Bush Takes Responsibility for Katrina While His Poll Numbers Slide

I found two interesting stories that I think should go together. The first story is from the New York Times

WASHINGTON, Sept. 13 - President Bush said on Tuesday that he bore responsibility for any failures of the federal government in its response to Hurricane Katrina and suggested that he was unsure whether the country was adequately prepared for another catastrophic storm or terrorist attack.

"Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capability at all levels of government, and to the extent that the federal government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility," Mr. Bush said in an appearance in the East Room with President Jalal Talabani of Iraq. "I want to know what went right and what went wrong."

Throughout his nearly five years in office, Mr. Bush has resisted publicly acknowledging mistakes or shortcomings, and his willingness in this case to edge up to a buck-stops-here statement, however conditional, was evidence of how shaken his presidency has been by the political fallout from the government's handling of the storm.

It also set the stage for a White House effort to pivot from dealing with urgent rescue and relief efforts to setting out a vision of how the federal government could help rebuild devastated communities and re-establish Mr. Bush's image as a leader.

The White House said Mr. Bush would address the nation from Louisiana on Thursday night, during the president's fourth trip to the region since the hurricane and his first major speech on the disaster.

This is certainly incredible. The president actually admitted that he will take responsibility for the feds lack of rescue in Katrina's wake. This is the first time he had admitted responsibility for his mistakes--the president never admitted any mistakes on the war in Iraq, WMDs, or just about every other crisis that has occurred in this administration. Of course, while the president will admit responsibility, his minions have been spinning that the state and local governments never told the feds that they needed help--shifting a chunk of the blame for Katrina down to the state and local governments.

But the thing here is that Bush never admits responsibility for mistakes on his part. And now he is just starting. So there is something else that is far more damaging for the Bush White House that would cause the spin doctors to suddenly shift their political playbook in this new direction. And there is. According to PollingReport.com, the latest ABC News / Washington Post poll (Sept 8-11), has President Bush's job approval ratings sinking down to 42% with 57% or respondents disapproving of Bush's performance. The CNN / USA Today / Gallup Poll has Bush's job approval ratings at 46% with a 51% of respondents disapproving. The Pew Research Center has a poll of Bush's job approval ratings at 40% approved, and 52% disapproved. Bush's presidency is sinking to where he's losing support of the moderates and independents. This is especially bad news, for if these poll results continue into the 2006 midterm elections, an angry American public may just take their wrath out against Bush and the Republicans in the voting booth. The spinmeisters of Karl Rove and company know this. And they know they will need to keep control of Congress if they want to continue pushing the Republican agenda through, and to avoid any investigations into past White House transgressions by a Democratically-controlled Congress.

So what we are witnessing here is not a change of heart, or an admission of guilt by the White House, but rather another callous political maneuver designed to keep a White House afloat in spite of its own governing incompetence. The president's address on Thursday night will probably be the same political spin--a combination of the news conference where Bush admitted responsibility, and including Bush demanding answers of what really happened in Katrina by appointing a bipartisan-blue-ribboned investigation into the matter (however, the investigation will not be headed by an independent commission or a special prosecutor), with recounting stories of American heroism in the face of the storm and the devastation that followed, while also conveniently linking Katrina's heroism with the heroism of Sept. 11th.

It will be the same ole...Same ole.