November 3, 2010
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The Haters Will Continue to Hate …
With Bush’s new memoir coming out there’s been an onslaught of interesting nuggets coming out (granted I’m pulling most of these from WaPo). There’s the 5 Myths about Bush which was actually interesting to read. But the most blogged/commented about one is his worst moment of his Presidency which was when Kanye West called him a racist. Some people are quick to point out that he should have said Katrina was the worst moment or 9/11 or the economic downturn (here or here). But really should have those been? Hurricane Katrina, 9/11 and even the economic downturn were events that he could resolve and make the overall outcome be better than it currently was. He did that for 9/11. He listened to his advisers about the economic downturn and tried to put into place something that would help (and realistically it should have especially if they would have put some restrictions on what the banks were going to do with the money).
What gets me is how people still blame Bush for Hurricane Katrina. Yes, because the man can control the weather and brought the storm to the area. Because it wasn’t the storm that killed so many it was the levy’s that failed and flooded the area. Or because people were told to leave and they didn’t. All those were his fault. Please people get a clue. Yes, the response was slow but it was because of a idiot who was in charge of FEMA. Those in leadership positions know the decisions that can be made are only as good as the information you have. Everything else is a guess. Bush had little information because those handling the situation did a poor job. Should he take responsibility for how things were handled? Of course he should and he does.
Yet the same people who bash Bush haven’t said a word about how terrible a job Obama handled the oil spill in the Gulf. Sure, thousands of people may not have died but the environmental impact of waiting weeks to months and not doing anything has caused an undetermined amount of damage to the environment which could still impact the human race in some form.
The haters will continue to hate because that’s all they see. Should Katrina be the worst moment in Bush’s Presidency? I still say no. Should Kanye West calling him a racist be, well he says so. It’s not like there was anything Bush could have done to reverse that or make what he said become undone. Then again should he really care what West says? He does have foot-in-mouth disease a lot of times.
