Super (and Fat) Tuesday

Read more Super Tuesday coverage on HuffPost

Watching Obama's speech from my flu bed in New Orleans--what a way to celebrate Mardi Gras, by waiting in line for a prescription at a freezing Walgreens!--my first question was: If this guy's so smart, why'd he, or his handlers, schedule this impressive speech at an hour when they knew the broadcast networks would have abandoned the Super Tuesday story? Hillary and Huckabee used that schedule to their benefit, gaining valuable free time on the broadcast nets, while both Obama and McCain had to settle for cable.

My second question was: was he talking about New Orleans? Hillary, of course, made a glancing wave at the city, conjoining it with some other city elsewhere in one of those "from the nurse in....to the student in...." concoctions. Obama, in his "yes, we can" peroration, referred to a woman whose house was swept away in a vicious storm. Where? The Mississippi Gulf Coast? The recent tornado alleys of Tennessee and Arkansas?

He was having it both ways, allowing the attention-starved people of New Orleans (why'd you guys schedule Mardi Gras on Super Tuesday, anyway?) to believe they'd been thrown a crumb, while avoiding responsibility for focusing on what really happened here--the betrayal of the city by a federal government that swore to protect it. The new word that should be inserted in that formulation, incidentally, is "knowingly". In a decision last week throwing out half of the citizens' lawsuit against the US Army Corps of Engineers, Federal Judge Stanwood Duval castigated the Corps thusly:

"While the United States government is immune for legal liability for the defalcations alleged herein, it is not free, nor should it be, from posterity's judgment concerning its failure to accomplish what was its task," the judge wrote. "This story -- 50 years in the making -- is heart-wrenching. Millions of dollars were squandered in building a levee system with respect to these outfall canals which was known to be inadequate by the corps's own calculations."

He added, in a postscript made more bitter by tonight's failure by the candidates to say anything remotely substantive about this situation:

"It is not within the court's power to address the wrongs committed. It is hopefully within the citizens of the United States' power to address the failures of our laws and agencies."

Most of the national media have long since given up bringing the facts of why New Orleans flooded to the public's attention. Now, the candidates, all working their poll-approved themes, choose not to take the judge's cue. Who the hell will?

Read more Super Tuesday coverage on HuffPost

Comments

[HighBeam]

Last night in Sen. Clinton’s speech, she said we have to invest in our infrastructure from the bridges in Min. to the levees in New Orleans at the other end of the Miss. I agree that more still needs to be done in NO and I think that the next Dem President will do just that.
HARRY RESPONDS: Your citation corrects my recollection. Still, if all she's recommending is "investment"--i.e., more money--without addressing the cause of the disaster--i.e., the Corps' lack of independent peer review or willingness to look beyond its "levees-only" policy--she's just speeding the building of the next doomed system that will lead to the next disastrous flood.

[Puller58]

You really have to want to see a problem before you solve it. When Reagan was in office, the dems had congress most of the time. (Repubs had the Senate at the start.) The point is that the dems were complicit in palming off infrastructure on the states. Statehouse sleaze has always been there in both parties. Follow the money applies as well. Post Katrina it remains the same. Obama, Hillary, McCain, Romney, Huckabee and whoever do not control congress nor the statehouses. Voters do not have the ability to oversee government functions. If New Orleans is not rebuilt, can voters punish those who fail them? The theory says yes, but the reality says not so much. So the next prez really doesn't matter.
HARRY RESPONDS: This thread really has me baffled. i know a lot of you guys don't read the links, but don't you even read the quotes in the original post? The levee breach situation had nothing to do with any "palming off infrastructure" on the states. The levee-floodwall "system" was and always remained a federal project, part of a federal flood-control structure mandated by Congress to protect New Orleans after Hurricane Betsy. It was always the responsibility of the Corps of Engineers, and, as the judge said, the Corps failed their responsibility.

[lastams]

Thank you for reminding the country periodically that New Orleans is still struggling to rebuild, that it was in fact a Federal mismanagement disaster and not something caused by our own stupidity.
The perception has been that after the government has given us massive handouts, we’ve all been too ignorant to rebuild our City, yet nothing is further from the truth.
It took some of us years to wrench an approval from the SBA for a rebuilding loan.
This was not a handout; it was a home mortgage.
Since that time we’ve had to fight tooth and nail with the SBA to actually distribute funds. As the insurance is good for only one year, the SBA can recall the loans if the construction is not finished on time. That’s right, The SBA can call in loans because of DELAYS CAUSED BY THE SBA!
And this is typical as to how the “government” has treated New Orleans.
A Congressional committee heard testimony that the SBA has actively sought to undermine the reconstruction. Thousands of loans were arbitrarily thrown out and “case workers” were routinely pressured to disallow applications. Of course, as with all congressional investigations these days, a bit of press was generated and nothing was done.
So thanks for the occasional heads up to the rest of the country that seems to think we’ve gotten more than our fair share of attention.
Please continue to remind them that we were destroyed by government negligence, and are being held back by Federal mandate. It’s not because we’re stupid that we haven’t been able to rebuild.
It is that we are overmatched in fighting both the government and Mother Nature.

[Britisher]

NOLA's situation encompasses almost all of the biggest issues---the economy, jobs, housing, health care,civil rights, corruption, climate change, infrastucture and the consequences of the Iraq policy. Re-introducing NOLA into the present political dialog would serve both NOLA and the Democratic candidates.
If CLinton and/or Obama took the initiative to bring it up in their speeches it would steer the MSM to pay attention again. Thus far in the debates it has been the press who has determined the dialog through their control of debate questions.

[GoCards1978]

One of the most important things the Federal govt. can do about the recession is invest in infrastructure. Lord knows it has been sorely neglected since Reagan held the office. The question is will they do the right thing? I hope so, but if the Gulf Coast "recovery" is any indication...This is something that shouldn't be limited by pay-go considering every dime spend on Iraq is part of the budget.

[induraman]

Well Harry you will get a few stories about how the people of new Orleans were forgotten from both canidates with Mr Obama playing to the goverment is bad but don't worry I am good and about "change" Whatever that means because up to know the term "changed" is not being stated just that it will happen. I am Also sure that it will be Hillary's fault somehow and that she just did not do enough to help those folks down there. Once again the national media made complete fools of themselves last night fawning over Obama like he had white wings and a Halo.

[kuulray]

To me it was clear Obama was talking about New Orleans in the example you mentioned. He's your best hope, Harry; give him a chance.

[unitron]

If the Democrats had had the brains to go with my idea to declare, right after the scale of the Katrina disaster became known, that their 2008 convention *would* be in New Orleans, then some of the political stories now would be about the investment and rebuilding done to insure adequate facilities for said convention, which would have created more openings for stories about why the rebuilding was necessary in the first place.

[Rocku]

When Ronald Regan put the responsibility for upkeep of major public works onto the States, he put in motion the events which inevitably led to the disaster of New Orleans. The failure to adequately respond in a timely manner to the suffering there after the disaster can be shared by the State and Federal governments. Yet, the rebuilding is not on track and thousands of trailers still sit in fields. If anything describes the failure of government it is the overview of New Orleans from the day of the tradgedy's occurance until the present day. Instead of "heads rolling" medals were handed out. I don't think the American People will forget this incident even though the media seems to want to ignore it at this time. In the span of a generation we went from a "can do" country with the best economy, dynamic educational system, and most inventive spirit on earth to a second rate nation with massive debt, abominable education system, and a grim future. Executions are in order!