Jonathan Freedland (The Guardian): The levee will break

[Jack Rabbit]

From The Guardian Unlimited (London)
Dated Wednesday September 7

The levee will break
The neocons may have been damaged by Katrina, but progressives will have to fight for a new political settlement
By Jonathan Freedland

It's safe to say that if George W Bush was in his first term, he would now be heading for defeat. Safe, because we will never know: he's in his second term and will never face the voters again.

That quirk in the US system, with its strict two-term rule, makes it hard to read the impact Hurricane Katrina will have on the Bush presidency. Nor is it much easier to tell how the disaster that drowned one of America's best-loved cities will change the country itself. But both questions matter - especially for a wider world that has come to learn that what happens in the US affects everyone.

Start with Bush himself. Weekend polls suggested 50-50 America has once again split down the middle, with Bush opponents disapproving of his abysmal non-performance last week while Bush-supporters stay loyal. That's heartened Republicans who were bracing themselves for much worse numbers.

They find further cheer in their belief that Bush bounces back in a crisis. Attacked for his immediate response to 9/11, he turned that calamity into the defining moment of his first term. Privately, conservatives also wonder how much sympathy white, suburban America - the crucial middle ground all politicians covet - will feel for Katrina's victims. One close-up observer describes what he suspects is a widely-held - if rarely articulated - view of those left behind in New Orleans: "They lived in a silly place, they didn't get out when they should, they stole, they shot at each other and they shot at rescue workers." If that's the view, then Bush won't suffer too badly.

Read more.

[Skittles]

1. honestly Jack

I'm not sure I can "read more" after reading the snipped you posed. :puke:

SHOULD I read more? :O

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. Yes, do read - Freedland is looking at what both parties face

The "live in a silly place" is not his remark.

[T_i_B]

3. Yes

The quote Freedland used there is intended to highlight racism in the republican ranks. The next paragraph complements it as follows

Pessimistic Bushites see things differently. They reckon the sight of so many black Americans left destitute or dying while Washington idled will embarrass those same white suburban voters who, they say, feel uncomfortable at even a hint of racism. They also believe Bush and chief strategist Karl Rove can consign to the trash-can their long-term dream of peeling at least some African-American voters away from the Democrats. Bush had scored some small successes in that direction: now he can forget it.

[Demeter]

4. Freedland Proposes Simple Competence Be Criterion for Office

I say, Hear, Hear! or in American: D'oh!

[Boo Boo]

5. I think his numbers will end up worse than evenly split

The polls were done so close to the event that they surely must have been tilted by the usual knee-jerk response to support the President in a time of crisis. People want to pull together. Viewed in that light, fifty percent support seems pretty weak. It was much higher, for instance, after 9/11. I think fifty percent represents a short term spike, and it's going to be downhill from there.

I think it's rather amusing to see people trying to convince themselves that fifty percent support, immediately in the wake of a major national crises, is "not so bad."