The Message Machine is Out of Order

Having just watched Bush’s strained photo op with the governors of Mississippi and Alabama and the head of FEMA, I have to say that Hurricane Katrina has done something even the missing WMDs couldn’t do: Thrown the Bush message machine completely out of balance.

Today, Bush is almost admitting he screwed up (though still battling back against charges that the Army Corps of Engineers was underfunded and could have done more to shore of the New Orleans levees).

Meanwhile, he’s walking around in his no-jacket, sleeves-rolled-up post-9/11 “let’s get down to business” look, but I don’t think it’s going to work. (He was also talking about how he’s looking forward to hanging out with Trent Lott on his rebuilt porch, which struck me as sort of odd and insensitive.)

Most of all, though, Bush looks scared and out of control. (Perhaps he thought the hurricane would greet New Orleans with open arms and flowers?) Here he is at the photo op this morning:

Bush09_02_05.jpg

Contrast that with how he looked on September 14, 2001, standing on the ruins of the World Trade Center:

Bush09_14_01.jpg


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