Bush's Compassion Deficit: Clinton to the Rescue
It is now official. President George W. Bush, Mr. Compassionate Conservative, has a Compassion Deficit. And as I predicted yesterday, he is turning to conservative uber-villain Bill Clinton to save him from it.
Bush is now facing a hellstorm of criticism for his delayed, detached and deficient response to the hurricane Katrina disaster in the Gulf states. After two days of pushing Medicare drug coverage, staying the course in Iraq and just strumming a guitar, President Bush spoke to nation. That speech and his apparent failure to mobilize himself (if not the engine of the federal government) from his sabbatical-induced slumber, is drawing the ire of left, right and center alike.
The Manchester Union Leader, an arch-conservative mouthpiece for generations, blasted him in a piece called "Bush and Katrina - A Time for Action, Not Aloofness":
As the extent of Hurricane Katrina’s devastation became clearer on Tuesday — millions without power, tens of thousands homeless, a death toll unknowable because rescue crews can’t reach some regions — President Bush carried on with his plans to speak in San Diego, as if nothing important had happened the day before...A better leader would have flown straight to the disaster zone and announced the immediate mobilization of every available resource to rescue the stranded, find and bury the dead, and keep the survivors fed, clothed, sheltered and free of disease.
The New York Times lambasted the dangerously detached President in an editorial aptly titled, "Waiting for a Leader":
George W. Bush gave one of the worst speeches of his life yesterday, especially given the level of national distress and the need for words of consolation and wisdom. In what seems to be a ritual in this administration, the president appeared a day later than he was needed...Sacrifices may be necessary to make sure that all these things happen in an orderly, efficient way. But this administration has never been one to counsel sacrifice. And nothing about the president's demeanor yesterday - which seemed casual to the point of carelessness - suggested that he understood the depth of the current crisis.
Even Peggy Noonan, Republican speechwriter extraordinaire and liberal bete-noire, asked in the Wall Street Journal:
Does he understand that what has happened in our gulf is as important as what is happening in the other gulf? Does he know in his gut that the existence of looting, chaos and disease in a great American city, or cities, is a terrible blow that may have deep implications?
With his poll ratings rapidly dropping to roughly the same range as his blood alcohol leve circa 1978, George W. Bush in his desperation is turning to the only man who save him. Bill Clinton, #42, dispatcher of his father and "America's first black president" will be sent to Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi. Bush asked his Clinton and his father to reprise their very successful fundraising and PR efforts following the devastating Asian tsunami.
No doubt, President Bush's fellow travelers will spend the next several days looking to blame Bill Clinton for the disaster of Katrina. Instead of attacking him, they should be thanking him.
After all, Bill Clinton may just save President Bush from his Compassion Deficit.
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