Don't let the GOP say that Katrina was the tipping point of Bush!!!!!!!!!!

[jsamuel]

Katrina was not the tipping point of Bush's downfall. It was either Sheehan or the revelation that Rove was the leaker. Maybe both of those.

Proof: BEFORE KATRINA

Poll Date Approve Disapprove
CBS News 8/29 - 8/31 41% 51%
CNN/USA Today/Gallup 8/22 - 8/25 40% 56%
ARG 8/18 - 8/21 36% 58%
SurveyUSA 8/12 - 8/14 41% 55%
Harris** 8/9 - 8/16 40% 58%

I think by blaming it on Katrina, they can call it an accident (in some form). That way they distract people from their corruption and their starting a war by lieing. That is why they are going down.

[wiggs]

1. Good point

It is another effort to compartmentalize misdeeds.

[ananda]

2. OK, let it be all three.

Let BushInc. just be a more complete disaster. hehheh

[newscott]

3. I wouldn't call it the tipping point, but

maybe, just maybe it was the wakeup call for some of his true believers.

[Walt Starr]

4. Coutner that Social Security was the tipping point!

Or, as my wife points out, Martha Stewart going to prison was the tipping point because Ken Lay is a bigger criminal, yet Martha has already been in, done her time, did her probation, and is free and clear yeat Kenny boy still walks a free man.

[Joe Chi Minh]

5. Instant rebuttal! Good stuff.

[tk2kewl]

6. Soc Sec Piratization is what got the tipping started

[texpatriot2004]

7. I don't know JSamuel. I think there is a real perception here

and a valid one. I understand where you are coming from but I think that there is a reality around Katrina that cannot be denied.

Chumpy failed SO horribly in Katrina and Americans saw it. Hell, I've been against him for, well since 2000 but Katrina was a last straw for me. Katrina is like an explosion in New Orleans that blew the facade of Chumpy into bits.

I think you are right that Cindy started it and Plamegate/Treasongate piled it on but Katrina was deadly. It was gigantic. It has left wounds in our collective psyche.

[jsamuel]

8. I agree, I think Katrina closed a ceiling on Bush

It didn't drive him down, rather it made it impossible for him to go up again after Sheehan and Plamegate.

[Walt Starr]

11. Katrina was the point of no return for the media.

Teh tipping point actually came months and months ago.

Katrina turned the media around.

The Media went into the Bush adminstration willing to give them an extra long honeymoon because of the controversial way Bush became president. This started to end around July-Agust of 2001, however, 9/11 came along and all convention in the relationship between the press and a president went out the window. The only model the Media had was the FDR model in World War II ( or more accurately, the PERCEIVED FDR model from World War II).

That model is pretty clear, always give the president the benefit of the doubt during a major conflict when that conflict is thrust upon us.

The media had begun getting a bit wise, but the Editors were still in that model all year long.

All the way up until Katrina, that is.

[sandnsea]

9. Let's make a deal

I won't say it was Katrina if everybody else stops saying "voted for the war".

[Stephanie]

10. No, Katrina WAS the tipping point. Because Bush was exposed -

as the LYING, HEARTLESS, ENTITLED PRICK THAT HE IS. Scales fell from the eyes of anyone who watched the news live and then watched Bush LIE about it later, over and over and over. At that point it was undeniable that Bush doesn't give a damn about anyone but himself and his fatcat cronies. Tragically, American's had to die horrible, unnecessary deaths to get the rest of America to wake up. But once they saw him lie before their eyes they can never see him the same way again. It was not Sheehan, it was not Rove. It was Katrina, and the cake, and the guitar, and the Superdome and the bodies and the people begging for help on the roofs.

[texpatriot2004]

14. Katrina is like an explosion in NO that blew the facade of * into

bits.

[phaseolus]

12. It may have been, with respect to press coverage

My gut feeling -- because that's all that counts, right George?? -- is that after Katrina, the MSM was more willing to do their job and look at the administration critically....

