Louisiana is drowning

You don't want the POTUS - any POTUS - going into a disaster zone while it is still active. It pulls too many resources away from what they need to be doing. Wait for the water to go down, visit in the recovery phase.

 

They voted against both packages on new spending, which was primarily for disaster relief.

 

True. But that hasn't stopped the critics from wanting him to fly down there, wave a magic wand and make the water go away.

 

I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that Bush was roundly criticized for not landing in New Orleans in the aftermath of Katrina, but merely flew over in a helicopter so as not to affect rescue efforts. No question, Obama gets a lot of needless criticism from the right, but I think it's warranted this time. He should cut his vacation short and at least act like he cares.

 

You would be all over Bush for exactly the same things Obama is (or is it "isn't"?) doing right now.

 

Bush was on vacation Texas, flew over NOLA and the Gulf on his way back to DC and then visited about a week after Katrina hit.

How about we hold off on calling Obama to visit until we're about a week out from the worst of the flooding?

 

What a difference 11 years make.

 

Telenovela Tony's views on helping those in need have changed? How refreshing!

 

Not for me.

Having lived through a POTUS visit to a disaster area where I was helping friends after a tornado destroyed their house, I'd just as soon they fly over in AF1, sign a disaster declaration and put more money to FEMA.

 

Yes. Do you want to read my previous post again?

 

That's tricky though, because the charities who will be doing a lot of the relief work depend on donations which fluctuate with publicity (as does getting Congress to appropriate disaster aid without trying to shift it away from starving grannies or something). And between the Olympics and our circus carnival of an election, this isn't getting a lot of play in the national news.

 

I'm here in Massachusetts, far away from Louisiana, and in a drought to boot. The floods are getting a lot of national TV time, often ahead of the election, and daily coverage in local TV news, too.