Today in the news:
Christine M. Riordan, who holds the Luther Henderson Chair in Leadership at Texas Christian University’s M.J. Neeley School of Business, said that by his own actions and comments, Bush “has not really helped the people recover from this disaster.”
“During a threat, a leader needs to be visible, show compassion and understanding for what others are facing and also show strength,” Riordan said. “It is important for leaders to get into the trenches and listen, empathize, communicate and support those that are affected by the crisis. A lack of visibility and communication from a leader erodes confidence. High visibility and compassion demonstrate interest, concern and caring on the part of the leader during crisis. Confidence and trust are heightened when a leader is present with those that are affected.”
Scrappleface, last week:
Fears increased today among hundreds of thousands of refugees from the hurricane-ravaged gulf coast as they faced a Labor Day weekend with little hope of an eloquent speech from President George Bush.
As today’s New York Times editorial indicated, the president “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”.
Instead, the president devoted his first major post-Katrina address to laying out what the federal government is actually doing to help with disaster recovery.
One New Orleans man, currently living in the ‘Plaza End Zone’ section of the Superdome as he awaits news of his missing family members, said, “I can survive for some time with little water, no food and highly unsanitary conditions…but if I don’t hear some poetic words of comfort and stirring verbal imagery from the president pretty soon, I’m a goner.”
Flame away.
ppGaz
WTF, John?
Did you see the president’s Friday tv show?
It was an embarassment to this country and an insult to every citizen.
What you are doing here, I have no idea. I think you have actually gone over the edge.
Apparently you really don’t give a shit.
You have trashed your own place here, congratulations.
You really need to take some time off and get your shit together. Just friendly advice, trash it in the usual and expected manner.
Gamer
If giving stirring words of encouragement are the key role for the president during a crisis, then I think we can let him off the hook for those minimal things like delivering food, water, and security. Yeah, I might like a brief glow of optimism in my heart, but that tends to last longer if I had gotten something that stuck to my ribs earlier.
Vlad
So when the president stood on the rubble with the bullhorn in ’01, and said that the whole world would hear us, we should’ve turned away and mocked it as cynical bullshit?
I look forward to your forthcoming denunciations of baseball and apple pie, to say nothing of truth and justice.
gratefulcub
The gig is up. You all know there is a paroday of DougJ, well it has become obvious that there is a parody running the place now.
Steve
Nero wasn’t a trained firefighter anyway, so what more could he have done?
capelza
Well we know he wouldn’t be qualified to hand out fliers for FEMA, so that’s out…
chadwig
I like this post John, because you lay out a couple interesting paragraphs and let us jump on it. A very funny tongue in cheek lashing from the affected.
vnjagvet
Ppg should get a life and some understanding of history. Harry Truman was one of the world’s worst public speakers. I heard him live. If you don’t believe me, go to the tapes from old time radio. Truman makes Bush sound eloquent.
How many of the victims of this terrible natural disaster were watching television this past week?
When this all plays out, overwrought criticism of the responses of City, State and Federal Government in the face of the worst natural disaster in our nations history (the equivalent in property damage to several nuclear weapons)when much of the population ignored plain warnings shows (a)lack of judgment and (b)complete lack of severe crises management experience.
MMM
While I never heard President Truman give a speech in person, and by no means was I a friend of President Truman, I can say with confidence that President Bush is no Harry S. Truman…
vnjagvet
MMM:
I did not say he was. I did say he is a better public speaker. He is.
This post is about “showing compassion” in public pronouncements.
I think that historians will give Bush overall a low C in that department (rising to B+ immediately after 9/11), along with Johnson, Truman, Ford, and Nixon. Carter gets a D, Eisenhower a B+ and Roosevelt, Reagan and Clinton an A.
Trying to expand my comment to an overall comparison between Bush and Truman is unwarranted.
vnjagvet
Also, Mmm, Benson’s zingy comment skewering Quayle over his ill-advised attempt to compare himself with JFK, while temporarily satisfying, was ultimately unsuccessful, as history shows.
Kyle
Sure, Harry Truman came off quite flat when reading a text, but he did not come off as a callous twit — quite possibly because he wasn’t. Bush can make no such claim. Trent Lott’s house, Bush’s old-time overindulgence in the Big Easy, “You’re doing a heck of a job, Blackie.” Rather than deal with this, Mr. Cole prefers to work himself into a snit over nonissues.
Let’s remember that the false opposition is a sophist’s best friend. Because, really, we can assign blame and also fix problems. It’s doable. We can get the stricken their supplies and (if president) also give the country words to rally around.
All these years of conservatives juicing themselves over Reagan the Leader and Bush’s mighty bullhorn, and now we find out that expecting some inspiration from the commander-in-chief is a sign of partisan frivolity.
And, really, the dreadful thing about Bush’s remarks are that they have accompanied plainly inadequate actions (not enough supplies, delivered too slowly)and that they have indicated a certain lack of understanding about recent events, namely that something very bad and very serious has happened and that multitudes of innocent lives have been destroyed. If you have to be a Democratic partisan to resent this, our country will have many more Democratic partisans in the near future.
ppGaz
Heh. I also heard him live, and in person, right here in AZ.
He had a somewhat annoying manner of speech, and of course, he was blunt to a fault.
George W Bush could not wipe the shoes of Harry Truman, IMHO.
vnjagvet
Time will tell, PPGAZ.
Harry was not well thought of in the early fifties as you well know. History was kind to him long after the fact. He became one of my favorite presidents (and people) after reading McCullough’s masterful biography nearly 50 years after he left office.
An entrepreneur, (although not successful at that) and a reluctant politician, he stepped to the plate after a Giant died in office, finished WWII with distinction, oversaw the Marshall Plan, beat Dewey against all odds, made the right moves in Korea, and stood up to MacArthur when that was most difficult to do.
Not only that, he was a devoted son, husband and father while serving as President. His correspondence with his mother, wife and daughter are treasures of affection and poignant in their expression of the burdens of office. But beneath the affection and compaints are an indomitable spirit.
A great human being, IMHO. And whodathunkit in 1952 when he left office?
Neither you nor I will likely live to see history’s judgment of GWB in 2058. Ill be 118 then.
DougJ
Some flame thread we’ve got going here, huh?
ppGaz
119 here.
I do have a very good cardiologist, though.
So, you know, we can agree to meet back here then.
;-)
vnjagvet
Just had a defibrillator upgrade last Friday. Big cardiology history too. A bionic heart is not out of the question. Who knows maybe we will make it.
DougJ: Just putting a bit of baking soda on it.
The next thread, PPGAZ really gets going.
Too tough for me.