It's all there in the HuffPost archives, posts about the Corps of Engineers choosing what they admit is a "technically (not) superior) solution for the permanent rebuild of the canals whose floodwalls failed catastrophically during Katrina, about the Corps whistleblower's vindicated allegations about the shortcomings of the pumps at those canals, about the White House's silence on those issues during the past year. Commenters favorable to the Obama administration were virtually unanimous in their defense: he's got a full plate, give him time.
Well, this just in: the President's plate doesn't get any less full the longer the administration proceeds. And today, with a slo-mo environmental catastrophe in the Gulf, and a slo-mo federal response threatening to leave this administration looking as pathetic as oil-soaked pelicans, one thing is clear: a full-throated, thoughtful, energetic response to the remaining problems dogging the rebuilding of the "hurricane risk reduction system" in New Orleans might have given the Obama Administration the aura of caring about the area. Which, in turn, might have inoculated it against the charges from opponents that this is Obama's Katrina moment. Having let last year's opportunity slip by, having been beguiled by the wilful blindness of its automatic-pilot supporters, the administration stands un-inoculated politically against the impression that it's impotent in the face of BP's cupidity, laxity, and mendacity.
How's that plate looking now?