Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 09:04 pm
Over the course of Barack Obama’s presidency, Republicans have made a valiant effort to label certain news events ‘Obama’s Katrina’ in anĀ attempt to sink his presidency the way Hurricane Katrina severely damaged George W. Bush’s.
From the BP oil spill to Healthcare.gov’s initial website glitches, right-wing politicians and media figures have quite commendably tried to paint every setback of the past eight years with this brush.
Each time, they’ve overplayed their hand and looked silly.
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Now, as Louisiana recovers from a devastating flood, the ‘Obama’s Katrina’ frenzy from Republicans is once again in full swing. According to them, it’s the height of hypocrisy that liberals hammered Bush for his response to Katrina while giving Obama a pass for his so-called terrible response to the Louisiana flooding.
Once again, they’re overplaying their hand and looking silly.
The problem with George W. Bush’s response to Hurricane Katrina wasn’t just the bad optics; it was that his actual response was consistent with those optics. It wasn’t that Bush didn’t land in New Orleans and immediately tour the devastation area;Ā it was that his federal government took an unacceptable amount of time to provide resources like food, water, and shelter to thousands of stranded people in New Orleans.
During Obama’s presidency, this type of failure to respond to a natural disaster has never happened. The aftermath of the Louisiana flooding is no exception.
As Stephanie Grace of The Advocate (Louisiana’s largest daily newspaper) wrote last Friday:
[Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards] and his allies stressed Thursday that they’ve been in daily communication with White House officials. FEMA administrator Craig Fugate, an emergency response specialist who before joining the Obama administration oversaw Florida’s disaster responses, has been here. So has Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson. President Barack Obama started issuing disaster declarations quickly, which frees up federal resources and gets the ball rolling on longer term needs. Inspectors are on the ground. It’s a miserable time for the many thousands affected, but a faulty response isn’t making it more miserable.
“In short, as far as the federal government goes,” Grace added, “this is not Katrina.”
Republicans can continue to accuse President Obama of a failed response, butĀ they do so without facts on their side.
By all accounts, his federal government’s response has been quick and effective, as it should be. Communication between all levels of government has been constant, and the devastated region has been provided as much assistance as possible from the highest level of government.
This is exactly what didn’t happen in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Sure, Donald Trump’s very political response to the disaster ā dropping into Louisiana to hand out Play-Doh for less than a minute ā may have been seen by more cameras, but it did more for his campaign than it did for the region. In some ways, it may have even hampered relief efforts.
That one photo-op was the beginning and end of Trump’s contribution to the people suffering in Louisiana.
President Obama’s visit to the devastation zone on Tuesday will not be the beginning, as Republicans claim, of his efforts to help the region. Instead, it’s the culmination of a textbook federal response by his administration that began over a week agoĀ and will continue for months.
Once again, Republicans ā now led by Trump ā are working to make hay where there is none.
What happened in Lousiana was a disaster, but the federal government’s response under Obama has not been.
To find out how you can help the affected region, visit the American Red Cross website.Ā
Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obamaās presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
