Two weeks in, worse than Katrina
Had Mr. Bush been president in 2010, how much rhetoric would the left-wing spawn in frustration about the current situation in Haiti? Perhaps Kanye West would create a variation on his 2005 hit song “George Bush Doesn’t Care About Black People“.
Imagine the outrage.
Where is this with Mr. Obama?
Mr. Obama has an excellent knack for saying what people want to hear. Mr. Obama’s promises to help out our neighbors in Haiti, however, were not effective. Over 110,000 dead, with totals expected to end much higher. Hundreds of the uncounted are already buried and have disappeared forever. When it is all said and done, this will most likely be the biggest natural disaster in the Western Hemisphere.
Our neighbors in Haiti never had a chance. Poor building codes and no warning equals disaster. The immediate response, too, was horrible. Turning away assistance in the time of grave need is not just poor leadership, rather it is manslaughter.
Yet no one bothers to blame Mr. Obama — the leader of the nation who is guiding the rescue effort. Haiti’s government — while fragmented — is doing all that it can to bring in help. Yet the biggest stumbling block in the early days was the American machine.
As a result, without food or water, Haitians turned to looting and violence.
Yet no one bothers to question Mr. Obama’s leadership over the issue. In fact, he is too busy giving speeches about healthcare and another major electoral loss for the Democrats.
This is a very similar cycle that Bush faced with Katrina, except there was dysfunctional autocratic state and racist local leadership and about 1% of the deaths. No wonder Mr. Jindal easily cruised to the governorship in 2007.
Yet Mr. Bush hates black people, while Mr. Obama is a swell fellow in a tough spot.
Yes, Mr. Bush fumbled the response on New Orleans. Yes, Mr. Bush probably should have (illegally) intervened on behalf of the Louisiana people. But when you look at the regions on the Gulf Coast that took a direct hit from Katrina — Mississippi — they had their ducks in a row. Mr. Bush’s only fault was trusting the locally elected leaders of the region and not micromanaging members of the opposing political party.
Mr. Obama fumbled the Haitian response. Instead of it being thousands of American lives, it will cost hundreds of thousands of Haitian lives. At least Obama will go down as the most recent conqueror of Haiti.
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