Perhaps I can shed more light, and less heat, on this. Appreciate that I'm looking at it from the position of someone in a volunteer emergency management position myself.
I have no quarrel with the claim that Mayor Nagin and Governor Blanco both could have done better, and by doing better might have reduced the amount of suffering and misery. But, even if they had done everything absolutely perfectly, the bulk of what has gone wrong remains at FEMA's doorstep. Since FEMA is a federal agency, headed by a presidential appointee, it's the president's responsibility. The president could have acted decisively to break through the bureaucratic red tape by an executive order, just as he issued an executive order allowing contractors to pay less than prevailing wage, but he didn't do that. He let the situation get worse, and worse, and worse.
Do you remember when the Marine barracks in Beirut was bombed, and Ronald Reagan went on TV the next day to say, "This was my fault," and then spent the next several days focused on changing the rules to insure it didn't happen again? This entire situation would have benefited greatly from that attitude.
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Date: 2005-09-12 10:45 am (UTC)I have no quarrel with the claim that Mayor Nagin and Governor Blanco both could have done better, and by doing better might have reduced the amount of suffering and misery. But, even if they had done everything absolutely perfectly, the bulk of what has gone wrong remains at FEMA's doorstep. Since FEMA is a federal agency, headed by a presidential appointee, it's the president's responsibility. The president could have acted decisively to break through the bureaucratic red tape by an executive order, just as he issued an executive order allowing contractors to pay less than prevailing wage, but he didn't do that. He let the situation get worse, and worse, and worse.
Do you remember when the Marine barracks in Beirut was bombed, and Ronald Reagan went on TV the next day to say, "This was my fault," and then spent the next several days focused on changing the rules to insure it didn't happen again? This entire situation would have benefited greatly from that attitude.