The Mississippi coast was hit harder by Katrina than New Orleans was. And
although New Orleans' levee failure was a unique problem - one the local
leadership ignored for decades - the devastation in Mississippi was in many
respects more severe. And you know what? Mississippi has the same federal
government as Louisiana, and reconstruction there is going gangbusters
while, after more than $120 billion in federal spending, New Orleans remains
a basket case. Here's a wacky idea: Maybe it's not all Bush's fault.
Then, of course, there's the war on terror. Democrats love to note that Bush
hasn't caught Osama bin Laden yet, as if this is the most vital metric for
success. Yes, it'd be nice to catch bin Laden - no doubt Ramsey Clark, the
top legal gun for both LBJ and Saddam Hussein, will be looking for a new
client soon. But even nicer than catching bin Laden is not having thousands
of dead Americans in New York, Washington and L.A. Contrary to all expert
predictions, there hasn't been a successful attack on the homeland since
9/11. Indeed, the current issue of the Atlantic Monthly contains a long,
exhaustively reported cover story by James Fallows about how the U.S. is, in
fact, winning the war on terror, thanks largely to Bush's policies (though
Fallows works hard not to credit Bush).
Political dissatisfaction with the president rests entirely on Iraq and
overall Bush fatigue. The rest amounts to little more than Iraq-motivated
brickbats gussied up to look like freestanding complaints. That's how hate
works: It looks for more excuses to hate in the same way that fire looks for
more stuff to burn.
That's why Bush's Democratic critics flit about like bilious butterflies,
exploiting each superficial or transient problem just long enough to score
some points in the polls, then moving on. Bush's Medicare plan was an
egregious corporate giveaway, they cried, until seniors overwhelmingly
reported that they like it. And the Patriot Act? Can anyone even remember
what the Democrats were whining about? I think it had something to do with
libraries that were never searched.
Look, things could obviously be a lot better. But they could be a lot worse
too. John Kerry could be president.