A Colossal Failure of Leadership

We awaked this Saturday to see the good news – help has arrived to New Orleans. Eleanor Clift provides one explanation of why it took so long for the Federal government to get its act together:

This has been a colossal failure of government. President Bush spent Tuesday, the day after Katrina struck, at a Medicare event in Arizona and then he made his way to a San Diego naval base for yet another anniversary tribute to the Greatest Generation. His concession to reality was adding a few words of compassion to his prepared remarks. Meanwhile, the greatest natural disaster in a century was unfolding at sickening speed with television cameras capturing footage of looting reminiscent of the days after the invasion of Iraq. Things were so bad “you almost wonder if Donald Rumsfeld is in charge,” said Marshall Wittmann, an analyst with the Democratic Leadership Council.

To be fair to the DoD Secretary, he is heading to the region and it seems the Army is doing much of what FEMA should have been doing days ago.