How to Rescue President Bush’s Declining Approval Rating

President Bush’s approval rating has declined to its lowest point, with a CNN poll of 40%. The American people have lost confidence in the president. They think that he is out of touch and only knows how to sign checks. If America gets hit by more hurricanes, or another large terrorist attack, then the country will have endless demand for $200 billion each time. The people do not have the confidence that Bush can handle another disaster so that more debts will be incurred, thus his confidence level is dropping precipitously. Americans want realistic reform. Americans do not want Bush to continue approving more funding and putting America further into debt. The $200 billion figure is staggering, and turns people off at all levels. Bush’s core Republican support group is like the core of an onion skin, the outer rings are getting peeled off, eventually threatening everyone’s safety. The Democrats always want Karl Rove, the so-called “Bush’s brain” to be gone, so that they will rule. Karl Rove has raised issue of whether federal power should override the state government. The Northern Command got set up after 9/11. The administration didn’t treat the hurricane as a war crisis, and didn’t trigger the national equivalent with military power and institutes. The congress is in great fear of losing their normalcy, and they are going to fight tooth and nail over having programs cut in their districts. Most Americans want to help, but they don’t feel like giving up their own life to eradicate the flaws in the system. In my opinion, in two critical moments that Bush made faulty steps which got the whole country into a threat of great debts financed by China and Japan. 1) Before and after the 8/25 swimming poolside invitation of the White House correspondents’ exclusive party, things could have been executed with better planning for evacuating New Orleans. Some transportation was needed for the residents who did not have access to cars, and did not know where to go. Temporary housing should have been in place in advance of the hurricane. 2) The most critical time, criticism started to mount 3 days after the 8/29 hurricane day. Many people were thirsty in Superdome. But the problem was that at the critical time, as illustrated by the CNN White House correspondent, once the President returned to Washington on 9/1, and examined his daily schedule, he didn’t spend his time wisely, he didn’t have to meet the news reporter teams to explain, or to meet the Red Cross to raise funds, he should have met with Carl Rove and his cabinet, set his heart and mind on being an effective and functional executive command in chief, and should have gotten FEMA in order. FEMA sent boxes on Anthrax antidotes to hurricane victims. When the local officials asked why, the answer was “By the book.” Their heart and soul simply was not in it. Bush has an image problem again, at least the way it is presented in the press. This is the consequence when the president loses his brain man, or the main strategist. You have the best military, but the military commander could not issue any order in time. The Coast of the Gulf of Mexico generated a hurdle so mighty to sink the French Quarter underneath the sea, all this time, Washington untouched from the limelight. Only one revealing the face on the White House was the Filipino news reporter emerging on the peaceful lawn, to chastise the chaos of a miserable crisis scene. She also was the one that rudely asked the President questions about White House strategist Karl Rove at an East Room conference during a foreign state visit. All these time, charity hospital and nursing home lives could still have been salvaged. A pregnant woman jumped into water to swim to bridge to get airlifted to the hospital to deliver and left her older child behind. In China, when the core staff was replaced by eunuchs or servants, the court lost gravity and support. In Chinese ancient history, many times, the emperor got himself into trouble by using the people who had less capacity, but simply as an echoing or a pet, with flattery to cajole his favoritism. This weakened the court. Here are some suggestions. A generic and flexible disaster program should be developed, that could be quickly implemented regardless of the location or nature of the emergency, whether it is a terrorist attack, a hurricane, or an earthquake. This program would allow temporary housing and food supplies to be made available to evacuees. Also, during evacuations, buses and trains should be made available free of charge to people from lower income groups. These programs could be coordinated by the National Guard or FEMA. This type of program would sooth people’s fear that the government is not able to handle another emergency, and would make better use of existing resources, rather than incurring a large government expense. What the people want is a smarter federal government that can manage resources within its means, not a high-cost bureaucracy without any spending limits.