Great Daily Kos response to Frank Rich's use of "Katrina Momement"

[NJmaverick]

Short but to the point article

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/3/22/711561/-Katrina-momentHow-dare-you.

[babylonsister]

1. Wow.

As much as I hate to see those pictures and what was done (or not done) to U.S. citizens, reminders are good.

Powerful.

[themaguffin]

2. No, it's not great, it's misguided

It's a sad day for our community when liberals like Frank Rich and Paul Krugman - and others - begging for swift and serious action are being casted out so quickly here.

It's like they are the Fools on the Hill.

They are screaming - they see how significant this is and it seems too many here are being too sensitive to legitimate criticism regarding the White House's actions (or non actions).

[ErinBerin84]

3. I agree with the Rich column

It made a lot of great points. Still, wasn't sure whether or not the Katrina comparison was the best. If someone wants to disagree with me about the Rich column, who am I to tell them to stop?

[CJCRANE]

8. "Tipping Point"

would have been a better phrase. But he still would have been wrong.

Katrina was the tipping point for Bush...after five years of incompetence and negligence.

There's no comparison.

[marshall]

16. Katrina is his version of "never waste a crisis"

We've heard that over and over again lately, and it was the unspoken meme of the Bush administration after 9/11. I do think Rich is accurate for the most part, but many would consider it crass to say it out loud like he did.

[ErinBerin84]

17. yeah.

I'm not saying I don't get the comparison, I just don't know if it was the right one.

[proud2BlibKansan]

6. Only an idiot would compare what Obama is doing to Katrina

I thought that was an excellent statement on DK.

[hlthe2b]

7. Someone needs to send it to Rich...

He and Krugman have valid points, but I agree with you, comparison to Katrina is not simply wrong, it is offensive and insanely wrong.

[Cha]

38. Frank Rich's email addy..

http://www.nytimes.com/gst/emailus.html

[proud2BlibKansan]

4. Excellent!

:applause:

[CJCRANE]

5. This is Frank Rich's "Katrina Moment".

Rich has just disqualified himself from being taken seriously.

[Jennicut]

9. The problem with calling it a Katrina moment

is that means that Obama essentially does not care at all, in the way Bush could have cared less. You may disagree philosophically with what Obama might do to prop up the banks or on the stimulus or budget, etc. But to say he could give a shit less what happens to people and his entire presidency has been blown in 2 months is hyperbole at its worst. Rich may make some good points but by using this inflammatory wording he really turns off many people.

[BlooInBloo]

11. Yup.

[AngryAmish]

10. Frank Rich spent the last eight years cheerleading for Bush

I am sick of his freeper antics. He should be fired, now.

[NRaleighLiberal]

12. You must be kidding! Rich ripped on Bush and Cheney constantly -

one of the very few who took him on most of the time.

[AngryAmish]

13. He was a lick-spittle bootblack of the entire Bush administration

Supine lapdog for the whole nefarious crew.

[Faygo Kid]

20. What a pantload.

Frank Rich skewered the Bush Administration. Whatever you're smoking, you need to stop.

[amborin]

44. you must be confusing Frank Rich with Rush Limbaugh

[Joe Bacon]

15. False--Rich said there was no difference between Bush and Gore

Bob Somerby's Daily Howler has carefully documented all the articles Rich wrote showing his pro-Bush bias in 2000. Rich also made up the "Love Story" lie about Gore and he never apologized for that lie. That is why I ignore anything that liar says.

See Bob Somerby's archives at http://www.dailyhowler.com

[ruggerson]

21. lol

and it's not even April 1 yet

[Paladin]

25. That Is Absolute Bullshit.

If Rich is a Freeper as far as you're concerned, just who the fuck do you find acceptable as a liberal commentator? Complete idiocy.....

[AlCzervik]

31. That is so wrong, the device to measure that amount of wrong does not yet exist.

[Cha]

39. Exactly, I like Rich for all the good he

did during the election but he slipped up on this one.

I think we know that no one is perfect.

[ArchieStone1]

36. Rich hated Gore, but then came around

Rich did a very poor job in 2000, but he was extremely critical of Bush and McCain after 2004.

[spanone]

14. knr

[AwakeAtLast]

18. That makes a great point

I was going to post something to the effect of "Obama has a so-called 'Katrina' moment TWO MONTHS after taking office? WTF?"

He's been in office for TWO MONTHS!!! :grr:

I don't get it. :shrug:

[Undercurrent]

19. .

This is not Katrina.
Obama is not Bush.
Frank Rich is not rational, or trustworthy.

