How will Bush use Katrina politically? Can he repeat his 9/11 performance?

[underthedome]

Will he be successful?

[BayCityProgressive]

1. I don't think he can

use it politically and I dont really think he will get any bump from it. People know this has nothing to do with politics.

[Krupskaya]

2. He'll declare war on the weather.

Because of its unprovoked attack on our freedoms.

[SeveneightyWhoa]

4. War on God?

I don't think Pat Robertson would approve!

[Skink]

7. It's basically a week long photo op....

he'll be able to model a whole line of fall fashion.

[KaryninMiami]

11. I agree. Watch for his compassion and heartfelt sadness....

Get ready because he will most certainly nurse this for all he can- especially in light of his approval ratings. Yuck...

[Broken_Hero]

33. Ha,

He will say this "Those islamic terrorist killers have made a weather machine, to make hurricanes, to send to my brothers state, with the intention of wrecking havoc, and death upon our nation, and i won't take it anymore, just today i signed a bill, that will start a war campaign agaisnt these killer terrorist weather storms, thank you for your suppport, go TEXAS!"....something like that?...:)

[sundog]

34. stay the course against weather

:eyes:

[Zenlitened]

3. "Everything changed after 8-29"

[Bluebear]

5. He will stand on the superdome with a bullhorn...

well after the danger has passed, vowing to "go after the people who did this." Then he will attack the Bering Sea.

[underthedome]

12. I don't laugh out loud and I just laughed out loud. ty *nm

nm

[Webster Green]

13. LOL!

I'm crackin' up! :rofl:

[RandomKoolzip]

23. That's fuckin' beautiful.

:thumbsup: Good one!

[daleo]

30. Yes, that was good. n/t

[Broken_Hero]

36. ?

Bering Sea is in Alaska, you can't see it from the Superdome...:)

[KaryninMiami]

6. Not sure if he'll be successful but I'll bet he'll become warm and fuzzy-

and do his best to demonstrate how he really is a "compassionate conservative" and that in spite how it appears, he really does have a heart. We're talking photo ops galore following this storm- hugging families, wiping tears from his eyes-- the works. Will the country buy it? Will his approval ratings go up? Probably. Hard to say frankly. Americans- many anyway, tend to be pretty gullible in times of crisis. Those of us who won't buy it will find the entire show nausiating.

[CityDem]

27. He will be piling sandbags

Perfect opportunity to show he is in touch with joe six pack. I am sure the MSM media will tow the line and help AWOL improve his image.

[Richard Steele]

8. It should hurt him.

It's become clear that the city was NOT prepared
for a disaster of this magnitude.

4 years after 9/11, B*sh still hasn't readied our nation
to cope with large emergencies.

[aquart]

14. Yup.

Logically, disaster prep would be things like, if we can't evacuate in a certain number of hours because of lack of roads...build more roads.

Stuff like that.

Do research into the kind of roof that will NOT blow off.

Can you imagine what an actual expert might think to do? Did we do any of it?

[Jade Fox]

9. No, because there is no "fuzzy enemy" he can conjure up to blame...

for it, and to provide a focus for people's anger.

[robertarctor]

16. And people will be furious

... when they find out that not only is the bulk of Louisiana's National Guard in Iraq, but that Bush has gutted FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers, with the money transfered into the pockets of Bush Pioneers and Halliburton. And if the death toll is as large as the worst-case scenarios are projecting, and the devastation is anywhere near what has been projected ...

My prediction: Bush will be pressured to resign. Four and a half years of raping the government by these thieves and assclowns will be revealed when we go to the emergency storehouse and discover it's been pillaged by greedy Republicans.

[Jade Fox]

21. Everyone in the SE should be furious at George already....

since his denial of global warming is imapacting them almost constantly
now, it seems. I agree: if this turns out to be the disaster predicted,
Bush will experience a huge negative impact.

[u4ic]

10. Invade Venezuala

Iraq didn't make sense, either...

