A new PPP found that Louisiana Republicans blame Barack Obama for the response to Hurricane Katrina that happened three plus years before he was president.
According to PPP, “And one final note from Louisiana- he may have been 3.5 years away from the White House when the storm hit, but slightly more Republicans in the state blame Barack Obama for the handling of Hurricane Katrina (29%) than do George W. Bush (28%). 44% don’t have an opinion either way.”
Many Republicans have apparently selectively blacked out all memories of George W. Bush’s second term, and have assigned anything that happened after 2004 to Barack Obama. I don’t know what’s more disturbing. The fact that more Republicans blame Obama for something that wasn’t in office for, or the idea that 44% had no opinion on the question.
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The question itself was interesting because it wasn’t measuring who Republicans in the state blame for the response to Katrina. What the question was really measuring was the depth of the Obama hate in the state. How far were Republicans willing to break from reality in order to blame President Obama for something that he had absolutely nothing to do with? The answer was pretty far.
A sizable number of Louisiana Republicans were more than willing to rewrite history in order to blame Obama.
Republicans love to claim that Obama blames Bush for everything, while ignoring the fact that the raging tire fire of an economy that Obama inherited belonged to Bush, but in this case it is clear that Republicans are willing to blame Obama for every bad event that has ever happened in American history. If Republicans could blame Obama for the Great Depression, they certainly would.
Instead of accepting and coping with their failures, Republicans have created an alternate reality. Due to the collective reinforcement provided by Republican political dominance, red states have taken this a step beyond and have created an alternate universe where Obama is to blame for everything Bush did.
Republicans aren’t stupid. They are firmly in denial of facts and reality. While Bobby Jindal destroys everything that the disasters natural and man made haven’t, Republicans have decided Barack Obama is to blame for everything.
John Edwards was right. There are two Americas, but they aren’t divided by wealth. The two Americas are separated by the acceptance or rejection of reality, and 73% of Louisiana Republicans are denying themselves a lot of reality.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