[Larkspur]

22. Rich was using Katrina as an allegory, not as a direct comparison

Our economy has already undergone a hurricane -- Hurricane Bush & Neocons who set out to rob the taxpayers for the benefit of a few. Obama is inheriting this mess, but he's chosen aides who aided and abetted Republicans deregulating the financial sector. Deregulating the financial sector is equivalent to building homes on barrier islands. Barrier islands are natures speed bumps for hurricanes. Or destroying mangrove forests, which also act as a buffer to storm surges.

The financial sector meltdown is strangulating our economic recovery and it is due to sociopathic behavior on the part of corporate execs, whom the Obama Admin wants to ally with to restore the financial sector, but it's really like asking pirates to defend a fort full of gold that really belongs to the citizens of our country.

[Clio the Leo]

35. We understand that. It was a TERRIBLE allegory. NT

[Larkspur]

40. No it was not

Katrina moment for Bush was the begining of the end of his political capital and credibility with those who chose to side with the President when in doubt. This banking problem handled with the wrong strategy will be Obama's tipping point unless he can quickly change tactics once Geithner's plan proves a disaster.

[terisan]

23. Katrina Moment as Rich used it means a Defining Moment in an administration For Bush it was the

moment when the nation as a whole finally identified his administration as incompetent and disconnected from the people; as not using the power of the executive branch to address the crisis at hand.

The pictures from Daily Kos are a grim reminder of how Bush's inaction caused much needless death and misery. But I think Rich's use of "Katrina Moment" means Defining Moment in a Presidency.

[Occam Bandage]

27. Be that as it may, "Katrina moment" is a terribly inappropriate choice of words. I mean,

I might very well say that was Frank Rich's "Hitler moment," because that was when he attempted to use the power of oratory to invoke a domestic disaster to whip the populace into a frenzy that might serve his political ends.

But that would be absolutely fucking insane, because "Hitler" implies a bit more than the one tiny facet I chose to break off his legacy.

[terisan]

30. Using the power of oratory to invoke a domestic disaster???? Hmmmm. nt

[Demi_Babe]

24. Wow

[WeDidIt]

26. This was Frank Rich's Limbaugh moment. n/t

[Phx_Dem]

28. The Daily Kos response is so powerful, it requires almost no

words to rebut Frank Rich. The pictures say it all. And Frank Rich owes every current and former resident of New Orleans and apology.

[Joe Bacon]

32. You got that right!

That liar never apologized for the lies he made up about Al Gore in 2000. Which is why I won't read anything he writes until he apologizes to Al Gore in public.

[Phx_Dem]

29. Delete. Dupe post.

[azmouse]

33. Thank you for posting the link. Excellent!

[azmouse]

42. ...

[radhika]

34. The Metaphor rings true as a Warning.

I agree that Obama is not Bush; the Economic Crisis is not Katrina. But THE METAPHOR 'Katrina Moment' has potent value to forever brand Obama's diligent efforts: When the US/FEMA response to Katrina was proven to be fully inadequate and staffed by the unfit and unconcerned, Americans started to wake up from their sleep. Bush never again had as much knee-jerk fealty as before, the Emperor was naked and his courtiers dysfunctional.

Admit it: Some aspects of the Obama/Treasury response are not reassuring to everyday Americans (as in transparency, overall approach, the terms of ownership/governance, lack of forensic oversight, secret text changes in Senate Bills, possibly concealed fraud). Five times this week, Obama had to announce he would 'TAKE FULL RESPONSIBILITY'. If so many mea culpas are needed, his team needs a shake-up. The economic team is staffed by unfit beings (BushCo/GS loyalists, lobbyists, Fed). These pros aren't outright jokes like Horse-Show Brownie, but they don't 'get' everyday Americans if indeed they have even met one of us. They likely view Government as a market tool for Wall Street profiteering.

Disregard Frank Rich at your peril. This Populist uprising could prove to be another wake-up moment for broke, foreclosed and unemployed Americas. I do not think it is FAIR, but it is HAPPENING. And if Obama can't fix it FAST, he too will be viewed as a naked and his court dysfunctional. Aspirational statements ("sweeping regulation of Exec Pay") won't cut it, if BO is unable to cleanse the process of the very interests that the public resents.

Ominous: It would be tragic and heartbreaking if the Repugs could grab the High Ground of Populism in 2010.

[Cha]

37. And, here's Frank Rich's email addy to

send him the response to his "Obama's Katrina Moment" on Daily Kos.

http://www.nytimes.com/gst/emailus.html

[FrenchieCat]

41. I wrote to him yesterday.

[donheld]

43. I hightly recommend

Rich is WAY over the top.