E. J. Dionne: End of the Bush Era

[RSchewe]

(...)

And so the Bush Era ended definitively on Sept. 2, the day Bush first toured the Gulf Coast States after Hurricane Katrina. There was no magic moment with a bullhorn. The utter failure of federal relief efforts had by then penetrated the country's consciousness. Yesterday's resignation of FEMA Director Michael Brown put an exclamation point on the failure.

The source of Bush's political success was his claim that he could protect Americans. Leadership, strength and security were Bush's calling cards. Over the past two weeks, they were lost in the surging waters of New Orleans.

But the first intimations of the end of the Bush Era came months ago. The president's post-election fixation on privatizing part of Social Security showed how out of touch he was. The more Bush discussed this boutique idea cooked up in conservative think tanks and Wall Street imaginations, the less the public liked it. The situation in Iraq deteriorated. The glorious economy Bush kept touting turned out not to be glorious for many Americans. The Census Bureau's annual economic report, released in the midst of the Gulf disaster, found that an additional 4.1 million Americans had slipped into poverty between 2001 and 2004.

The breaking of the Bush spell opens the way for leaders of both parties to declare their independence from the recent past. It gives forces outside the White House the opportunity to shape a more appropriate national agenda -- for competence and innovation in rebuilding the Katrina region and for new approaches to the problems created over the past 4 1/2 years.

(...)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/12/AR2005091201433.html

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

1. About high time

[Postman]

2. You can't lose what you never had...

"The source of Bush's political success was his claim that he could protect Americans. Leadership, strength and security were Bush's calling cards. Over the past two weeks, they were lost in the surging waters of New Orlean"

[Melodybe]

3. kick

[leeroysphitz]

4. With all that has been said along these lines recently...

I should feel ecstatic and joy full. I had always imagined the time would come when people would see what was really going on and I kind of pictured, you know, dancing in the streets kind of things.

Sadly, though, I feel bitter and angry. It took a natural disaster of an appalling magnitude and an even more appalling failure of leadership to finally open the eyes of a lazy and indifferent(at best) or mean and ignorant (at worst, electorate).