President Bush has dropped the ball, totally, in New Orleans. What with one thing and another, Iâm not even sure he remembers that there were a couple of big storms this hurricane season, but somebody needs to remind him…soon.
Not just because New Orleans is worthwhile (it is), or because itâs the right thing to do (of course), or that he made stirring but thus-far empty promises in Jackson Square (he did). The real bottom line is: if Bush doesnât step up to the plate and help New Orleans, the Democrats are absolutely gonna nail the Republicans to the wall for it.
Nicole Gelinas at City Journal wrote about exactly this earlier in November, in which she said (in part):
The White House and Capitol-Hill Republicans who want to stay in power should consider a threat that looms even earlier: the Democrats, if theyâre remotely smart, will frame the mid-term elections as a referendum on how much progress President Bush has made over the course of 14 months in overcoming the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, and the national media will efficiently dispatch images from the Big Easy of how things are going there. Will the president be ready?
So far, Iâve seen absolutely nothing to indicate Bush will be ready in 14 months, but it turns out he doesnât have that long anyway. Rather, it looks like he has until about April to get in front of his little âNew Orleans problemâ?, because not only are the Democrats “remotely smart”, they have already started to move.
Frankly, it doesn’t matter to me whether the Democrats or the Republicans “fix” New Orleans. But if you belong to either of those parties, it is likely to matter to you.
April’s coming, and the clockâs tickinâ.