The White House never mentioned that an appeal from President Bush led to the New Orleans mandatory evacuation order that, though not fully carried out, saved tens of thousands of lives. For politicians to pass up an opportunity to boast – and to refrain from taking one to cast blame on others – is extraordinary. We might never have known the true story, had not the governor of Louisiana revealed it at a press conference. And we still wouldn’t have known if the passing reference hadn’t been picked up belatedly by bloggers. I first saw it yesterday evening on the NRO Corner. Free Will Blog posted about it this morning and was linked by Instapundit, so I imagine that everybody on the right side of the blogosphere will be aware within a few days of who saved the Big Easy from worse ruin than actually occurred. Will those who get their news from the MSM ever find out? Probably not until the facts show up in history books.
Also unlikely to receive “mainstream” attention until history is written is the amazing speed of the federal government’s response to the crisis in New Orleans. While we lived through it, the pace of relief seemed agonizingly and unforgivably slow, but consider: The 17th Street Canal levee broke late Monday night. Less than 100 hours later, an 8-mile long supply convoy arrived in New Orleans. The intervening time was, by all accounts, hellish for those who remained inside the city, and modern communications made hell visible around the world, but there is no rational basis for asserting that the federal government prolonged their suffering by so much as a minute. In fact, it is becoming evident that untrumpeted measures such as advance positioning of stateside military forces in anticipation of the possible need for a major relief effort drastically shortened the timetable.
What the President did not do was deliver a stirring address to the Nation. I didn’t see his speech but have no doubt that it was just as pedestrian as almost everybody who did see it says. Under the circumstances, though, inspiring rhetoric was far down the list of essentials. Americans don’t need exhortations from on high to donate generously in a disaster; we do an excellent job of exhorting one another. The time that the President didn’t spend in speech preparation was, it is clear, being well spent on other matters.
Positive judgements should be formed no more hastily than negative ones. Maybe further probing will disclose that President Bush reacted sluggishly to the Katrina catastrophe or committed egregious blunders. So far, the opposite seems to be the case. By any standard lower than “miracle working is mandatory”, the Bush Administration has responded superbly to this test.
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