SubscribeA president who roamed across the national and world stages with an unshakable self-assurance that comforted Republicans and confounded critics since 2001 suddenly finds himself struggling to reclaim his swagger.
...
A president who normally thrives on tough talk and self-assurance finds himself at what aides privately describe as a low point in office, one that is changing the psychic and political aura of the White House, as well as its distinctive political approach.
"The president arrived in darkness, in the dead silence of what looked to be—and in many ways was—an abandoned city under military occupation. Riding through town in an SUV, escorted only by two police cars with their sirens off, George W. Bush made his way through deserted streets, past the oddly intimate detritus of disaster—a random single sneaker, an empty baby stroller, a stack of looted mattresses. On the corners of the French Quarter, pairs of soldiers materialized in the headlights: members of the 82nd Airborne, wearing red berets and hefting assault rifles, snapping salutes to a commander in chief they could not see. Bourbon Street—once neon-bright, tumultuous—now stood empty in the pitch dark, covered with thick dust like a Western ghost town, the utter quiet broken only by chirping locusts and the creak of unlatched shutters in the night.
But one place was illuminated—blindingly so: Jackson Square, the heart of a city that, in turn, is the heart of a Gulf Coast region devastated by the most powerful hurricane ever to hit the United States. White House advance men, who brought their own generators as backups, lit the square with hundreds of rock-concert high-voltage lamps. They draped camouflage nets from the trees to shield the scene—the Cathedral of St. Louis and an equestrian statue of Andrew Jackson—from surrounding streets. They barred the press and public; among the few allowed inside the gates were chief of staff Andy Card, Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin. When he got the cue last Thursday night, Bush strode across the empty lawns to give one of the most important speeches of his presidency..." [Newsweek | Sept. 26, 2005 issue]
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Seriously though, as much as I hate the guy, I don't want to believe this.
posted by JeremyT at 2:40 PM on September 23, 2005