Bush reaps what he has sown

Predictably, the pundits race to predict what effect the White House's lame response to the Katrina evacuation will have on the president's agenda. The WaPo weighs in with a roundup of reaction. Statements like this become somewhat tiresome.

"My impression of what they're trying to do after the first few days is to recover exactly the kind of performance that they say they're good at, which is essentially an executive-style leadership," said Charles O. Jones, emeritus professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin.

What performance? What executive style leadership? The Bush administration has been all PR and no substance since day one. He's not a leader - he just plays one on TV. That aside, this graf sums up Mr. Bush's current problems the best.

Public opinion appears to have been shaped considerably by the partisan polarization that long has defined attitudes toward Bush. In part, Bush may be reaping some of the consequences of a governing style that has favored confrontation over conciliation, of appealing first and foremost to his conservative base rather than the country as a whole.

Exactly. The Rovian strategy of playing both sides against the middle and giving the prize to the fringe elements while everyone is busy bickering, is finally coming back to bite him. When the levee broke it did more than drown a city, it revealed a flood of lies. The White House spin machine sputters without the grease of gullibility and it's impossible to reshape what Americans see before their eyes, about a land they know by heart.