Howard Fineman is out the gate with your liberal racial paternalism of the day, connecting Haiti to Hurricane Katrina because, well, they both involve black people and natural disasters. Get it?
And, adding irony upon irony, the racial context of New Orleans is writ large in Port-au-Prince. Katrina cost George W. Bush what little standing he had among moderates in his own party in part because the shocking images of suffering in New Orleans were so racially imbalanced.
Now the Obama administration's competence and compassion will be tested in a similar racial context—and with a much worse infrastructure. Obama and his aides understand all of this. The president was out early today with a strong statement about American efforts to deal with the aftermath of the devastating Haitian earthquake.
No. Hurricane Katrina hurt the Bush administration because Bush presided over a complete failure of the U.S. government to fulfill the basic responsibility of protecting its citizens from catastrophe. The reaction to the Bush administration's Katrina incompetence was split along racial lines, with those believing race had something to do with Bush's sluggish response belonging to the kind of demographics that didn't like Bush to begin with.
Katrina hurt Bush because it exposed his administration's incompetence during the destruction of a major American city in an age where Americans are often preoccupied with the possibility of a terror attack. For most people, it had nothing to do with race.
But I suspect Fineman knows his comparison is inane, and is in fact merely tossing a softball for the administration to hit out of the park: When Obama's "Katrina" came, he showed he was prepared, unlike the Bushies.
Expect to see a parade of official statements and rescue missions. Expect to see the Pentagon deeply involved—ships and soldiers—to supplement international relief efforts. Expect to see the president and chief of staff Rahm Emanuel keeping a close, minute-by-minute watch on what is happening around the island. Expect to see a review of what the administration has—or hasn't—done to improve the dire overall life of that country. Expect Obama to make sure that there is no egregiously incompetent "Brownie" in the chain of command, and that, as president, he doesn't tell anybody they are "doing a heck of a job" unless they really are.
Great, um, what else should we expect? Incompetence? Kind of a low bar to clear here.
-- A. Serwer
