When Ronald Reagan went to the memorial service for the crew that died in the 1983 Challenger explosion, it is said that his presence and words gave extra comfort to the family and friends of the vanquished astronauts.
The same was said of Bill Clinton, who ventured to a large auditorium in Oklahoma City in 1995 to commiserate with survivors of the Murrah Federal Building bombing.
Likewise, when George W. Bush showed up at Ground Zero, stood in the wreckage of the World Trade Center and grabbed that bullhorn, the prospects of recovery and revenge seemed palpable.
What a powerful thing it is, the bully pulpit -- that psychological theater that allows a president to set things in motion by mere say-so. But like all power tools, it also can be abused, as the current occupant of the Oval Office is proving once more.
This week opens with GWB winging his way to Mississippi and Louisiana on the occasion of Hurricane Katrina’s one-year anniversary. It will be Bush’s 13th visit to the ravaged region. His first, you’ll recall, came 12 days after tens of thousands lost their homes, their businesses or their lives. That’s nearly two weeks of utter misery and despair, of chaos, of tragedy suffered by his fellow Americans. Nearly two weeks of wondering when in the world “compassionate conservatism” might kick in. Nearly two weeks after New Orleans, as we knew it, was no more.
Rightfully, Bush’s esteem took a considerable hit in the wake of the government’s shameful performance in the Katrina disaster. He had claimed to be a get-it-done guy, but failed his own billing and did so “big time,” as the ever-careless Dick Cheney would say.
(Cheney showed up much later and seemed so uneasy among the poor and needy that it seemed he might, at any moment, go up in a puff of smoke.)
If he dares to go into the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans, the president will enter a time warp. The place looks essentially no different from a year ago. The streets are still strewn with debris, including upturned houses and overturned cars. Homes are still marred by the rescuer’s X’s and crosses and tic-tac-toe markings to denote the contents. And the area is pocked by fenced lots, with rows and rows of cramped trailers with their propane hitches, where children kick the gravel around for want of a playground.
Another sermon from the bully pulpit, another rallying cry, they don’t need. If Bush thinks words alone will do any good, he is sadly mistaken. Considering his tardiness, they barely made a difference on his first visit. No one wants to hear “you can do it” a 13th time.
This, of course, is the pitfall of the presidential pulpit. It tempts the man to think that all he has to do is say the right thing. The attendant applause and cheers make him believe he’s scored. And he goes home, satisfied that he’s taken care of business.
Blame for the debacle of New Orleans may not be Bush’s alone. But he is in the unique position of being able to make things happen -- bureaucracies, politics and even legal constraints be damned. After all, if he can wage a war and flout domestic privacy rights despite public outrage and congressional recoil, what’s to stop him from taking over the reconstruction and getting the job done?
This, after all, is the same man who once proposed colonizing Mars. And he can’t even repair New Orleans?