[Ignacio Upton]

13. Trying to privatize Social Security was the beginning of his decline

I would like to say that his declaine began the minute he first proposed the measure. However, the Terri Schiavo/government reaching into your medical affairs backlash began around the same time also. Katrina was the next blow to his Presidency, but oil, Iraq, Plame, and DeLay and First also hurt.

[Brotherjohn]

15. Death by a thousand cuts. But one mortal wound: Iraq.

Iraq - Pre-emptive war of choice
Social Security
The economy
Iraq - "Mission Accomplished" - No WMDs
Where's Osama?
16 words
Iraq - 1000 dead - No WMDs
The economy
Gas >$3.00/gallon
Iraq - 2000 dead - No WMDs
Katrina
Treason-gate
Iraq
No WMDs
Iraq
No WMDs
Iraq
No WMDs

An unnecessary war fought on questionable (at best) grounds. That's what it all boils down to.

Katrina just came at a time when he was already tanking, and did not need any bad press. The fact that he was so severely attacked about the federal response to Katrina merely demonstrates that the worm had already turned.

[unblock]

16. perhaps we are talking apples and oranges here

i suspect that katrina's biggest impact was not so much on the 'approval' numbers as on the other numbers.

i think katrina moved a lot of people from 'unsure/no opinion' to the 'disapprove' column, and from the 'disapprove' to the 'strongly disapprove' column.

yes, it also move some people from 'approve' to a worse category, but i think what it really did was firm up a lot of opinions.

what i hear more than anything else is 'i was still holding out hope for him, but this is the last straw'.

[Brotherjohn]

17. I was just thinking this morning, listening to a story about Katrina aid..

... that they would use Katrina as an excuse for busting the budget.

Forget that the Iraq war and Bush's tax cuts already blew it all to hell. They were still going to use Katrina as an excuse (no doubt they will).

I agree with your OP that Katrina was not "the reason" for his downfall. But as many other posts here imply, I believe it gave the press the incentive, the free reign, to begin to go after him the way they should have before the war. Perhaps BECAUSE it was not related to the war (and most MSM outlets were complicit in that), they could finally put Bush under the microscope... guilt-free.

[Infomaniac]

18. Katrina Personifies the Corruption and Incompetence

I would also argue that there is no one thing that has tipped the scales against Bush. I think it's the weight of the Iraqi War, the economy, The Terry Schiavo Affair and PlameGate have all played a role in reversing his poll numbers. Still, there is something about the disconnect Bush showed on television during Katrina that is resonating with a lot of independent voters. Also, the corruption and incompetence in one area splashes over into other areas. The repukes are seen as weak. No amount of flag-waving can change that.

[expatriot]

19. Katrina was a crescendo of in an ever-intensifying national tragedy.

The biggest impact Katrina had on Bush's poll numbers was with a very large shift from "somewhat disapprove" to "strongly disapprove."

[shance]

20. Katrina, The Weather Modification law, HAARP, and Bernard Eastlund

all seem to have ties in Texas.....

[Garbo 2004]

21. Bush was polling in the 40's before Sheehan, Rove or Katrina.

Check out his poll numbers from June. Iraq is his ever present albatross. And other issues/events add to it.

The response to Katrina was a national shock and disgrace, vividly revealing the Bush Administration's incompetence, callousness, cronyism and corruption here at home. A horror show right here in the superpower US, not some poor third world country. And it also got some people thinking, if the Bush Administration can't even adequately respond to an anticipated natural disaster, how is it capable of responding to a real terra attack? So much for his "homeland security" creds. For some folks Katrina was the tipping point, revealing as we already knew, that the emperor had no clothes.

But again, Bush's poll numbers sucked before the events you mention. And the hits have just kept on coming...

[Bridget Burke]

22. Katrina was the little girl who said "The Emperor is Naked"

Suddenly, everybody realized the truth. Many said--Now, I realize he's been this way for some time!

Many of us said--Why did it take you so long?

[Hamlette]

23. on a steady decline since about April, 2005