Reynolds asked Connie London: “Did you harbor any anger toward the President because of the slow federal response?” She rejected the premise: “No, none whatsoever, because I feel like our city and our state government should have been there before the federal government was called in.” She pointed out: “They had RTA buses, Greyhound buses, school buses, that was just sitting there going under water when they could have been evacuating people.”
(GP Ed. Note – Is Connie a blog-reader?)
Not one of the six people interviewed on camera had a bad word for Bush — despite Reynolds’ best efforts. Reynolds goaded: “Was there anything that you found hard to believe that he said, that you thought, well, that’s nice rhetoric, but you know, the proof is in the pudding.” Brenda Marshall answered, “No, I didn’t,” prompting Reynolds to marvel to anchor Ted Koppel: “Very little skepticism here.”
I guess we should listen to those who were in New Orleans, since I’m not sure any of us “Pundit Morning Quarterbacks” were there ourselves.
-Bruce (GayPatriot)
UPDATE (from GPW): Listening to NPR this morning, Blogger Matt Duffy heard only negative reactions from evacuees to the president’s speech. His conclusion:
What’s the difference between the ABC News coverage and NPR’s this morning? Simple. Because ABC was broadcasting live, they didn’t have the ability to present the news according to their frame. NPR, having 12 hours with which to work, managed to present the speech from the proper perspective: Bush sucks.
HT: Polipundit’s Athena.
I am so dying to eat crow if New Orleaneans pull themselves out of this on the wings of a new-found sense of personal responsibility and self-determination.
Never let it be said I’m not a romantic.
Yeah… and they’ll replace the corrupt Dem govts in city hall, the parish courthouse, and at the Capitol. Yeah, and the Easter Bunny is hopping her way to the BigEasy to help Santa clear out the chimneys for Dec 24th.
Does anyone think the corrupt Dem party machinery in NO, in the parish or the State will change? Not even a little… it’s as entrenched as TeddyK’s ass in M-ASS-achusetts.
But I loved that London had to push so frickin hard to get anything said adverse re: GWB –I loved the lady saying she thought the local govt and state came before the Feds in emergency help… the newest BigLie of the Dems and MSM is falling away (eg, GWB didn’t do enough, fast enuff, tens of thousands died because of it).
Political change in NO: Don’t write it off in advance. Wait and see. Better yet, if you are a Republican activist in the South, try to make it happen!
The way those people in the video talked about Bush (positive) and Nagin (negative), from the heart – It may well be that LA is about to shift politically.
Louisiana is, by and large, like Illinois……a state which is red in every respect except for an urban area or two rife with voter corruption and poverty that Democrats manipulate to get into power.
The supreme irony to me is that Nagin, Blanco, and Landrieu likely had no trouble at all finding buses and getting people to central points in New Orleans……when it was Election Day.
Maybe the lesson here was to tell the Democratic Party of Louisiana, not that a hurricane was coming, but that a special election was being held in Baton Rouge…..they probably could have gotten every single poor, black, and homeless person out of the city and the danger zone in a matter of hours.
What? No libs responding to this? I expected to find comments like Rove paid those ladies to say that.
#6 – I know.
Looks like we need to supply our own. How about stock liberal response 17a? – “Those black, poor interviewees are too stupid or brainwashed to know where their own economic interest lies.”
Then we could have fun trying to explain Ockham’s Razor to the liberals, or how it is far more likely that the people would know their own business, or what they just lived through, than what the armchair liberals would know. Sigh….
You’ll find that in all areas, except the urban areas the city is staunchly Republican, and pro-Bush. There are many areas of New Orleans. East(blue collar), Uptown(extremely wealthy/extremely poor), Lakeview(white collar), MidCity(ethnically diverse), Quarter(severely liberal artsy wealthy), CBD(white collar, and corporate transplants), and Inner City(ninth ward and poor). Then there are the suburbs(predominantly white middle class). Almost everyone who left lived in Uptown, Lakeview, MidCity, and the Suburbs.
The people who are still there for the most part are the liberals in the city who lived near the quarter, uptown, and cbd. Their tune is totally different.
Most Locals homes are unaffected in the burbs, and are evacuated. The people who have lost everything have no love for Bush. We have mixed feelings on Nagin. It’s not that they’re DEMs it’s that they are Southern Louisiana politicians. I’m not saying that people who support Bush are ignorant, let’s just say my wealthy friends and family are so far removed from the problem they haven’t got a clue, and don’t care.
The fact is Nagin didn’t even have the authority to call for a Mandatory Evacuation, he did it anyway. The reason behind not calling a mandatory is that you become responsible for those who can’t get out. I’ve been trying to find out who has the authority, but I have a feeling it may be no one.
The Levee Board is the most corrupt group in the city, they care more about riverboat casinos, and the mardi gras fountain, than the damn levees. Our Governors have tried to control the group, but without much luck. It’s all Old Money Dirty South grandfather clause nepotism politics. It’s not what you know but who you know.
We don’t even have a standard American law code, we still run Napoleonic code. Change is NOT easy to come by down here. It’s not just the people, it’s the system. I hope that puts things in perspective.
Judging from the NO evacuees responses. Mayor Nagin and Gov. Blanco will be getting their pink slips the next election cycle. Mary Landreu might not be far behind.
Seems to me that with all the black folks saying they’re not going to return to New Orleans, the Dems just lost at least 6 or 7 formerly reliable precincts. And the upstaters might even be grateful that their state’s welfare rolls just got a little shorter. Mother Nature must be a Republican!
By the way, since Sen. Mary Landrieu just restated her willingness to ‘punch’ President Bush, do we no longer have to refer to her as a ‘lady’? Don’t think that kind of talk’s going to play very well with anyone below the Mason-Dixon line, except maybe the angry dykes.