bad this was going to be.
He has already failed his "test."
It is time for him to step down and let a real leader take charge.

[stickdog]

49. 9/11: BushCo knew it or blew it. Katrina: BushCo knew it AND blew it.

[young_at_heart]

50. Shouldn't it be.... "Katrina Tests Rove's Crisis Skills"?

Also, Cheney is heavily involved in spin. I wonder how much time they are spending in ways to help the people whose lives have been ruined?

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

51. He's failing miserably

Yesterday I listened to a woman I know who was a long time Bush supporter rant about what an idiot he was. Her feeling was if we can intervene in Iraq we better damn well be able to take care of aour own country.