Sunday, September 04, 2005
Dawn of Reason
Ms. Summers schools Mayor Nagin on the comparative lessons to be drawn from 9/11 and Katrina.
I agree with her almost 100% -- particularly sharing her confusion over Nagin's need to bring in the drug addicts as another reason contributing to the initial crisis; figure the administration to remember that one, if they want ammunition for blaming local officials. The only slight disagreement I would have is that the essential crisis of 9/11 took place in a compressed time frame. The planes were hijacked at 8 AM and the essential destruction (including the collapse of the Towers) was over within hours -- there were no more attacks or continued carnage that day. The emotional aftershocks were felt for days, weeks, months, now.
Katrina was a crisis that rolled over for nearly a week, before some sort of order appeared.
But, I think a question has to rightly be asked -- why is it that, despite how well the president performed in getting the country together and focused post-9/11 and the political benefits that accrued to him because of that -- Rudy Giuliani is the person who comes to mind as THE leader ON 9/11? One can still remember Peter Jennings asking, "Where is the president?" The president's initial message to the nation seemed tentative. Ironically, Giuliani gave the WH time by keeping a sense of order in New York. By 9/14, he had, as mentioned below, found his voice.
The corollary to Katrina -- with neither Mayor Nagin or Gov. Kathleen Blanco appearing as forceful or organized as Rudy Giuliani, the inability of the White House to respond swiftly in a crisis -- for the second time -- was exposed.
UPDATE: Slightly edited to correct hasty-writing sloppiness.
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I agree with her almost 100% -- particularly sharing her confusion over Nagin's need to bring in the drug addicts as another reason contributing to the initial crisis; figure the administration to remember that one, if they want ammunition for blaming local officials. The only slight disagreement I would have is that the essential crisis of 9/11 took place in a compressed time frame. The planes were hijacked at 8 AM and the essential destruction (including the collapse of the Towers) was over within hours -- there were no more attacks or continued carnage that day. The emotional aftershocks were felt for days, weeks, months, now.
Katrina was a crisis that rolled over for nearly a week, before some sort of order appeared.
But, I think a question has to rightly be asked -- why is it that, despite how well the president performed in getting the country together and focused post-9/11 and the political benefits that accrued to him because of that -- Rudy Giuliani is the person who comes to mind as THE leader ON 9/11? One can still remember Peter Jennings asking, "Where is the president?" The president's initial message to the nation seemed tentative. Ironically, Giuliani gave the WH time by keeping a sense of order in New York. By 9/14, he had, as mentioned below, found his voice.
The corollary to Katrina -- with neither Mayor Nagin or Gov. Kathleen Blanco appearing as forceful or organized as Rudy Giuliani, the inability of the White House to respond swiftly in a crisis -- for the second time -- was exposed.
UPDATE: Slightly edited to correct hasty-writing sloppiness.
