For Bush, a different kind of storm

The first real sign may have come Tuesday afternoon, when CNN's Jack Cafferty, in the middle of a somber exegesis on the devastation in New Orleans, [link|http://www.crooksandliars.com/2005/08/30.html#a4703| interrupted himself] to ask: "Where's President Bush? Is he still on vacation?" Wolf Blitzer said the president was preparing to head back to Washington early. "Oh, that would be a good idea," Cafferty said, his voice dripping with a condescending sort of sarcasm. "Based on his approval rating, based on the latest polls, my guess is getting back to work might not be a terrible idea."

It may have taken a hurricane to do it, but the press seems to have been blown into some kind of tipping point with George W. Bush. Bloggers have been mocking Bush all week for his slow, "Pet Goat"-like response to Hurricane Katrina -- it's hard to open a Web browser without seeing a picture of Bush smiling over a [link|http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/8/31/163230/120|birthday cake] or pretending to [link|http://americablog.blogspot.com/2005/08/how-out-of-touch-is-george-bush-on.html|play a guitar] while residents of New Orleans were fighting for their lives -- and now the mainstream media is getting in on the act.

On Wednesday, the [link|http://www.theunionleader.com/articles_showa.html?article=59785| New Hampshire Union Leader], which endorsed Bush in his run for reelection based largely on his response to 9/11, laid into the president hard for responding so slowly to Katrina. "A better leader would have flown straight to the disaster zone and announced the immediate mobilization of every available resource to rescue the stranded, find and bury the dead, and keep the survivors fed, clothed, sheltered and free of disease," the paper said. "The cool, confident, intuitive leadership Bush exhibited in his first term, particularly in the months immediately following Sept. 11, 2001, has vanished. In its place is a diffident detachment unsuitable for the leader of a nation facing war, natural disaster and economic uncertainty."

As Bush began to make his way back to Washington, Newsweek's [link|http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9143849/| Howard Fineman] laid out the dismal political landscape that would be waiting for him on arrival. "His poll numbers already at near-record low levels, he will have to oversee the rescue of the Gulf in the midst of a changing climate in Washington," Fineman said. "The public's sense of where America is headed -- the 'right direction/wrong track' numbers -- are dismal. Gas prices are high and unsettling. Congressional Democrats, reluctant since 9/11 to take on a 'war president,' finally have decided to do so. And Republicans, knowing that they'll be facing the voters a year from now, are beginning to seek ways to distance themselves from him."

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