So Long And Thanks For All The Rotten Fish

On Monday, President George W. Bush delivered his final press conference - barring him declaring marshal law in the next week. It was another stunning performance from our dear departing commander in chief, a man who in so many ways has defined this generation. While not always on the flavorful cusp of the nation's best-and-brightest idiocies, let us give the man credit: he does his best.

When offered a chance to demonstrate some - hell, any, or whatever - humility and admit any mistakes, Bush offered a stirring treatise slamming the criticism he's received for his administration's handling of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. In some ways, this small nugget of wisdom encapsulates the entire Bush presidency:

"I've thought long and hard about Katrina -- you know, could I have done something differently, like land Air Force One either in New Orleans or Baton Rouge. The problem with that and -- is that law enforcement would have been pulled away from the mission. And then your questions, I suspect, would have been, how could you possibly have flown Air Force One into Baton Rouge, and police officers that were needed to expedite traffic out of New Orleans were taken off the task to look after you?"

Where to begin... So the other alternative on the table for him and his staff, other than ignoring a drowning city for five days, allowing people to die of dehydration, was landing his own personal plane in the heart of New Orleans? While I considered looking back into the press coverage, I'm going to go out a limb stead: nobody suggested that. No one. Not a single biased liberal journalist.

To Bush's credit, it's a compelling narrative. Imagine the video footage, grainy and handheld, as journalists follow the president off of his plane, down the gangplank, and through the ruined streets of New Orleans. He comes to the body of a fallen child; he picks the little boy up, only to have the child sputter back to life in his arms. Bush holds him close, and the cameras would pull in for the close-up. He carries women and children back to the plane, pulling them to safety and putting them in the hands of medical professionals. Others would rise up around him, following his lead. He would walk the streets as the city's savior, endangering his own life to bring hope to the hearts of these people.

Like with the Iraqi people, Bush could capture our hearts but he never bothered with our minds.

This sort of mythic imagery, big and bloated, as melodramatic as the latest Dan Brown novel, is old hat for Bush. He loves it. He positively revels in it, even when it's necessary. Remember his speech at Ground Zero? The Axis of Evil? Calling out Saddam Hussein on national TV? Mission Accomplished on an aircraft carrier? His political capital after the 2004 election? This pattern is the administration's approach to everything: go big, go dramatic, go meaning over substance, symbolism over competence.

In the end, it's a fitting goodbye to this nation's 43rd President. Instead of offering a heartfelt apology to the people he has failed, Bush gives them one more dramatic flourish that, like a ill-formed concluding sentence at the end of a newspaper editorial, is full of sound and fury, signifying not much at all.

Comments

[AlButerol]

I love the title of this posting. Very clever.

[Rule Of Law]

Martial Law, Blaise..............

[larry278]

Let's see many residents of NOLS don't own cars. Getting busses to take people out of NOLA was a problem. How do you leave an on coming hurricane & go to a safer place if you don't have wheels? Did NOLA have the money to charter busses to transport people to safety? Where was the money?
This was W & Brownies fiasco.
Louisiana is not a rich state. NOLA is a lot of things but NOLA isn't rich. Where was the money to charter busses? Maybe a neo-con has or had the answers.

[TRUE BLUE AMERICAN]

Larry, the people of N.O. elect officials to take care of these things, their tax dollars are collected for emergency purposes. No excuse, the state and local failed, but they saved themselves. Read post below.

[TRUE BLUE AMERICAN]

Blaise, you are just another liberal goof who refuses to look at what really went wrong during katrina. I'll say it again, The people of N.O. are to blame . Starting with the state and local government bodies that saved themselves and left the remaining population up a creek. Nagin and others did practically nothing but run and hide. Here is the model- state and local takes the problem head-on , backed up by the federal. The poor showing by the first two slowed the third. Next in line for blame is the residents. When a cat. five hurricane is headed straight for you, you must do something like gather water and food if you are going to ride it out. They did next to nothing, oh they did loot, steal and whine I'll give them that. The left always blames someone else. People must take responsibility for something, the government was never put in place to hold your hand from cradle to grave. Grow up. Bush has made mistakes as all presidents do but to blame him for everything is only for the uninformed,(liberals).

[SillyGit]

Where to begin.

I'll bet that everyone in N.O. had stockpiled plenty of food and bottled water. When their homes flooded because the levee repairs never happened, that food and water became rather impossible to get at.

All of LA National Guard was in Iraq. The LA Governor can only call out the LA National Guard. She asked the Bush Administration to call out other State's N.G. to deploy in N.O since only the POTUS can deploy N.G. units from one state into another. This did not happen until two days after Katrina hit about the same time that FEMA called for the evacuation of N.O. all of which was at least three days later than it should have happened. The N.G. did not actually show up in N.O. until five days after Katrina hit.

I'm sure that since everything that I have stated here is well documented by multiple sources you will still claim the I am misinformed. Whatever. Your reality distortion field is in working order.

You are the one who is tragically misinformed and I am ashamed that you call yourself an American. I don't particularly like sharing this country with people such as you.

[TRUE BLUE AMERICAN]

I know right where to begin- so your telling me that the people prepared food and water but coulnd'nt get to it? BS
All the LA National guard was in Iraq- BS And if they were, don't you think they should have known this five to 10 ten days before it hit. This reiterates the fact that the state and local failed.
Where did you get this documented info- Just as I thought
Sillyone, do you really think I care what you think of me? Your the typical weak link in this nation, you probably need the govt. to help you tie your shoes.