danefan wrote: The substance is in reality not hack political polls.
Well then, we agree. The substance I posited was not in the referenced poll, rather in the six concrete actions I listed. The poll merely verified that voters recognize the differences between Bush and Obama in handling crisis. By the way, the hack poll in question was conducted by a Democrat polling firm.
danefan wrote: Are [you] actually defending the Bush Administration's actions related to Katrina? If there is anything partisan in this thread its that. .
Defending all of Bush's actions would be partisan. I do not defend all of Bush's actions. I defend some of Bush's actions, but picking out his correct actions is not a partisan exercise, just as picking out Obama's correct actions would not be partisan. I am sure even you could tell the difference if you tried. The partisanship is in ignoring the substantive differences between Republican and Democrat responses to the Katrina and BP disasters.
I have already pointed out some of the concrete steps taken by Republican governors. Some of the steps taken by the Bush administration were indeed appropriate and substantial, for example:
-27 August: Bush declared a state of emergency, two days before the hurricane made landfall.
-28 August: Bush spoke with Governor Blanco to encourage her to order a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans. (Per page 235 of Special Report of the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs)
-28 August: New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin was urged to evacuate (per the standard hurrevac plan which calls for evacuation 48 hours prior to landfall).
-28 August: United States Northern Command established Joint Task Force (JTF) Katrina
-30 August: 58,000 National Guard personnel were activated to deal with the storm's aftermath, with troops coming from all 50 states. The Department of Defense also activated volunteer members of the Civil Air Patrol.
In stark contrast,
-Democrat Nagin delayed emergency evacuation until 19 hours before landfall, which led to hundreds of deaths
-Democrat Governor Blanco rebuffed President Bush's overture in favor of her own state National Guard, a third of which was deployed overseas
danefan wrote: Keep in mind that I'm not defending the Obama Administration in anything they do, especially not for their actions surrounding the Gulf oil spill. I'm saying there is absolute zero evidence to support the notion that a Republican administration would handle the situation satisfactorily. And that is considering the points you've already cited above.
Nobody including me made the case that anyone could handle the situation perfectly. Satisfactory might be debatable. Certainly Bush took some of the correct steps. My unrefuted assertion is that Republicans do a better job, and in some cases have done a satisfactory job at the state level. The evidence appears to show that it is impossible for anyone to do a perfect job. Perfection should not be the standard. If satisfactory is to be the standard, perhaps we should define "satisfactory."
danefan wrote: And just so its clear, I don't give a crap if you think I'm witty. And now I'll let you have the last word on the subject. My opinion is pretty clear.
Your opinion is clear, danefan, but your facts and analysis are not. Just so it's clear, I don't give a crap if you are witty, either. What I said was that your arguments are witless, not that YOU are witless. You should not allow yourself the indiscipline of being disingenuous and insubstantial.
You are of course entitled to your opinion, but is opinion without honest engagement, analysis or facts the best you wish to do? Some posters are complete partisan cheerleading blowhards. Nothing wrong with cheerleaders, but you pretend to be something more. On this thread, however, your expressed opinions are not worthy of kalm's excellent question, your own purported professional and educational achievements or your faux-moderate political stance.