I thank Andrew for his comments taking issue with my assertion that Bush squandered his credibility in the eyes of many Americans after Hurricane Katrina. Andrew also has family in New Orleans. Fortunately, they are safe, having left the city before the hurricane hit. No doubt they will have much to say about what is happening down there. My thoughts and prayers are with them and with all those suffering at this terrible time.

The news now is that help is on the way to New Orleans and Bush has signed a $10.5 billion aid package to the region. He has tacitly admitted that his administration was slow to respond. He needs to mop up the PR debacle but I am not sure he can. Andrew and I disagree on our prognostications about '06. Anything can happen but to me the overwhelming logic is a Democrat victory. While I too share Andrew's political revulsion with the anti-war left, I am not so certain this time that Bush can convince people of his credibility over the next three years. I think he is a lame duck prez.

Bush has a huge hill to climb and just as one-quarter of his second term is through. The economic fallout from Katrina could spell even more trouble for Bush. The political opposition have been handed a bonanza. I'm not saying that's necessarily fair but, in love and war . . . .

Another concern is one I had raised before about Bush's lackluster PR performance. Never before now did he appear more out of touch with people, which is too bad since it doesn't have to be this way. To someone who appreciated his bonding with Americans right after 9/11, this is what he's got going for rhetoric in a time of peril:

"I know that those of you who have been hit hard by Katrina are suffering," the president declared. "Many are angry and desperate for help. The tasks before us are enormous, but so is the heart of America. In America, we do not abandon our fellow citizens in our hour of need. And the federal government will do its part."

You can just hear the fatigue in those words. Unlike Clinton who, to his last day in office, bustled with the tireless power and energy of the presidency, Bush no longer seems to want to be president. His words are an odd construction of out-of-touch touchy-feely. Who would believe America's fellow citizens would abandon their own in an hour of need? What right-minded people would? Surely not Americans. Then the back stab with ". . . the federal government will do its part." But it hasn't and, in his heart, Bush doesn't want it to or at least that is how he is coming across.

Like Andrew I support federalism. Federalism is a great thing. What I said in my earlier post is that - if the government has any job at all - it's to be able to handle catastrophes whether natural and/or manmade, especially when they overwhelm state and local means to face them. The government certainly doesn't owe people jobs as liberals would have it. But surely after 9/11 the government would be extra sensitive about New Orleans' unique vulnerabilities. A few strategically placed explosives by al Queda along the levees could have had the entire city of New Orleans under water. My point is not to blame Bush for Katrina but a steady show of incompetence, starting with post-invasion Iraq and leading up to the debacle in one of America's most strategically important cities.

It is true we should not pay taxes for people to rebuild their $500,000 home as a hurricane target for next season, but New Orleans can no more help being where it is than the Netherlands, much of which is also below sea level. We should have had a system in place to respond immediately to an emergency whose scale and nature were long ago known beforehand for such a system, especially after 9/11, to be in place. Help coming 4 or 5 days later is not a good sign of our ability to respond to emergencies during a state of war. I'm not asking for infallibility but basic accountability. I have certainly given Bush the benefit of the doubt for four years.

As for the degenerates who are looting and firing guns, here is where the State should come in, arguing against a too federalist bias. Law and order, please. As in Iraq.

No one wanted more for Bush to succeed than I but I honestly don't see his presidency living up to the task he set before us. Katrina was a huge windfall for the left. Yes, that is cynical and cruel, especially in a time like this, but it's true. Even my mom hears rumblings, in her Republican dominated community, about the administration's failure in New Orleans. What will be the ultimate fall-out of all this? I really don't know but one thing is certain: the political landscape has changed for Bush. And that landscape is under water.