McCain’s New Orleans Plan: Rebuild, Tear It Down, Whatever
Senator John McCain by Wigwam Jones.
McCain Wants to talk footprint again. From a blog entry of Andante Higgins McCain to Tour Katrina-Damaged New Orleans Neighborhood.
He also told reporters he was not sure if he would rebuild the lower 9th ward as president.
“That is why we need to go back is to have a conversation about what to do -rebuild it, tear it down, you know, whatever it is,†he said.
You mean we’ve not had enough conversations already? The McCain administration is going to hit the ground talking? At least we now know what to expect. More canned civic engagement while the city moulders.
Basically, he doesn’t know what to do. The Lower 9th Ward will be rebuilt, because it is some of the highest, driest land in the city. The levee walls failed in such a way as to flood the Lower 9th Ward, but had the levees failed on the other side, the Faubourg Marigny would have got it just as bad. People don’t understand that the Lower 9th Ward is not low ground. It is high ground and prime real estate.
The question is whether the pre-flood inhabitants of the Lower 9th Ward are going to come back to their home, or if that land is going to be packaged and sold for redevelopment. The reclamation of the Lower 9th Ward by it’s inhabitants is looking increasingly less likely with the glacial pace of recovery in this neighborhood that the media has made iconic.
John McCain punting, because he doesn’t have a plan for New Orleans. Unlike John Edwards who made New Orleans and the Gulf Coast a plank in the platform of his campaign.
We’re all talking about how much we’d like to have a member of the Edwards campaign, or John Edwards himself, talk to us about how we can make New Orleans an election issue in the coming months. We are going to be presenting a panel at Netroots Nation ‘08 entitled “Can the Democrats Save New Orleans?” Please read about the panel and join in that conversation.
Or maybe John McCain is not punting. Maybe he came to New Orleans to deliver a message to a Republican Louisiana. The question becomes, did McCain come here for our vote or is he here for the Northern Louisiana vote? Is he announcing that he’s going to resign the flooded neighborhoods to limbo for another four years?
Update: I’ve cooled down a bit. I hope that McCain is not as calculating as I’ve come to believe our current administration is. Mark Mosely linked to this story with Rebuild it, tear it down, you know, whatever…, noting what I’ve noted. He also linked to a CBS News story McCain Knocks Bush’s Response To Katrina.
McCain said the missteps of the Bush administration were well chronicled and undisputed, citing unqualified leaders, poor communication and a failure to recognize the dimensions of the problem.
In a conversation with reporters aboard his Straight Talk Express bus, McCain rejected the notion that he ran any risk of guilt by association with the Bush administration in coming to New Orleans, saying voters would judge him on his own record, not that of the current Republican president.
Local blogger dsbnola is upset about McCain’s endorsement by Pastor John Hagee The Great Big Easy Whore [Updated] who believes that New Orleans flooded because “it was a city that was planning a sinful conduct.”
The blogosphere seems to be paying more attention to McCain’s visit that it did to Bush’s. For Bush’s visit all we did was exchange traffic updates on Twitter.
Update 2: This unfortunately timed phtograph of McCain and Bush with cake is being bandied about the blogosphere in the context of McCain’s New Orleans visit. It is still hosted at White House website as of this writing.
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Such a shame at this point that Edwards is not the Dem candidate for healthcare, NOLA, economy etc.
Matt
Is he this out of touch everywhere he goes? I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s here to make it clear that he will go slow with aid to Southeastern Louisiana. Everyone hopes that if we talk long enough, New Orleanians will say, you know, you’re right, we’re going to move to Atlanta.
Have a look at the Can the Democrats Save New Orleans? post and let me know if you can think of someone to ask to be this panel.
[...] anything lacking specifics. But, as Stephanie noted, he’s saying the right things. The gaff about having a conversation aside, one could imagine that McCain is trying to be inclusive on his tour to places where he [...]
I think McCain shows his Bush strategey.
To make it sound like he feels strong about rebuilding NOLA, but when push comes to shove, theres nothing there.
Edwards will endorse Obama, and I for one really believe that Obama would actually *DO* more for us here than McCain or Clinton…
Brad