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Bush never recovered from response to Katrina, former aides say
Surveys bolster the officials' views, finding that the president's
ratings went into a free-fall after the New Orleans disaster, with
most Americans summing him up as 'incompetent.'

By James Oliphant

December 31, 2008

Reporting from Washington -- Three years ago, Hurricane Katrina and
its chaotic aftermath produced a collage of indelible images. Among
them was a photo of President Bush, viewing the devastation from the
comfort of Air Force One as he jetted to Washington.

Now, some of Bush's closest advisors say his administration's response
to the disaster marked a turning point in what has become the most
unpopular presidency in modern history. From then on, they say in a
magazine article published this week, his tenure entered a downward
spiral from which he could never recover.

"Katrina to me was the tipping point," said Matthew Dowd, the
president's pollster and chief strategist in his 2004 reelection.

"Politically, it was the final nail in the coffin," added Dan
Bartlett, former White House counselor and longtime aide to Bush.

Their comments are part of an oral history of the Bush administration
included in the February issue of Vanity Fair.

Some polling supports their conclusion. After Katrina, Bush never
again would see even the lukewarm approval ratings that he enjoyed in
the summer of 2005. Even then, less than a year after he had secured
reelection, his support nationally was eroding largely because of the
extended conflict in Iraq. After early 2005, his approval ratings
dropped below 50%, never to reclaim a majority of the public's
support.

After Katrina struck in late August, plunging New Orleans and the
surrounding Gulf Coast underwater, Bush's numbers went into
"free-fall," according to John Zogby, president of the polling firm
Zogby International. "The decline was accelerated," he said.

With the government's halting and confused response to the calamity,
the "president broke his bond with the public," Dowd told Vanity Fair.
"Once that bond was broken, he no longer had the capacity to talk to
the American public. State of the Union addresses? It didn't matter.
Legislative initiatives? It didn't matter. Travel? It didn't matter."

For many, Bush's actions epitomized the government's slow response.
The storm barreled through Louisiana on the morning of Aug. 29, 2005.
By that afternoon, several levees had failed and much of New Orleans
and the surrounding parishes were flooded.

Bush had been vacationing at his Texas ranch. On the Monday the storm
hit, he traveled to Arizona and California to champion Medicare
legislation.

The next day, as Americans heard reports of looting in New Orleans and
of thousands trapped in the city's Superdome and convention center,
Bush spoke at San Diego's North Island Naval Air Station and was
photographed playing guitar with a country music performer. On
Wednesday, he cut his trip short and decided to return to Washington
to monitor the crisis.

Along the way, Air Force One dipped low over the devastated city. Bush
was captured by a White House photographer, peering out the window.
The shot was meant to show the president was engaged, but it
ultimately sent the opposite message.

"It was the wrong visual," Zogby said. "It was emblematic of a failing
presidency."

That Friday, as televised images of a city under siege bombarded
viewers worldwide, the president returned to the region and issued his
now infamous validation of the efforts of Michael D. Brown,
then-director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

"Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job," Bush said.

Brown resigned 10 days later.

Brown provided his own perspective to Vanity Fair, blaming himself for
failing to advise the president of the severity of the crisis and for
sticking to "talking points" when addressing the public. He also
slammed Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff for inserting "a
massive bureaucracy" into the government response.

Michael Dimock, associate director of the Pew Research Center, says
the images from Katrina sharpened feelings that many Americans already
held toward the Iraq war, which was dragging into its third year.

"Katrina was the most vivid in the public mind," Dimock said. "It
suggested a lack of caring, a lack of being in touch. It reinforced
what was in people's thoughts about what was going on in Iraq at the
time."

In the months after the 9/11 attacks, Dimock said, when his polling
asked for a single word to describe Bush's presidency, the most
frequent responses were "leadership" and "strength." After Katrina, he
said, "the top word was 'incompetent.' "

Bush leaves the White House in January with some of the lowest marks
of any recent president. According to a Pew survey released this
month, just 11% of Americans rate Bush as an "above-average
president," compared with 59% for Ronald Reagan and 44% for Bill
Clinton as they left office.

And 58% of those surveyed scored Bush as "below average."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-katrina31-2008dec31,0,6485897.story