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| Home Front: Politix |
| BoTW: The Political Impact of Katrina |
| 2005-09-07 |
| From the Wall Street Journal Online's blog, Best of the Web. Reg. req'd. A Political Tempest? It was inevitable, we suppose. Less than a week after hurricane Katrina, the first poll came out to measure its political impact. The results, which ABC News released Sunday, will be highly disappointing to the Angry Left: 55% of those polled do not blame President Bush for the storm's devastation, and although 67% think the federal government wasn't "adequately prepared," 75% say the same thing about state and local government. John Podhoretz's interpretation is right on the money (capitalization his): Once again we see the gigantic divide in this country--not between Right and Left, but between people who live and breathe politics and those for whom politics are only an incidental part. You need to look at the world through political glasses to assume that THE key aspect of a natural disaster is the response or lack thereof of the authorities--whether they be local, state or federal. The president doesn't MAKE hurricanes, therefore he will not be blamed FOR hurricanes. Nor do the governor and the mayor. ABC also has an emotional breakdown by party: Democrats were far more likely than Republicans to describe themselves as "shocked" (68% to 42%), "angry" (63% to 27%) and "ashamed" (63% to 28%) at the response to Katrina, while Republicans were far more "hopeful" (80% to 50%) and "proud" (43% to 17%). Is there any doubt that those gaps would have been similar if the poll had been conducted after any other major event--or indeed at any other time--since President Bush was elected, other than immediately after 9/11? Indeed, the experience of 9/11 shows how resistant political trends are to the influence of big events. The attack on America changed a lot, but not the electoral map: Only three states were carried by a different party's presidential candidate in 2004 than in 2000, the smallest such shift since 1924. |
| Posted by:trailing wife |
| #3 Just to add: Celebrity angst...Oprah Winfrey's staffers went to Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas and Tennessee, looking for stories, she said, that hadn't yet made it to TV. During her travels, she became weepy, angry and sick to her stomach. Among the most gut-wrenching: children being sexually assaulted in the Superdome, an image Eddie Compass, New Orleans' police chief, says is among those that will haunt him for life. Mayor Ray Nagin walked away from his interview with Winfrey after getting emotional about the lack of aid. He became angry, saying that he felt other major cities would have fared much better because response time would have been swifter. Drudge CNNUSATODAYGALLUP POLL: ONLY 13% BLAME BUSH? Drudge |
| Posted by: Red Dog 2005-09-07 11:06 |
| #2 half witted vs. wholesome |
| Posted by: Red Dog 2005-09-07 00:40 |
| #1 The half-empties vs the half-fulls. |
| Posted by: .com 2005-09-07 00:32 |