Iraqi WMD’s, which media revisionism had accepted as the only reason for the war, were not found in anything like the dangerous quantities that had been expected. As the war dragged on with no end in sight, Bush’s approval rating steadily fell. It stood at about 50% when he was narrowly re-elected in 2004.
He decided that the key program of his second term would be to put Social Security on a secure financial footing. He campaigned around the country for his new plan, but Democrats derided its personal accounts feature as being dangerous privatization. Republicans chose not to get on board and the attempt eventually died.
In August of 2005, Hurricane Katrina blew ashore near New Orleans. In a disaster scenario long feared, the storm surge overtopped and broke levees and flooded massive areas of the city in a few hours. The national news media descended on the city and broadcast tales of horror as if they were fact. The mayor and police chief were glad to add to the rumor mill. To this day, the image the nation has of the disaster is one of chaos and anarchy, while an unresponsive federal government sat by.
Actually, the government’s response was massive, as this lengthy report details:
More than 1.5 million people were directly affected and more than 800,000 citizens were forced to live outside of their homes – the largest displacement of people since the great Dust Bowl migrations of the 1930s.
[snip]
In the immediate aftermath of the storms, FEMA provided 85 million liters of water (three liters per person per day), 176 million pounds of ice (eight pounds per person per day) and 46.5 million meals (two meals per person per day) -- more meals, water and ice were provided for Hurricane Katrina victims than the combined total of all four major Florida hurricanes in 2004.
[Years later, following the President’s final press conference, I listened to some of the commentary on various networks. Bush showed some real passion during parts of the P.C., something I wish he had done sooner and more often – but the opinionators were having none of it. On Anderson Cooper’s show, one pundit complained that Bush had chosen to defend the federal government’s Katrina response by noting the Coast Guard had rescued 30,000 people off rooftops in the first three days, but he ignored those thousands stuck in the Superdome. This is an example of the seldom-told story of Katrina. The Coast Guard was solely under the control of the feds. The other relief efforts had to come through state and local authorities headed up by inept state and local officials.]
Another major issue the president tackled - and got his nose bloodied for his trouble – was immigration reform. Bush favored a comprehensive approach which would include some sort of legalization process for those already here. Most of the country called that approach ‘amnesty’ and preferred to secure the border first. Bush lost more of his base support because of popular sympathy for Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, two Border Patrol agents tried and convicted of shooting an alleged drug smuggler.
Bush also suffered from a lack of support from Republicans in Congress during this time period. Senator Voinovich (R-OH) pulled the rug out from under the nomination of John Bolton to be UN ambassador. Bolton, a take-no-prisoners kind of tough guy (exactly what we need at the UN, IMHO), was accused of making an underling cry in one of his earlier assignments. Voinovich demonstrated his sympathy with the underling by crying at the confirmation hearing and saying he couldn’t support such a meanie. Eventually, Bush gave Bolton a recess appointment and he did fine work at the UN in the short time he was there.
As the mid-term election approached, the odds were that the Republicans would lose big. It was a foregone conclusion that the House would go to the Democrats, and if the Democrats won most of the close Senate races, they could control the Senate too. Bush’s approval rating was around forty by this time and Republican candidates were openly keeping away from him. The Washington Post beat George Allen (R-VA) over the head mercilessly for his macaca comment, Jim Talent (R-MO) got outfoxed by the stem cell issue and it was a Democrat tidal wave forming.
Election Day was every bit as bad as the Republicans feared, leaving George Bush to contemplate the final two years of his presidency unpopular and facing Democrat majorities in both houses of Congress.
My next installment will be The Home Stretch.
0 comments:
Post a Comment