Politics > Politics-USA > Newt Gingrich: "It's impossible to defend something like this happening in America"
| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"jon w." |
| Date: |
02 Sep 2005 07:03:45 PM |
| Object: |
Newt Gingrich: "It's impossible to defend something like this happening in America" |
September 2, 2005
Newsview: Rhetoric Doesn't Match Reality
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Iraqi insurgency is in its last throes. The
economy is booming. Anybody who leaks a CIA agent's identity will be
fired. Add another piece of White House rhetoric that doesn't match
the public's view of reality: Help is on the way, Gulf Coast.
As New Orleans descended into anarchy, President Bush and his
emergency-response team congratulated each other for jobs well done
and spoke of water, food and troops pouring into the ravaged city.
Television pictures told a different story.
''What it reminded me of the other day is `Baghdad Bob' saying there
are no Americans at the airport,'' said Rich Galen, a Republican
consultant in Washington. He was referring to Saddam Hussein's
reality-challenged minister of information who denied the existence of
U.S. troops in the Iraqi capital.
To some critics, Bush seemed to deny the existence of problems with
hurricane relief this week. He waited until Friday to acknowledged
that ''the results are not acceptable,'' and even then Bush parsed his
words.
Republicans worry that he looks out of touch defending the chaotic
emergency response.
''It's impossible to defend something like this happening in
America,'' said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
''No one can be happy with the kind of response which we've seen in
New Orleans ... ,'' said Republican Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts.
Bush got himself in trouble by trying to put the best face on a
horrible situation. The strategy is so common in Washington that
operatives have a name for it, ''spin,'' and the Bush White House has
perfected the shady art.
This is what the president had to say about the relief effort earlier
in the week:
--''There's a lot of food on its way, a lot of water on the way, and
there's a lot of boats and choppers headed that way.''
--''Thousands have been rescued. There's thousands more to be rescued.
And there's a lot of people focusing their efforts on that.''
--''As we speak, people are moving into New Orleans area to maintain
law and order.''
Technically, the president may have been right. Help was on the way,
if not fast enough to handle one of the largest emergency response
efforts in U.S. history. But the words were jarring to Americans who
saw images of looters, abandoned corpses and angry, desperate storm
victims.
It was worse when he was wrong. In one interview, Bush said, ''I don't
think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees.'' In fact, many
experts predicted a major storm would bust New Orleans' flood-control
barriers.
One reason the public relations effort backfired on Bush is that
Americans have seen it before.
On Iraq alone, the rhetoric has repeatedly fallen far short of
reality. Saddam had no weapons of mass destruction. The mission wasn't
accomplished in May 2003. Most allies avoided the hard work of his
''coalition of the willing.'' And dozens of U.S. soldiers have died
since Vice President ***** Cheney declared that insurgents were in
their ''last throes.''
Bush often touts the health of the U.S. economy, which is fair game
because many indicators point in that direction. But the public
doesn't share his rosy view. The global economy had most Americans
worried about job and pension security even before rising gas added to
their anxieties.
Bush's spokesman said anybody involved in leaking the identity of a
CIA agent would be fired, but no action has been taken against
officials accused of doing so.
The president himself promised to fully pay for his school reform plan
and strip pork-barrel spending from a major highway bill. The school
money fell short. The pork thrived.
The list goes on. But this didn't start with Bush. Former President
Clinton certainly had his rhetoric vs. reality problems. Indeed, most
politicians do. At some point, however, the spin can take a toll.
Bush crafted a reputation as a blunt-speaking, can-do leader from his
response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Five months later,
about three-fourths of Americans viewed him as honest.
But his trust rating dropped gradually to a slim majority by the 2004
election year and remained at the mid-50s through the early part of
2005. In August, an AP-Ipsos poll showed 48 percent of respondents
considered Bush honest, the lowest level of his presidency.
Americans like straight-shooters, especially in an era that has seen
vast failures by government and social institutions. People are
witnessing another institutional failure in the Gulf Coast, and Bush
reluctantly acknowledged it Friday.
''I'm not satisfied with all the results,'' he said. Few would
disagree.
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