The Stimulus Bill & New Orleans
As Barack tours the nation conducting town hall meetings, it begs the question Howard Fineman asks, why isn’t New Orleans isn’t exhibit A in his argument for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan:
The vast grid of streets here in New Orleans, laid out long ago on grassy bottomland near a waterway, remains eerily devoid of houses. Modest bungalows were ripped from their moorings by the foul, murderous floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina three and a half years ago. Eventually, the storm-tossed homes were torn down and carted away. Today, cinderblock foundations dot brush-covered lots like archeological remains. Live oaks line sidewalks upon which no one walks to school, or rides a bike, or runs to the corner store.
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Still, if President Obama wants a vivid place in which to dramatize American economic plight as he sells his recovery package, he should come here, to this still-struggling city, and to the Lower Ninth. The president is on the road, visiting hard-hit towns in traditionally Red States. It’s a dramatic way to sell his plan—and to remind congressional Republicans that they oppose him at their peril. Well, Louisiana is such a Red state, where Obama had hoped to win last year.
And even though New Orleans is a special case, it is a case that must not be forgotten. Indeed, in the campaign, Obama promised he’d remember. Let’s see how well he upholds that vow. And Obama should not forget that George Bush’s glaring failure of leadership in the aftermath of Katrina is a chief reason why Obama, who sought to embody calm competence and attention to detail, is president.
