MSNBC poll re Bush & Katrina

[Poiuyt]

Do you think Pres. Bush is unfairly bearing most of the blame for Hurricane Katrina response?

* 3635 responses

Yes. Local government should take more responsibility. 40%
No. He deserves most of the criticism for his adminstration's slow response. 60%

www.question.msnbc.com

[Ganja Ninja]

1. Done.

[fryguy]

2. done

[Human Torch]

3. Once again, MSNBC leads the witness...

"Do you think Pres. Bush is unfairly bearing most of the blame for Hurricane Katrina response?"

The other day on "Hardball," Norah O'Donnell's pure, unadulterated, bile-laced, seething contempt for "Brownie's" criticism of Bush during Katrina was laughable. I was waiting for the laser beams to shoot out of her eyes and fry Brownie to a crisp.

:rofl:

[BOSSHOG]

4. I think it is totally amazing that

bush used the words I. take. responsibility. for anything in the same sentence. "Bearing most" my ass. Go down and live in the ninth ward for 12 months bush, then you will understand what bearing means.

In the navy the ship's skipper is responsible for everything that goes on under his command. But those guys are professionals who know what responsibility means.

[KansDem]

20. I remember in 1983 when the USS Enterprise ran aground in S.F.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA., U.S.A. - The multi-billion dollar nuclear powered and nuclear armed aircraft carrier U.S.S. Enterprise. ran aground in San Francisco Bay. The whole ship's company of 3,000 men stood on one side of the ship to try to re-distribute the weight and float it off. ("The West Australian" 30th April 1983)
from Nuclear Files

Upon hearing this, my mom, a product of a Navy family, commented that "that captain just lost his command." I asked "what if it wasn't his fault?" She replied, "Doesn't matter...he's responsible. Period." I wondered at the time about her comment, but then realized that someone had to bear the brunt of putting a US aircraft carrier out of commission, no matter how short the time, during the Cold War.

[calimary]

5. Done. It's CLEARLY a federal matter for two reasons, at least.

1) The magnitude of the disaster was such that it overwhelmed any single state's resources, particularly in light of the absense of much of any single state's National Guard (uh, sorry, they're busy in Iraq).

2) This particular calamity crossed state lines. SEVERAL of them.

[KurtNYC]

6. I would have to have a lobotomy to write poll questions that lame

"response" ?!

One isn't blamed for response but rather for:
- the lack of timely response
- the lack of effectiveness of the response
- the lack of leadership

Of course any of those phrases are far too specific for the MSM and admin that live on ambiguity.

[jerry611]

8. I agree it is a bad question...

This is part of the reason why most polls are BS these days anyway. The media doesn't know how to ask a question.

You cannot ask a broad question in a poll or a question that can be interpreted in different ways. It skews the results.

[Marr]

7. If they'd responded to the ACTUAL disaster as swiftly and decisively

as they responded to PR disaster, the tragedy would've been greatly diminished.

[jerry611]

10. I've lived in Florida for over 20 years... This is a state responsibility

We have NEVER had the federal government come in before a hurricane. It was all state and local responsible for all evacuations and preparations.

In Florida, if a storm is approaching and is within 5 days of landfall, the governor declares a state of emergency. What this does is cause every county in the state to open its Emergency Operations Center. Each center than tracks the storm and executes its evacuation plans if necessary. This, I remind you is done days before the storm is supposed to make landfall. The state of emergency also automatically puts hundreds of national guard troops on stand-by. Prices on gas, hotels, food, water, and hurricane supplies are frozen and can't be increased.

Before Hurricane Charley hit in Punta Gorda, Florida in 2004, there were hundreds of utility crews ready to go in to restore water, gas, and power. There were trucks in Lakeland loaded with ice and food ready to go in. That storm was a category 4 hurricane that hit that town unexpectedly. It was supposed to go to Tampa. But even with the change in direction, the state and local government was ready for it. And power was restored to most within 2 weeks. Schools destroyed by the storm have already been rebuilt. And most of the roofs damaged in the storm have been repaied.

