Will Katrina Be Bush’s Second Nine-Eleven?

Posted at 9:30 am on Thursday, September 1, 2005, in Uncategorized, and tagged bush, iraq.

The Bush administration has been plagued with sagging poll numbers throughout their time in office. During the first (ugh) five years, the Bushies have had three peaks in their approval numbers: after the horrific events of nine-eleven, following the start of the Iraq war, and with news of the capture of ousted Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. The largest peak Bush received was following the terrorist attacks (where Bush went from roughly fifty percent approval to ninety percent); the two other events led to smaller peaks, the peaks becoming less steep over time. The Bush administration also felt one noteable plateau where the approval ratings didn’t rise, but they certainly stopped declining, albeit temporarily. The plateau took place after Bush and Cheney were reelected last November.

The big question: how big will the poll bounce be following the devastation brought by Hurricane Katrina? Big, is what is likely. A nation tends to rally around leaders during times of great distress, even with growing evidence of governmental malfeasance (case in point: Bush’s reelection). The editorial pages across the country have been tearing a new one with the administration’s preparation (or lack thereof) and response to the events.

Editorials have been pleading for Bush to call for the nation to sacrifice (something this administration has never done, despite terrorist attacks, two wars, and continued terrorist threats), and specifically, calling for Bush to roll back his tax cuts for the wealthy. These editorials will probably have no effect on Bush’s poll numbers, however, since the majority of Americans (ahem, red states, ahem) will not read them. (Okay, that may have been a bit rough; some fans of the city of Atlanta, I guess.) All I am saying is the last thing the folks who used to reside in New Orleans are thinking, “Where the hell is my Times-Picayune?”

Image: Washington Post

Recently archived: Bush’s Downward Trend That Is His Presidency.

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