Hurricane Issac Revives Memories of Bush Administration's Mishandling of Hurricane Katrina, Etc.
Various news outlets have reported that former president George W. Bush won’t be speaking at or even attending the GOP convention in Tampa.
Will W’s ghost be there, anyway?
Robert Reich thinks so.
He contends:
Hurricane Issac will likely revive memories of the Bush administration’s incompetence in dealing with the needs of Americans caught in Hurricane Katrina.
And if the public remembers that, they may also recall the Bush administration’s lies about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq—which led us into that devastating war.
The public may recall how George W. Bush took the $5 billion surplus Bill Clinton bequeathed to him and turned it into a trillion dollar deficit, by slashing taxes, mostly on the rich, and by creating an expensive new Medicare benefit that helped insurance companies more than it helped seniors.
The public might recall how the Bush administration tried not to see what Wall Street was up to when Wall St. went on a rampage of risky bets, and then, when Wall Street was about to melt down, pushed Congress into approving a no-strings bailout -- both of which cost the nation billions more.
“Indeed, we are still living with George W. Bush’s legacy—the last Republican to occupy the White House-- which is a truth that Romney is desperate to put out of our minds. He wants to blame the bad economy, and most of everything else, on Obama. The GOP was intent on not even bringing up Bush's name at the GOP convention, because the former president might also remind Americans how little the Republicans care about average Americans, like those caught in Hurricane Katrina, and how much they care about top corporate and Wall Street executives, like those being entertained in Tampa. But Hurricane Issac seems likely to remind Americans anyway, “ says Reich.
And David Lauter of the Los Angeles Times writes, "Republican officials worry that they may have to share the media spotlight with pictures of people evacuating New Orleans or other Gulf Coast communities. Cable and broadcast television networks have already moved correspondents and some news anchors to the New Orleans area. At minimum, coverage of the storm could cut into Republican hopes that positive images of Romney will dominate television news coverage over the next few days. The image could get worse if Republican festivities began to seem insensitive to hurricane victims.”
