Katrina Shows Bush Incompetence

September 15, 2005

Bush recently took responsibility for the poor federal response to hurricane Katrina. This was definitely something he should have done and was surprising to many because he has not readily admitted to any wrong doing or any error….. none. Some news outlets have made his acceptance of responsibility a focus, because this was the first time he has accepted responsibility for anything.

When the storm first hit, Bush was on vacation and in Southern California to raise funds for himself and the Republican Party. He was seen at speech events and mentioning the storm in a cavalier manner.

Not surprising.

He has admitted in the past that he doesn't read books or newspapers or watch TV except to look at sports.  He has prided himself in this and because of it; he was uniformed about the storm. Incredibly,  Bush was only recently given a DVD explaining the storm and its drastic effects. He NEVER turned on the TV nor did he question his staff about the storm.

Bush deserves blame for being uninformed when he should have been plugged in and informed of growing problems.  To punctuate his disinterest… his first response after the storm was to immediately and generously give Halliburton billions in contracts to rebuild, but not billions for food or water which could have saved lives.

Many will say that Bush and the lackluster Federal response was based on race. It is true most people affected were black but that was because poor blacks lived at the lowest points of New Orleans.  No, Bush's response was due to indifference and incompetence. He would have responded that way if the residents were poor and white.

He cannot reasonably relate to poor or even the middle class. He has been rich all his life, isolated from reality. What we now have is a man incompetent in life, in business and now in the White House.

This is disturbing and even more so, when one thinks of a possible bio-terrorist attack affecting tens of millions of citizens. Would Bush again be asleep and indifferent when this arises?  Maybe not, because such an attack would affect rich whites.