The Arrogant Washington Reporters Didn’t Finish the Presidency

Negative Media Coverage CNN’s Susan Malveaux had negative things to say about Bush’s planning. She showed an air of disbelief that the President will go to Houston area again tomorrow, without explaining what she thinks is wrong. Another reporter accused the president of wasting gasoline by his many trips, saying everything could be done by videoconferencing. They don’t understand that Bush is not king and doesn’t have “Sovereign Immunity” if things are mismanaged. The president can only be as good as the supporters. During Katrina, we saw that Bush wasted time in meeting with and publicizing the private donation business, this time with Rita he asserted his leadership, as the people and the Constitution have given him a mandate to lead. During Katrina, Bush was misrepresented by a Filipino reporter Quijano and emphasized harsh punitive action against looters and price gougers in the troubled region without putting an effort to stop the violence and stabilizing the area, so anarchy seeped in, and the President looked ineffective and idle in Washington. One is reminded that White House chef is also a Filipino woman, perhaps the hiring is not so diversified as one would hope for. They keep reporting that his rating is low and keeps dropping. Positive Media Coverage To contrast, some news reporters from C-SPAN and Fox show that Hurricane Rita left nothing but splinters in Cameron, Louisiana, which was flattened. The Air Force, Marines, and Navy all were in action to save lives, and we saw a group of reporters in a helicopter surveying and filming. C-SPAN covered the positive government response in Lake Charles, Louisiana, where the Salvation Army set up feeding centers and will feed people from many areas, not just Charles County. Randy Roach is mayor of Lake Charles. There are advanced military technology and top personnel tapped by the local city mayor, to distribute housing. This is logistical management in an advanced scientific manner. There is not just a random giveaway of money, but relief is based on examining satellite imagery to determine eligibility, through electronic means to match the housing database and run against existing registration data. This shows accountability for the funds spent by the federal government. The President is visiting the hard hit areas in East Texas tomorrow, September 27. David Paulison says, the President gives temporary housing to 250,000 households, and $600 million were dispensed for rental. The bulk of it goes to Louisiana. Today the Louisiana initiative was approved; this is the FEMA Housing Relief Effort, from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Tomorrow President Bush will go to Houston to survey the storm damage, work on getting the oil supply chain working again, and surveying the high water levels of Lake Charles, with Lake Charles’ conscientious mayor. One must give his strategy for Hurricane Rita applause In actuality, Bush has won a major battle this time around, by letting his actions speak for him. He upstaged a soft coup in D.C. Rather than spend time in press conferences trying to explain the reaction to Katrina, he demonstrated in person that America can learn from its past mistakes. He kept up a fast pace, so that the reporters had a difficult time keeping up with him, and his actions were very difficult to criticize, although they still tried. The reaction and response to Rita was very well planned. He dodged all the harsh words and accusations by disallowing undisciplined questions regarding policies during his weekend supervisory role in Northern Command and surveying role in rescue, assessment and in orderly fashion, not an outbreak of anarchy in the south. From North Command in Colorado to South Texas and Louisiana, he averaged a spread of leadership in America geography, so that the protests in the D.C capital appeared to be just a temporary a sign of discontent, as an outlet for disquieting crowds which did not win the viewers interest, but were drowned out or played down by Hurricane Rita. The president worked throughout the weekend, without giving the critical press a chance to badger him with the same questions about Iraq, response to Katrina, and other controversial issues, so that they can make the administration appear weak. Some just want to undermine the stability of the nation, some want to make a name as a tough reporter like Dan Rather, or appear sharp like Barbara Walters. This time around it has tapped into American’s top management and human capital and compassion vs. the inexperienced response to Katrina. The crucial decision was for the President to visit Northern Command on Friday, this project that the President as the nation’s highest authority is concentrated and organized, managing the federal response as the potentially lethal storm approached and made landfall on Saturday. This avoided the accusations that the President is only interested in “photo ops”, and was not doing any real work. Though he still has the skewed views in his administration and preferences, he let them be in the background. His hiring practices apparently favor one group. If he travels and leaves D.C., other campers are not happy, including Sheehan who was arrested today. The American people only know that former FEMA director Brown was incompetent; they don’t know the competent ones. The media will never cover them. The media is sadly preoccupied only tunnel vision. Should an earthquake happen, or a large fire, or gas leak, youth gang outbreak, there will be clashes with soldiers in the detested military uniforms, as oppressive men carrying guns can all provoke confrontations. Real needy people may suffer before any timely help arrives. By going to Northern Command, it brings the sense of control and projects a great leadership image. This might have saved another pitfall for his presidency. He scores some points in his battered polls, around the high 30s. He went to Colorado Springs to sidetrack the 100,000 D.C. protesters against the Iraq war asking for the immediate pullout of troops. If not handled well, it can lead to a failed presidency. Almost like a coup, to ask him to step down or give up his policy. With Rita, in comparison to previous hurricane Katrina, his strong ability is that when all corralled together, he can make things work. Katrina was a disaster not only because of the real damage, but the many negatives hurt his polls and his confidence level dropped precipitously. Thanks to the media bashing and misrepresenting the President’s agenda, with nothing but harsh words about the weak government, inefficient as FEMA, lacking action, and Bush walking around to ask for funds while people in crisis were crying for help for water, food, what should have been a controlled situation erupted into mayhem. Bush says he wanted to get things under stable condition as he monitored from Northern Command. This gives people a sense that he is not just politicking in D.C., and he actually is in a secret high command center overseeing things. Rather than two hurricanes being a "double disaster" for Bush, he realized that his reaction to the second hurricane gave him a "second chance", a unique oppurtunity to redeem himself in the eyes of the public for the failures during the first hurricane. It is this ability to turn apparent tragedy into triumph distinguishes Bush as a master politician.