[newswolf56]

15. Given that Bush is a tool of the oligarchy, irrevocably commited...

to "free markets" and maximum-possible profits forcibly extracted thereby, he will do nothing at all to ease the aftermath of the hurricane with its skyrocketing fuel prices, ruinous inflation and -- if the Gulf of Mexico refining capability is truly knocked out -- the resultant total collapse of the U.S. economy. He will become the president who presides over the final, total and irremediable destruction of America, and his popularity will drop even lower: probably to only 10 percent or even less. The frightening part is that the only way he and the Republican Party can escape the consequences is by suspending the 2006 and 2008 elections. Truly -- given the terminal consequences of runaway oil prices -- Katrina could be the end of life as we know it.

[whistle]

17. The disasters that are yet in store from Katrina as a Category 5....

...huricane, can offer George Bush no opportunity to make political gains, unless he personally goes to the disaster areas and and makes direct federal assistant commitments funded through tax increases on the wealthy! Bush threw the disaster funding away by giving it to the wealthy through tax breaks and cab only commit such funds back by taxing the wealthy.

[havocmom]

18. Every time disaster stikes, hound him with this question:

Where's our Guard? Off in a war based on lies. Where's our Guard when disaster hits? Making profit for the 'Haves and the Have Mores'

[Arkana]

19. He'll get them mixed up in his zeal to exploit them.

"My fellow Americans, when Hurricane Katrina attacked us on 9/11..."

[speedoo]

20. A 10% rise in gasoline prices will more than offset anything..

KKR has the Coward do in a PR sense. And then the hit on the economy, which will take a few months will drive his poll numbers down to the 20's.

[elperromagico]

22. What's he going to do? Bomb the Weather Channel?

[HuckleB]

24. Don't you mean "will the MSM pretend he's a real leader..."

"like it did for 9/11," despite his actual piss-poor, deer in the headlights performance?

[BelleCarolinaPeridot]

25. This is a STORM . Its a STORM !

Remember Bush can not use everything politcally . You're giving him too much credit . Damn ...

[BillZBubb]

26. He'll get a 7% uptick in his polling numbers.

The sheeple are suckers for his "I'm in control" schtick coupled with his phony compassion. They'll rally round the "leader" after a disaster. The Chimperor will "tour" the devastation, he'll hand out a few cases of bottled water, he'll give a speech to show how touched he is and to praise the American spirit. It will work.

But, it will quickly fade. The realities will seep back into the nearly empty sheeple craniums.

[DLnyc]

28. The pattern is quite clear, though.

While everyone around him is saying that disaster is brewing, Bush heads to Crawford for a long vacation. When the disaster hits he runs away like a frightened rabit. Then a few days later his handlers put a sock in his pants and send him out to talk about how he's the one to protect us. WAKE UP AMERICA!!!!! That nightmare you keep having is YOUR LIFE!

[wli]

29. there will be a media blitz to paint him as a saint etc.

It likely won't work and his poll numbers will stay flat for a while in a muted "rally 'round the flag" effect. Then the economy will collapse and massive multimillion-person crowds of demonstrators will be slaughtered and their wounded remainders imprisoned en masse and used for slave labor.

[gulliver]

31. He'll send in the National Guard ... Oh wait, they're in Iraq.

Maybe he will go in himself and help clear the brush.

I just hope nothing serious happens to those folks, regardless of what Bush does to play with it politically.

[daleo]

32. He will talk up the prayer angle.

The media will go along, and say he is a saint for praying so hard. You will hear the phrase "our prayers go out to the victims" dozens of times every day. He won't spend much money to actually help anyone though.

Right wing loons will blame the poor for staying in New Orleans, saying they just wanted to party and loot.

I don't think any of this will work, but it will be tried. It may finally expose the whole bunch to the light of day, for the unfeeling bunch they truly are.

[Blue_Tires]

35. he'll cut funding for NOAA n/t