David McRaney  |  Journalist

Give the president a break

With all this talk about President Bush and his administration botching the rescue and relief efforts after Hurricane Katrina, I think there is one important fact that people seem to be missing.

The man looks great on camera.

I mean, sure, he may have stayed on his five- week vacation, that when added to all the time he has taken off totals up to nearly an entire year spent out of the Oval Office, for a full three days after Katrina completely demolished a major sea-port and city along with the lives of thousands of people along the Gulf Coast. But once he got on his airplane, after stopping in Arizona to speak at a town hall meeting on Medicare (where he looked fabulous mind you) the day of the storm's landfall, and then going to San Diego the next day to speak at a ceremony marking the end of World War II where he played a guitar given to him by country singer Mark Wills (where incidentally he posed for another amazing photograph), he was on the spot bright and early Wednesday when he appeared on Good Morning America. He again looked great.

I mean, who do these people think they are? Just because we were able to respond within hours to the last few hurricanes that pounded Florida, they say George Bush was slow to respond to Katrina for all sorts of ridiculous reasons ranging from racism to simple ineptitude. I mean, come on people. His brother is governor of Florida, and they take wonderful pictures together. Is it too much to ask that you get online and research this stuff?

Sure, reporters were able to get news crews into New Orleans the next day and speak first hand to refugees in the Superdome for days while government helicopters circled overhead. That does not mean those same helicopters could have been loaded with palettes of MREs and bottled water which could have been easily kicked out an open hatch onto the starving people. Don't you think a great war president like George W. Bush would have thought of that?

Seriously, I do not know what this country is coming to. After all, didn't everyone see how great the president looked holding babies amidst the carnage just a week or so after the disaster? If you didn't, let me tell you, he looked unbelievable.

Remember when he put his hand around that fireman after Sept. 11, 2001? Well, take that beat your heart skipped and multiply it by about eight heart attacks and you get the idea. When the history books are written, that is one photo that every editor will be clamoring for.

When he slapped FEMA director Michael Brown on the back and called him Brownie, fantastic photo. When he appeared in front of the country behind his podium after firing that same guy, he looked solemn and sincere. Every newspaper in the country had a headline that said "Bush takes responsibility for response" right next to a stone cold, yet disarmingly heartfelt scowl.

I mean, we should all be thankful that we have these photographs to remind us of what a great guy he is. When Nero played the fiddle as Rome burned to the ground, there was no one around to take the kind of photographs that we will have forever of George W. Bush smiling with that guitar despite the thousands of old people and children inhaling flood waters and loved one's body fluids in his own country.

That is leadership, folks. The man doesn't let anything get him down.

Originally published in The Student Printz on September 22, 2005