NYT Editorial: "Waiting for a Leader" (Must-Read)

[liberalpragmatist]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/01/opinion/01thu1.html

George W. Bush gave one of the worst speeches of his life yesterday, especially given the level of national distress and the need for words of consolation and wisdom. In what seems to be a ritual in this administration, the president appeared a day later than he was needed. He then read an address of a quality more appropriate for an Arbor Day celebration: a long laundry list of pounds of ice, generators and blankets delivered to the stricken Gulf Coast. He advised the public that anybody who wanted to help should send cash, grinned, and promised that everything would work out in the end.

We will, of course, endure, and the city of New Orleans must come back. But looking at the pictures on television yesterday of a place abandoned to the forces of flood, fire and looting, it was hard not to wonder exactly how that is going to come to pass. Right now, hundreds of thousands of American refugees need our national concern and care. Thousands of people still need to be rescued from imminent peril. Public health threats must be controlled in New Orleans and throughout southern Mississippi. Drivers must be given confidence that gasoline will be available, and profiteering must be brought under control at a moment when television has been showing long lines at some pumps and spot prices approaching $4 a gallon have been reported.

Sacrifices may be necessary to make sure that all these things happen in an orderly, efficient way. But this administration has never been one to counsel sacrifice. And nothing about the president's demeanor yesterday - which seemed casual to the point of carelessness - suggested that he understood the depth of the current crisis.

(cont.)

***

Read the whole thing.

[RoyGBiv]

1. By contrast ...

A real President commenting on an American tragedy...

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/wjcoklahomabombingspeech.htm

...

"Yesterday, Hillary and I had the privilege of speaking with some children of other federal employees -- children like those who were lost here. And one little girl said something we will never forget. She said, "We should all plant a tree in memory of the children." So this morning before we got on the plane to come here, at the White House, we planted tree in honor of the children of Oklahoma. It was a dogwood with its wonderful spring flower and its deep, enduring roots. It embodies the lesson of the Psalms -- that the life of a good person is like a tree whose leaf does not wither.

"My fellow Americans, a tree takes a long time to grow, and wounds take a long time to heal. But we must begin. Those who are lost now belong to God. Some day we will be with them. But until that happens, their legacy must be our lives.

"Thank you all, and God bless you."

[Bumblebee]

3. I hope Clinton would forget the niceties of not upstaging the current WH

resident and just go to NO as someone who knows about catastrophes of this kind from his tsunami work. But please leave Bush Sr behind. He is in Houston -- so let him serve meals to people at the Astrodome!

[RoyGBiv]

10. I agree ...

Of course, Clinton upstages Shrub simply by existing. The man has vast flaws, but he can certainly inspire and lend comfort ... and he knows how to talk. Clinton's speech in OKC, in large part due to his kind and truly concerned demeanor, moved me more than any of them.

Now is not the time to worry about etiquette. As the article says, we need a leader. Since Shrub is obviously not up to it, people who can lead need to step in and just do it and let idiot-son be offended if he wants.

[AllyCat]

2. Did I hear a report that Michael Savage criticized Shrub's lame speech?

Heard it through the grapevine. Anyone know if it's true? I couldn't listen to his speech. He pisses me off too much. Maybe I need to read it or was it more of the same?

[lala_rawraw]

4. Still waiting to hear what those sacrifices are, our own

sanity maybe, along with Chertoff running the rules. I always wanted the Devil to make himself known, lol. How could anyone with that name not have changed it?

[Bumblebee]

9. Because people in the US don't know much Russian? :)

Dostoevsky and Gogol would have been convinced that he is Satan incarnate because of his name, and he also looks like many representations of the devil, sans a tail and horns. For the same reason (i.e. Russian) I was from the very beginning concerned that Gore would not be successful because in Russian "gore" means "misery."

[Nikki Stone 1]

5. George W. Bush gave one of the worst speeches of his life yesterday

Yes. The NYTimes got this absolutely right. It was a horrible speech, uninvolved, blase, and 2-3 days LATE. He did nothing but repeat what was being done.

[kath]

6. ooh, the NYT used the "R" word - refugees.

[Nikki Stone 1]

7. The rest is even better!

While our attention must now be on the Gulf Coast's most immediate needs, the nation will soon ask why New Orleans's levees remained so inadequate. Publications from the local newspaper to National Geographic have fulminated about the bad state of flood protection in this beloved city, which is below sea level. Why were developers permitted to destroy wetlands and barrier islands that could have held back the hurricane's surge? Why was Congress, before it wandered off to vacation, engaged in slashing the budget for correcting some of the gaping holes in the area's flood protection?

It would be some comfort to think that, as Mr. Bush cheerily announced, America "will be a stronger place" for enduring this crisis. Complacency will no longer suffice, especially if experts are right in warning that global warming may increase the intensity of future hurricanes. But since this administration won't acknowledge that global warming exists, the chances of leadership seem minimal.

[Carla in Ca]

8. The media may be coming back from the dark side, folks

This is a good start. Thanks for posting.