Yesterday, in a trip to New Orleans, Republican presidential candidate John McCain re-established his credentials as a maverick by criticizing the Bush administration. He also delivered exactly the right message in his comments about Hurricane Katrina recovery. McCain promised that New Orleans would not be forgotten and he also pledged that the disastrous response to Katrina would never happen again.
McCain did not back away from criticizing President Bush or Congress for their handling of hurricane recovery. He called the response “terrible and disgraceful” and said that there were “unqualified people in charge” and that “there was a total misreading of the dimensions of the disaster, there was a failure of communications.” Of course McCain is exactly right, as hapless bureaucrats such as former FEMA Director Michael Brown made the disaster much worse.
While President Bush waited several days before visiting the devastated region, McCain said he would have taken Air Force One immediately and landed it “at the nearest Air Force Base and come over personally.”
It is refreshing to hear McCain express such strident criticism of the Bush administration’s handling of the crisis. It shows that he is not going to shy away from telling the truth even though Bush is a fellow Republican and can offer great assistance to McCain during the race. McCain is correct that it was a “terrible” response. McCain is also making it quite clear that he will be a hands-on type of leader that is needed in the White House.
The next time a disaster strikes the GulfCoast or anywhere in the United States, the lessons of Katrina will help insure a more effective response.
Hurricane Katrina exposed deficiencies in leadership at not only the federal level, but also at the local and state level. Yesterday, McCain again displayed his independence from the Bush administration and revealed an understanding of the problems of Katrina that will bodes well for his success if he assumes the White House in January of 2009.
Jeff Crouere is a native of New Orleans, LA and he is the host of a Louisiana based program, “Ringside Politics,” which airs at 7:30 p.m. Fri. and 10:00 p.m. Sun. on WLAE-TV 32, a PBS station, and 7 till 11 a.m. weekdays on WGSO 990 AM in New Orleans and the Northshore. For more information, visit his web site at www.ringsidepolitics.com. E-mail him at jeff@ringsidepolitics.com.
Methinks you have every right to be against war,sir, but you have crossed the line by calling for anarchy within the ranks of the United States Military. Methinks that makes you a BAD American. Written by poboy1
on 4/26/2008
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Methinks I have but one song to sing for it repeats ever so often! The war, lads and lassies, the war! The wars! The many, too many wars! We send our children to be killed, to be maimed, to return suicidal, and we don't have to do it! Over 1.5M young Americans have been overseas, and half of them are disabled in some way. Over 12,000 of them have tried to kill themselves, and over 2000 have succeeded. Then there are the 1,000,000 Iraqis dead and 4,000,000 in exile. The numbers are staggering, yet McCain sings ''Bomb, bomb Iran''. No, there is no way I could even shake hands with him, much less vote for him. Or for Hillary either, for that matter. Obama, at least, has said he would take ''appropriate responses''. That means diplomacy is possible. If he is a warmonger also, it`s time for me to return to the marshes of Cameron Parish without television or telephone. At least I could really live until I die. Written by Robert Desmarais Sullivan
on 4/25/2008
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Inever voted republican before but now I have to it is almost like the demies are tqking a dive on this one I mean after Bushes shenanigans we said give us anyone and we will vote for them but these two are a complete joke Obamas talking about making oil companies pay yeah right they will plant monicas stained dress in his desk drawer if he tries.
Clone Huey P. Long
Vote for smitty Written by yup yup
on 4/25/2008
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We continue to say that "WE WILL GAIN WITH MC CAIN" Written by RhettsWife
on 4/25/2008
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Yesterday, in a trip to 
