The Real Question: How Will The Katrina Effect Affect the Republicans in the Next Election?

I realize there is still some time b4 the next election, but how short will the memories of the folks in Dixieland have to be to re-elect the Republicans? Could this be the precipitating event to sweep out the White House? Seriously. How much can the party really spin to fix this??

i think with the midterms still over a year away that it's way too soon to tell, especially with relief efforts ongoing. the challenge for the democrats as always is what kind of face they manage to put on their candidates. if they manage to put out candidates who can look mainstream and who have actual ideas rather than expectingg to just tap into voter dissatisfaction, they'll do well. if on the other hand they try to run on "bush sucks," regardless of how popular the notion is around here, they'll lose more seats.

one should also note that the elected officials in the immediate areas in nola are all democrats. while most folks around here are content to lay blame for any and all catastrophes in the world at the door of the white house (not that it does not shoulder some responsibility), remember, politics are local and i would not want to be in their seats. if it's one thing the gop can do it's focus people's attention where they want it to be and define races in terms advantageous to them.

in short, (hah!)i don't think that any judgement can be made about the effects until at least february or march when we see what condition the country is in at that point (i know, i know, in tattered ruins barely able to even function).

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I agree with Margo that there will be a shift in the Senate and definitely in the House.

It is a basic function of the Federal Government when in time of disaster, and local governments do not have the manpower or resources, to respond and bring people and resources to a disaster area. Here, the current Administration on Tuesday failed to recognize the crisis and then act accordingly. This will be Bush's legacy - the needless of thousands of people in New Orleans that could have been saved by prompt action.

As I am sure you know, I was referring to the deadly lack of response to the natural disaster that hit "the homeland" this week.

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Updated On: 9/5/05 at 12:11 PM

yeah, but sometimes i can't help myself.

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The thing is, I kind of hate all the strategizing, as if politics is a football game. I hate football just as I hate the sort of detached analysis of how people get themselves elected, how they get control and power without any inclusion of the impact on human life. These incompetent and greedy people may be "good" at getting into office (with Rovian tactics like "Did you hear McCain fathered a n* baby?" and the like) but what they have demonstrated time and again is that they are not good people.

What we are seeing is the politics of incompetence and greed writ large. And it has an impact on real living (or once-living) human beings.
Give me one Al Gore arranging a jet to get medical attention to people who need it while refusing to talk to the press, over any number of these Bush cronies who are crowing over the "fantastic" job they've done while all the time taking care to point out that "now is not the time" to talk about the horrors.

Frankly, I can just imagine the stonewalling that will happen when anybody tries to convene a commission to see what went wrong.

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Updated On: 9/5/05 at 12:28 PM

and that's one of the reasons why you are indispensible, namo. because as much as some people love to label you as a caustic, bitter queen, that's just your crusty (and i mean that in every sense of the word) exterior and inside you're just wonderfully gooey, like a payday bar left out at the beach. without passion, we're empty shells.

**update**

"indispensible" (even when spelled correctly) sounds kinda condescending and patronizing, but it's not meant in that way, but rather in the best sense of the word in that that the world would be a colder place without the fire that namo brings.

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Updated On: 9/5/05 at 12:38 PM

get the f*** away from me with that cigar!

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Of course, it's only a week old, and Rove has already reconvened his swift boat rowing team to slime all Louisiana Dems in power. That's the strategy -- to suggest that all local officials barred Bush and Company from doing the fine work they really, really wanted to do.

I checked in at David "Axis of Evil" Frum's website, and he's already expressing outrage at the left, daring to employ a "have you no shame?" higher road rhetoric to indict critics. They are so smug and prissy now, full of "we're doing or job, and they want to point fingers!" bs. (Can you imagine their reponse, had this happened on a Democratic presidential watch?)

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I keep thinking of Kerry showing up at the convention - "reporting for duty". Never underestimate the Democrat's ability not to 'get it'.

Re the analyzing,I find myself feeling very LAdy MacB right now. "THUS thou must do if thou wouldst have it". Power in itself is neutral it is the use it is or IS NOT put to that affects us all. I can not say what the Dems would have done but knowing what the GOP didn't do, well- reap what u sow -have your power removed by an angry electorate. Hey, a rough justice.

glad ya clarified, jerby, because i got a big kick out of d's comment at the time:
the gag reflex

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Give it time. No one really knows what the long-term effects will be right now. Once we're out of the thick of things and start summarizing instead, we'll see.