President Bush is back in New Orleans today to talk about the progress made in the Katrina ravaged city. "There is still a lot of work to do before this city is fully recovered," Bush told a friendly audience at Jackson Barracks, a historic Louisiana National Guard post badly damaged by Katrina. "And for people who are still hurting and not yet back in their homes, a brighter day might seem impossible. Yet a brighter day is coming and it is heralded by hopeful signs of progress." The words did not match the region’s sentiment in the aftermath of the storm.
Numerous trips back have not gotten Bush past the seemingly disconnected Air Force One picture of the president viewing the Katrina damage from a bird’s eye view. "It's defined him a great deal in the public's mind," said Thomas Mann, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank.
Many Americans view the Katrina response as a national failure that demonstrated the incompetence of presidential appointees like FEMA Secretary Michael Brown. Some of those appointees are still intact and have advised President Bush to re-visit one of the darkest hours of his presidency during an election year.
The timing could not seem worse for the Republican Presidential candidate John McCain, just five months before his term would begin. This appearance reverberates a major failure to take care of American people.
The story of Katrina has been more about the lack of empathy and understanding, which was further exasperated by a slow response. With the upcoming 3rd year anniversary of the devastation in New Orleans, the pulse of the residents still seems to escape President Bush. "The story of your recovery is impressive. And it is the same story we see playing out across the Gulf Coast,” the president said. “Homes, businesses and schools are being rebuilt. Levees are being repaired. Families and communities are being reconnected. And from Biloxi to Beaumont, hope is being restored."
Yet many residents are still upset with the clean up and restoration. According to Associated Press' writer Richard Lardner, “The Bush administration's bungled response to Katrina led to a torrent of criticism, especially from the black community, which claimed race was a factor in the slow pace of recovery operations.” This perception was further magnified with 24-hour media coverage of the Superdome where thousands of residents took refuge. Kanye West’s poignant televised remark that, “George Bush doesn’t care about black people,” resonated.
Bush still faces a lot of unsatisfied residents and area politicians who see Katrina’s work largely unfinished. Senator Mary L. Landrieu (D-La.) is one of them. Sen. Landrieu says Louisiana continues to get less recovery money compared to neighboring Mississippi. "I hope that what he (Bush) hears is that the federal government has still not met its full obligation to Louisiana and to the metro area or southwest Louisiana, " Landrieu said. Mississippi received at least $2 billion more than Louisiana in federal block-grant dollars when measured against the amount of damage, according to Landrieu.
