A tale of two Louisiana disasters and media bias

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If ever there was a contrast to make around “then-and-now” media coverage of a Republican and Democratic president put in similar situations and their respective reactions to it, this one definitely makes the Top 5.

2005: President George W. Bush’s presidency is basically declared over after he waits two days to cut a vacation short to return to the White House to directly engage in relief strategy around hurricane-ravaged Katrina. On Day 3, he would visit the Gulf Coast to survey the damage.

The headlines at the time and since have included, A compassionate Bush was absent right after Katrina, The 7 worst moments of George W. Bush’s presidency, Kanye West Rips Bush at Telethon, What If They Were White?, Jesse Jackson lashes out at Bush over Katrina response, Katrina thrusts race and poverty onto national stage: Bush and Congress under pressure to act
and An Imperfect Storm – How race shaped Bush’s response to Katrina.

So it’s clear how the narrative went from “Bush waited three days to visit the Gulf Coast” to “Bush is a racist who would have acted faster if white people were victims of Katrina.”

Why? Because Kanye West said so.
Fast forward to August 2016 — several storms hit Louisiana, not just a hurricane — the floodwaters have created the biggest natural disaster to hit the United States since Hurricane Katrina.

At least 13 people are dead, more than 85,000 people have applied for federal disaster aid, 30,000 people needed to be rescued and 40,000 displaced. State officials report it is easily the biggest housing crunch since Sandy.

In Livingston Parish, officials report as many as 75 percent of the 52,000 homes there had been damaged by floodwaters. In Ascension Parish, water had seeped into one of every three homes.

“We’ve been through Hurricane Gustav, Katrina, Isaac and Rita, but this without a doubt is the roughest we’ve ever had in this parish,” said Livingston Parish Sheriff Jason Ard.

A very simple question, if George W. Bush was president right now and playing golf with celebrities in one of the richest zip codes in the country, would the headlines again be everywhere that portray him as insensitive, out-of-touch, even a racist president be the same now as they were 2005? Of course they would.

Instead, President Obama continues his vacation that includes fundraising events for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and the relative silence is deafening.

Supporters of the president will argue that communications in this day and age make it easy for a Obama to monitor any situation from anywhere, therefore eliminating the need for him in this case to actually survey the damage up close.

Back to something Bush said in 2005 while touring the wreckage:

“I don’t think anybody can be prepared for the vastness of the destruction,” Bush said. “You can look at a picture, but until you sit on that doorstep of a house that used to be, or stand by the rubble, you just can’t imagine it.”

So can President Obama fully appreciate what’s happening across Louisiana now via news reports and updates via his advisers? Likely not. There’s nothing that matches actually speaking to families that just lost everything face-to-face or seeing whole communities destroyed up close. Nothing.

The president has received sporadic criticism of not cutting his vacation short and surveying the damage first hand, but nowhere is it remotely a lead story despite this being the worst natural disaster since Hurricane Sandy, which was only the second-costliest hurricane in U.S. history.

CNN calls the devastation in Louisiana “historic”. But only one newspaper editorial board, The Advocate in Baton Rouge, is calling on the president to end his vacation.

“A disaster this big begs for the personal presence of the president at ground zero,” the paper writes in an editorial titled, ‘Our Views: Vacation or not, a hurting Louisiana needs you now, President Obama.’

“In coming here,” it continues, “the resident can decisively demonstrate that Louisiana’s recovery is a priority for his administration — and the United States of America.”

Will the New York Times or Washington Post editorial board follow suit? Of course not.

Obama mocked the Bush Administration in 2005 for its “unconscionable ineptitude” after Katrina hit. He even visited the area to report what he witnessed.

But the headlines this morning are all about Paul Manafort’s resignation, Trump’s alleged pivot, U.S. swimmers up to no good in Rio, and the $400 million payment to Iran that the administration still insists wasn’t ransom to free American hostages.

There is also one more headline: How funny it is that the president played golf with the guy who played Bernie Sanders on Saturday Night Live in the form of Larry David.

2005: A Republican president takes three days to survey a natural disaster in Louisiana and Mississippi after cutting a vacation short.

The media at the time declares that was way too long, far too insensitive, even pushes a narrative that labels him racist.

2016: A Democratic president will not only cut a vacation short in any capacity to survey a natural disaster in Louisiana — the worst of any kind to hit the country in four years — but hasn’t even made any public statements on it. Not one.

The Hill

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But LA gov., John Bel Edwards gave Obama an out…..
He said he would rather Obama wait ten days or 2 weeks before coming (he said this on Aug 18th.)

And Jeh Johnson said Obama has a VERY BUSY schedule and could not possibly come down there for at least a week or more.
(He said that on the 18th)

So, there is some egg on faces of democrats because Obama is coming down there on the 23rd.
And the only reason he’s coming down there is OPTICS.
It had been looking bad.
This probably won’t help.

Getting flooded in Louiana and Obama wants to find out how many golf courses were flooded and after Katrina all the poppycock about Global Warming which according to the eco-freak idiots cuases everything

the dick head John Bel Edwards is a hard core demorat-so he has to protect his terrorist leader. Kanye West, just another piece of raciest trash, similar to will smith wanting to purge the country of Trump supporters- sounds like the Final Solution of 1941. you know what the Final Solution is?
appraising the presstatudes -the press are whores waiting everyday for better ratings, better contract and more lies to be spun:

There was no point in seeking to convert the intellectuals. For intellectuals would never be converted and would anyway always yield to the **er, and this will always be “the man in the street.” Arguments must therefore be crude, clear and forcible, and appeal to emotions and instincts, not the intellect. Truth was unimportant and entirely subordinate to tactics and psychology. Joseph Goebbels

Hmm… treating a black man differently than a white man in the exact same circumstances. Racist?

John Bel Edwards… this name sounds familiar. Named for John Bell Hood, by chance? Ooooo…. sounds racist. He is racist for not changing his name.

I wonder why Obama visited New Jersey the day after the storm but it is too disruptive to visit Louisiana before two weeks after the flood began? I’ll bet there’s some racism to be insinuated in THAT somewhere. Let’s work on it.

Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards appeared on CNN’s State of the Union Sunday morning where he praised Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and his running mate Indiana Gov. Mike Pence.

Trump donated $100,000 and a tractor-trailer load of relief supplies in addition to visiting flood victims with Pence.

Edwards also spoke about a “good phone call” he had with Pence on Friday about the visit.

Edwards was interviewed by Dana Bash…..who – after the good words for the Republicans – looked like she had swallowed a crow or something.

where were the brothers to help-the dip shit panthers and the burgerly larceny and murder people?
why didn’t we see al’s and jessie’s ass in LA?
you all knew that the idiot and the idiot’s fools are not welcome in the South.

WHERE’S BROWNIE??

@Richard Wheeler: Where’s Obama? Where’s Hillary?