Bush Fiddles While New Orleans Burns

Bush Fiddles While New Orleans Burns

In a now-infamous conference call video, we learn Bush was warned ahead of time about the dire threat that an approaching Hurricane Katrina posed to New Orleans and its levees. Many have since used the video to criticize Bush for remarking, three days after Katrina destroyed much of New Orleans, that “I don’t think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees.”

Myself, I’m not so interested in the question of whether Bush lied about what he knew and when he knew it. I’ve come to the conclusion that in Bush’s private little world, reality is perpetually malleable. Where some worry about the problem of “situational ethics,” when regarding Bush we ought to recognize the problem of “situational truth.” And what is so very sad about this situation is that, deep down, I’m sure Bush sincerely believes that simple wishing will create its own truth. Bush is, after all, a very simple man.

No, what bothers me most from what I’ve seen of the video is Bush’s stunning lack of apparent concern or even interest in the fate of his fellow citizens! Confronted with unambiguous warnings of possibly dire consequences to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, Bush just sat there quietly, asking no questions and offering little comment. He accepted the potential disaster that was Katrina with the same blasé attitude with which he confronts pretty much everything except his personal “War on Terror.”

Would it have ruined Bush’s vacation plans to leave the ranch in Crawford, Texas and return to Washington to help direct emergency relief preparation efforts?! (And just where were the rest of his “merry band” of cabinet cronies in this time of crisis?)

In the upcoming campaign cycle, we’d be remiss as concerned Democrats if we didn’t play the Katrina briefing video over and over again. No more telling symbol of the President’s general disassociation from the average American exists.

Peace!
Historian