Worst president ever

It's the same message that's been repeated in PGR and elsewhere, over and over and over ad nauseum.

The New York Times:

President Bush said it wouldn't happen. He stood in Jackson Square and said, "There is no way to imagine America without New Orleans." But it has been over three months since Hurricane Katrina struck and the city is in complete shambles.

There are many unanswered questions that will take years to work out, but one is make-or-break and needs to be dealt with immediately. It all boils down to the levee system. People will clear garbage, live in tents, work their fingers to the bone to reclaim homes and lives, but not if they don't believe they will be protected by more than patches to the same old system that failed during the deadly storm. Homeowners, businesses and insurance companies all need a commitment before they will stake their futures on the city. ...

The price tag for protection against a Category 5 hurricane, which would involve not just stronger and higher levees but also new drainage canals and environmental restoration, would very likely run to well over $32 billion. That is a lot of money. But that starting point represents just 1.2 percent of this year's estimated $2.6 trillion in federal spending, which actually overstates the case, since the cost would be spread over many years. And it is barely one-third the cost of the $95 billion in tax cuts passed just last week by the House of Representatives.

Total allocations for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the war on terror have topped $300 billion. All that money has been appropriated as the cost of protecting the nation from terrorist attacks. But what was the worst possible case we fought to prevent?

Losing a major American city.

The Times editorial tried to pin blame for the lack of a rebuilding plan on Governor Blanco and Mayor Nagin. That's fine, but ultimately, lacking any local leadership, the president should take responsibility for creating the necessary environment to get people talking to one another, and for filling in the gaps in leadership. In the final analysis, the blame for the unconscionable failure to act falls on President Bush, the worst president ever.

As a lakefront resident told me as he was gutting his house:

I lost neighbors here. Neighbors died. If that's not homeland security, then I don't know what is!

We don't need terrorists to bring down this nation. All we need is neglect.