Federal agencies like FEMA came in, but not until after the storm to provide temporary housing.

What happened in New Orleans was a failure of the government from the city level all the way up. The federal government could have done more, but the state and local governments also could have done a lot more as well. And after watching how good the state and local governments are here in Florida during a hurricane, I can't give local officials a pass in New Orleans. They failed.

Most of the people in New Orleans that died did so during the storm do to flooding. Which means they should have been evacuated. Under the way our government works, the state and city are responsible for evacuations.

[EST]

17. You make some cogent points, but I would like to take a

quibble break.
While I will agree that Nagin was, and, no doubt, still is less than competent, with his republican arrogant pride that all reins must pass through his hands, I think that assigning too much responsibility to him means putting too much emphasis on a single point in the sequence.
There was money available and the plans were in place to complete additional work-deemed essential-on the levees and canals in and around N.O., but these funds were denied by the bush administration. the vast amount of damage and death was a direct result of flooding, rather than wind, as you are accustomed to.

The people were advised to evacuate by the Nagin apparatus, but, in a city wherein the majority of the inhabitants depend on common transportation, rather than private vehicles, the means simply weren't there. The people who stayed fall into three categories, primarily:
1) They had survived other storms and had rebuilt and repaired and moved on
2)They were too poor to afford to leave, abandoning what little they did have to looters, and had nowhere else to go
3)They had no idea how to avail themselves of whatever transportation might be available

I think the 60%-40% bush vs local responsibility assignation seems about right. Sure, the locals could have been better prepared; and they have accepted accountability by paying with their lives and possessions. Local government officials haven't paid up sufficiently for their roles, but the price being demanded of them--being replaced by even more incompetent republiclowns--is too much, especially as it unduly affects the rest of us non gulf coast residents.

Nagin is a thoroughgoing reprobate who only became a dem in order to get elected in 2002. He does have a bit of liberal, in that he has some empathy, but his need to do everyone's thinking for them and to boss everything overwhelms his better motivations.
People in Florida are used to handling the crises that develop in storms of such magnitude; it happens all the time. The people of Louisiana do not have the benefit of such prior training and should be expected to be caught flat-footed, for the most part.

The common connecting experience is FEMA and its associated organizations. They should be expected to provide the missing pieces and, because of the destruction of the federal programs by the clowns, were virtually useless and clueless in the immediacy of need.
So the ruling crooks emasculated the system that had the responsibility of responding, sidetracked the repairs to flood control, and, probably the most significantly, failed to even show any concern for the human price by not jumping in and showing that they gave a damn. That lack of concern, except for the famous oil platforms, damned anything else that could be done to ameliorate the obvious disdain they held for the poor, the lame, anything at all but money.

They made what would have been a horrific tragedy and turned it into something beyond mere words.

[spindrifter]

9. How can 40% side with that guy?

[ThomWV]

11. 40% Never Heard Of The Unitary Executive

Where all power of the Presidency is overreaching of all his agencys. If its their fault its his fault and be sure about one thing, this was a failure on a national scale - local reaction is not the argument, they did what they could in their bumbling way. I do not pay the taxes that pay their wages, but I do pay Federal taxes and it is the Federal response that concerns me.

[EST]

12. OK

Do you think Pres. Bush is unfairly bearing most of the blame for Hurricane Katrina response? *5856responses

Yes. Local government should take more responsibility.
40%
No. He deserves most of the criticism for his adminstration's slow response.
60%

[azmouse]

13. done n/t

[snacker]

14. Done.

Still 60% no, with over 6000 votes.

[City Lights]

15. Done.

Not too thrilled with the totals though.

[bdamomma]

16. done

[Supersedeas]

18. Another calculated attempt to prop up the Prezeldent

[Chemical Bill]

19. 42% yes, 58% no, it's being freeped. n/t