Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Did Obama Open The First Envelope Too Early?

Apparently the party is over and Obama has lost no time in attacking Bush in his new Whitehouse website, where you can read:
Katrina

President Obama will keep the broken promises made by President Bush to rebuild New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. He and Vice President Biden will take steps to ensure that the federal government will never again allow such catastrophic failures in emergency planning and response to occur.

President Obama swiftly responded to Hurricane Katrina. Citing the Bush Administration's "unconscionable ineptitude" in responding to Hurricane Katrina, then-Senator Obama introduced legislation requiring disaster planners to take into account the specific needs of low-income hurricane victims. Obama visited thousands of Hurricane survivors in the Houston Convention Center and later took three more trips to the region. He worked with members of the Congressional Black Caucus to introduce legislation to address the immediate income, employment, business, and housing needs of Gulf Coast communities.

President Barack Obama will partner with the people of the Gulf Coast to rebuild now, stronger than ever.
This actually ties in with the story about how Bush left a note for Obama in The Whitehouse. In connection to that story, Jameel at the Muqata writes  about a joke--a joke that I thought relates to Obama's Bush-bashing:
A fellow had just been hired as the new CEO of a large high tech corporation. The CEO who was stepping down met with him privately and presented him with three numbered envelopes. "Open these if you run up against a problem you don't think you can solve," he said.

Well, things went along pretty smoothly, but six months later, sales took a downturn and he was really catching a lot of heat. About at his wits's end, he remembered the envelopes. He went to his drawer and took out the first envelope. The message read, "Blame your predecessor."

The new CEO called a press conference and tactfully laid the blame at the feet of the previous CEO. Satisfied with his comments, the press -- and Wall Street -- responded positively, sales began to pick up and the problem was soon behind him.

About a year later, the company was again experiencing a slight dip in sales, combined with serious product problems. Having learned from his previous experience, the CEO quickly opened the second envelope. The message read, "Reorganize." This he did, and the company quickly rebounded.

After several consecutive profitable quarters, the company once again fell on difficult times. The CEO went to his office, closed the door and opened the third envelope.

The message said, "Prepare three envelopes."
If the best that Obama can do on his very first day is to blame Bush for Katrina--a disaster that we now know the media was guilty of distorting and blowing way out of proportion--then Obama's administration is already in trouble.

Whatever else you may say about President Bush, he was generally a class act who did not sink to pot shots and petty remarks about his critics and was not afraid of poking fun at himself.

It remains to be seen how Obama will compare--but in this regard Obama has not gotten off to good start.

It may already be time to reorganize his priorities.

[Hat tip: Allahpundit]

Technorati Tag: .

No comments: