Rhetoric, Reality Don't Match in Relief -- Bush's Responses to Problems Concern

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Sat, 3 Sep 2005 09:38:59 -0700 (PDT)

Rhetoric, Reality Don't Match in Relief -- Bush's Responses

to Problems Concern Even the GOP

 

 

 

AP

" It's impossible to defend something like this happening in America, "

Newt Gingrich said of the hurricane response.

 

How would you characterize Bush's response to Hurricane Katrina?

Poor 74%

Good 10%

Fair 9%

Exellent 6%

Total Votes: 23,689

Rhetoric, Reality Don't Match in Relief

Bush's Responses to Problems Concern Even the GOP

 

News Analysis

 

WASHINGTON (Sept. 2) - The Iraqi insurgency is in its last throes. The

economy is booming. Anybody who leaks a CIA agent's identity will be

fired. Add another piece of White House rhetoric that doesn't match

the public's view of reality: Help is on the way, Gulf Coast.

 

As New Orleans descended into anarchy, President Bush and his

emergency-response team congratulated each other for jobs well done

and spoke of water, food and troops pouring into the ravaged city.

Television pictures told a different story.

 

" What it reminded me of the other day is 'Baghdad Bob' saying there

are no Americans at the airport, " said Rich Galen, a Republican

consultant in Washington. He was referring to Saddam Hussein's

reality-challenged minister of information who denied the existence of

U.S. troops in the Iraqi capital.

 

To some critics, Bush seemed to deny the existence of problems with

hurricane relief this week. He waited until Friday to acknowledged

that " the results are not acceptable, " and even then Bush parsed his words

 

Republicans worry that he looks out of touch defending the chaotic

emergency response.

 

" It's impossible to defend something like this happening in America, "

said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

 

" No one can be happy with the kind of response which we've seen in New

Orleans ... , " said Republican Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts.

 

Bush got himself in trouble by trying to put the best face on a

horrible situation. The strategy is so common in Washington that

operatives have a name for it, " spin, " and the Bush White House has

perfected the shady art.

 

" What it reminded me of the other day is 'Baghdad Bob' saying there

are no Americans at the airport. "

-Rich Galen

 

 

 

This is what the president had to say about the relief effort earlier

in the week:

 

 

" There's a lot of food on its way, a lot of water on the way, and

there's a lot of boats and choppers headed that way. "

 

" Thousands have been rescued. There's thousands more to be rescued.

And there's a lot of people focusing their efforts on that. "

 

" As we speak, people are moving into New Orleans area to maintain law

and order. "

 

Technically, the president may have been right. Help was on the way,

if not fast enough to handle one of the largest emergency response

efforts in U.S. history. But the words were jarring to Americans who

saw images of looters, abandoned corpses and angry, desperate storm

victims.

 

It was worse when he was wrong. In one interview, Bush said, " I don't

think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees. " In fact, many

experts predicted a major storm would bust New Orleans' flood-control

barriers.

 

One reason the public relations effort backfired on Bush is that

Americans have seen it before.

 

On Iraq alone, the rhetoric has repeatedly fallen far short of

reality. Saddam had no weapons of mass destruction. The mission wasn't

accomplished in May 2003. Most allies avoided the hard work of his

" coalition of the willing. " And dozens of U.S. soldiers have died

since Vice President Dick Cheney declared that insurgents were in

their " last throes. " The list goes on.

 

Bush often touts the health of the U.S. economy, which is fair game

because many indicators point in that direction. But the public

doesn't share his rosy view. The global economy had most Americans

worried about job and pension security even before rising gas added to

their anxieties.

 

Bush's spokesman said anybody involved in leaking the identity of a

CIA agent would be fired, but no action has been taken against

officials accused of doing so.

 

The president himself promised to fully pay for his school reform plan

and strip pork-barrel spending from a major highway bill. The school

money fell short. The pork thrived.

 

Bush crafted a reputation as a blunt-speaking, can-do leader from his

response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Five months later,

about three-fourths of Americans viewed him as honest.

 

But his trust rating dropped gradually to a slim majority by the 2004

election year and remained at the mid-50s through the early part of

2005. In August, an AP-Ipsos poll showed 48 percent of respondents

considered Bush honest, the lowest level of his presidency.

 

Americans like straight-shooters, especially in an era that has seen

vast failures by government and social institutions. People are

witnessing another institutional failure in the Gulf Coast, and Bush

seemed willing to step up and acknowledge it Friday.

 

" The results are unacceptable, " he said before leaving for a tour of

the region. Few would disagree.

 

EDITOR'S NOTE - Ron Fournier has covered national politics for The

Associated Press since 1993.

 

09/02/05 17:26 EDT