I wouldn’t want to be president Bush right now, with the second major hurricane in 3 years bearing down on New Orleans.
On the one hand, he does what I think he ought to do and largely allows the local and state officials to handle the crisis. In which case, the criticism becomes: “There he goes again! President Bush failed to lead again just like he did with Katrina.”
If, however, he goes the other direction and employs a more hands-on approach, he still loses. In the event of vast devastation we will hear “President Bush is inept! This is all his fault!” At this point it seems more likely that there will be a minimal amount of disaster, or at least minimal human casualties. But even in the best of scenarios, the only thing we will hear with regards to the president is a derisive “Well, YEAH- he HAD to come through this time didn’t he? His reputation is on the line. But 1 for 2 isn’t a very good record is it?”
