After orchestrating a masterful re-election campaign (like them or not, you have to give them credit for the way they steamrolled John Kerry and the Democrats in last year's election), the Bush Administration seems spending a lot of time playing catch-up with current events rather than being ahead of the curve.
The sluggish response to the tsunami devastation speaks of a certain amount of arrogance and obliviousness. After being slapped out of their stupor by negative press and world opinion, they have...better late than never...rallied to the cause in a relatively big way.
Outgoing Secretary of State Colin Powell (arguably the most popular member of the President's Cabinet...especially overseas) has been shepherding the Administration's response to crisis from the beginning and so leading a delegation (including Florida Governor and Presidential brother Jeb Bush, who usually shies away from the national and international spotlight...mayhap the seeds for a 3rd Bush Administration are being sowed?) to visit the impacted countries is a logical job for him.
The President has also named the two most recent Presidents before him...his Dad and Bill Clinton...to lead a national fund-raising effort for victims of the tsunami. It's a nice thought, I guess...though funds from caring Americans seem to be flowing just fine without the help of the former Presidents.
The military has been mobilized and the amount of government aid pledged has been increased ten-fold from the original offering. It's all good. It's all better late than never...but one wishes that the Administration hadn't fumbled the ball until the point where it made their admirable efforts seem like a reaction to bad press rather than a heartfelt outpouring of solidarity with people on the other side of the world overwhelmed by forces beyond their control.
3 comments:
Why is the very "popular" Colin Powell LEAVING Government ? Is it because he TWATTED the United Nations by telling lies about WMD by any chance ? Or is that if he doesn't go now, he'll be forever associated with the current administration and have no chance of being voted for in 2008 and saving Republicanism's ass ?
I'm not an apologist for Powell...a lot of what he has done (and not done) in the past 4 years has been something of a disappointment...but the line on WMD policy was that of the whole administration not his alone. Whatever he did or didn't believe, he went to the UN with policy that came from the top (and he would...and should...have be fired if he hadn't delivered just that.)
And I am not optimistic enough to believe that he could be elected President in '08 no matter what he does now. The country probably isn't yet ready to elect a black President...not even Colin Powell.
believe me mate, Powell is not as popular overseas as you think.
He is as tainted as the lot of them.
It was interesting how the Bush Administration unleashed the spin doctors when the UN official said they were stingy. Fox news "educated" us on the charity of the american public, etc., etc.
All well and good but $35m was never enough, and now, having understood that they have delivered..all credit to them.
The lasting impression remains an admin whose first policy is to spin and not listen to the truth.
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