Warning: this next post will be juxtaposing political considerations with the Hurrican Katrina disaster. If this seems crass to you, please do not read this post.
Gas is now over $3 a gallon. $3.09 to $3.14 in Augusta, from the places I've seen. Up 50-60 cents a gallon in a matter of days.
I think that this is going to hurt Bush in the polls. Whether or notthe invasion of Iraq is responsible in part for our high oil prices, everyone is going to associate the invasion with the high prices. Plus, to the extent that the problems in New
Orleans were due to poor planning (including money being diverted from levee repair to the war in Iraq), people will blame Bush for the shutdown of or decrease of activity in Gulf refineries, whether or not better levees would have prevented that particuloar occurrence.
I think that the devastation in New Orleans will also hurt Bush, not least because he is the head of state and the government appears to have royally screwed up the relief process. The fact that he couldn't string two sentences together when addressing the nation didn't help either. And it isn't clear that he is yet willing to admit how dismally the relief efforts or going, or at least to accept any blame rather than arguing "well, we couldn't predict the future; it's not actually our fault that relief was not properly carried out.
From a political standpoint, the ideal for Bush would be to immediately oversee a well-funded aid program, and to get order restored quickly. His father attempted to get votes by capitalizing on Hurricane Andrew. Realistically, though, it may be too late for Bush to use this to his advantage.
That is all.
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