Little Lord Pontchartrain

This story about Bush using firefighters as props should be circulated far and wide. I think it is the perfect symbol of the photo-op presidency.

I would like to see it juxtaposed with another one:

Karl Rove believes that politics is TV with the sound turned off. And that’s mostly true. What he fails to understand is that people turn the sound way up during big stories like this. And they are feeling the cognitive dissonance between the images of horrible suffering and the president’s dull and meaningless babbling:

“So long as anybody’s life is in danger, we’ve got work to do. That’s why I want people to be assured we’re going to do it. And — but remember, this is a project that not only deals with the immediate, we’re going to have to deal with the long term, as well. The immediate needs are being taken care of right here, and I fully understand there’s a lot of work to be done.”

I think that there have been two important political comments these past few days. The first is this by William Kristol:

“He is a strong president . . . but he has never really focused on the importance of good execution. I think that is true in many parts of his presidency.”

The second is this from the National Review:

“… an administration whose FEMA director knew less about on-the-ground conditions in the stricken city this week than the average TV viewer has a real vulnerability.

It will only address that vulnerability with a performance in coming days and weeks that is more in keeping with the GOP’s image as the “daddy party,” the party of competence, the party that can be trusted in times of crisis. That is the main thing.”

Daddy isn’t supposed to snivel about how the locals didn’t do their job. Daddy whining about “the blame game” makes the kids feel like Daddy still isn’t in charge and doesn’t know what he’s doing. And he should not be making excuses for his idiot cronies or relying on politesse and bureaucratic snafus to explain why he was late when the crisis hit. Daddy isn’t supposed to be late.

I went through the LA riots in 92 and I recall that there was a delay in deploying the National Guard, ostensibly because they didn’t have enough ammunition.(It turned out that they didn’t have the proper locks on their guns.) The (possibly apocryphal) story that circulated at the time was that Pete Wilson, ex-marine, said, “Well then, issue one fucking bullet a piece and tell them to get their asses out there.”

I have no love for Pete Wilson (and the response of the guard was very tardy) but that’s the way people expect leaders to behave in a crisis. They want to see them making tough decisions, holding people accountable. Taking charge. That’s the manufactured image the Republicans have been selling for decades. The reality is little Lord Pontchartrain telling his political hack “Brownie” he’s doing a great job — and using fire-fighters as props for his latest costume pageant. George W. Bush is America’s deadbeat Dad.

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