President shows little compassion
A photo in The New York Times shows Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi greeting a survivor of Hurricane Katrina. He’s gesturing to President and Mrs. Bush, trying to get their attention. But the first couple walks on, appearing not to hear the governor or reassure the survivor.
Of course, many pictures from that day showed the president in a more sympathetic light, but the one in the Times symbolizes Bush’s problem as he struggles to lead the country’s recovery effort. He seems to have misplaced his finely tuned political instincts. He’s not hearing the victims, or even allies like Gov. Barbour. Instead of embracing their plight, he keeps walking.
What makes matters worse for the president is that he has, in the past, set such high standards for himself. In the days after 9/11, when he seized a bullhorn and stood atop that fire truck at Ground Zero, he brilliantly captured the nation’s resolve and resiliency. Measured against that moment, his post-Katrina performance has been a stunning failure.
This is not just about cosmetics or public-relations strategies: How a president reacts to a crisis is a critical part of his job. He is more than the commander in chief, he is also the chaplain in chief. He’s a comforter, a consoler, a cheerleader, the only one who can soothe the nation’s grief and lift its spirits.
Think of Lincoln at Gettysburg, eulogizing the Union dead, or of Franklin Roosevelt telling the nation it had nothing to fear “but fear itself.”
But with modern communications — 24-hour cable channels, an always-on Internet, portable cell phones — the chaplain in chief is even more visible, and more essential, than ever. Michael Deaver, the communications genius who helped shape Ronald Reagan’s presidency, recently told Elizabeth Bumiller of The New York Times: “It’s something that now, with instant communications, we really want from a president. It’s something that the national psyche needs when there’s a disaster, a threat, a trauma. We want somebody there to tell us, ‘We will survive, we will get through it.'”
Yes, Katrina’s timing was bad, catching the president and his aides on vacation. And yes, the storm was unusually brutal. But as Americans watched the disaster unfold second by second on their computers and TV screens, the ineptness of Bush’s response was hugely magnified. And so were the complaints of his critics.
Any president has an enormous ability to shape the public perception of events. During last year’s campaign, Bush traveled the country exuding charm and confidence, an engaging impression reinforced by the fact that all the crowds he encountered were handpicked and wildly supportive.
Journalists, long frustrated by the White House spin machine, have seized on this loss of control and become more questioning and confrontational. As a result, the White House has a harder time playing down or covering up its mistakes.
One example: the president’s statement that no one could have predicted the breakdown in the New Orleans levee system was immediately contradicted by aggressive reporters unearthing numerous warnings on precisely this issue. That led Tim Russert, host of “Meet the Press,” to ask Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff “how could the president be so wrong, so misinformed?”
Four years ago, George W. Bush found his voice as chaplain in chief in the smoldering ruins of the World Trade Center. Today, he is losing that voice in the swamped streets of New Orleans.
Steve and Cokie Roberts can be contacted by e-mail at [email protected].