Second Anniversary of Katrina and A Bush Perspective
This story comes to us from the Washington Post. It makes the argument that Hurricane Katrina will be seen as the defining moment in the Bush Administration and it discusses the likely legacy. While not “news” we present this story as an Editor’s Choice.
Washington Post, August 28th, Dan Balz
America marks a grim event on Wednesday — the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and the devastation it wrought. New Orleans and the Gulf Coast are still grappling with the consequences. So too is President Bush.
Bush’s presidency took a fateful turn during Katrina and reminders of the damage inflicted from that storm were resurrected again this week with the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. What linked the two events — and what has left the president permanently weakened — were perceptions of incompetence within the Bush administration.
Certainly Bush suffered from other problems as Katrina began to make its way through the Gulf of Mexico. By then, public support for the war in Iraq had begun to significantly erode. By then the president’s audacious plan to restructure Social Security was on life support on Capitol Hill. His approval rating had fallen into negative territory.
But the storyline of a bungling administration was far from fully realized before Katrina hit the coast. Democrats had lost too many elections to Bush to conclude that his political team was a gang that couldn’t shoot straight. The White House team enjoyed grudging respect from Democratic opponents for its discipline, strategic impulses and, yes, competence. Public approval of the president, while drifting down, was not yet in the danger zone.
Katrina suddenly changed all that. Bill McInturff, the Republican pollster, did an analysis Katrina’s effect on Bush’s approval ratings in the summer of 2006 and concluded that almost a year after the storm, the president was still suffering a post-Katrina hangover. Click here to read the rest of this analysis by Dan Balz.