The Competence Question
A lot of viewers of The White House Booth had questions relating to the Bush administration's handling of Hurricane Katrina. CBS News White House correspondent Bill Plante answers some of them.
Do you think the President's behavior may be somehow influenced by the attitude of his mother?
Barbara Bush, the other day in Houston, had this to say about the evacuees:
"What I'm hearing, which is sort of scary, is they all want to stay in Texas.
Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this is working very well for them."
(In the midst of this statement she could be heard chuckling!)
How does this family attitude carry over to the president of the United States of America?
Jerry Cunningham, Elgin, Texas.
The comment made by the President's mother, Barbara Bush, came up at a White House briefing — and Press Secretary Scott McClellan tried to skate by it by saying, "I think she was making a personal observation on the comments of some of the people she was running into. I'm not sure that's exactly what she said, but what we're focused on is helping those in need. Observation based on people that were talking to her that were in need of a lot of assistance." To be fair to McClellan, responding to that observation is a no-win situation. Was Mrs. Bush's offhand remark a "let them eat cake" moment? Hard to say. Does it carry over to the President? Nothing we've heard so far would suggest that it does.
Is somebody finally going to ask the administration about the level of competence in the White House? From the disaster in managing the aftermath of the war in Iraq to now the aftermath of the hurricane. When is someone going to take responsibility?
Todd Kramer, Murrieta California
The "competence" question has come up repeatedly in the days since Hurricane Katrina's devastation. It's been a little testy in the White House briefing room this past week. Reporters keep asking who's to blame for the slow response of the federal government in the disastrous wake of Hurricane Katrina. This administration, like any other, quickly developed a "line of the day" to respond to such questions. If you've been listening you've already heard it — "we're not here to play the blame game. There'll be plenty of time for that later — the important thing now is to move ahead." By now, the White House and Congress have both promised investigations into what went so wrong — but that isn't likely to stop the questions.
Why can't the government use the closed down military bases and associated housing for Katrina victims?
TCCotton
We've asked that question more than once. The answer we get is that the base closings we've been reporting recently are all in the future. There is some vacant military real estate from the last cycle of closings a decade ago, but most of it is said to be in no condition to receive or house the evacuees.
Why were CBS and other news agency flying over Katrina's devastated areas taking pictures and interviewing stranded people? You criticized the slowness of the relief efforts but you are as guilty as anyone else. You wasted a valuable resource by not using your helicopters to deliver food and water to the needy. That jester would have made a difference but you choose to just take horrible images. News agencies should be good citizens also in a crisis such as this. I would not expect you to endanger your own lives by attempting dangerous rescues but I'm sure you could have managed to deliver a huge amount of water and food.
Chris Guss
I wasn't in the hurricane area, but I do know for a fact that many reporters, including our CBS team, often lent a helping hand to the people they encountered. But we had no full-time helicopter capability, nor did we have the supplies to deliver. What we did do was show the nation and the world the full picture of the suffering and loss in the Gulf area.
Oil companies have made more than their fair share of wealth in the past. Why can't President Bush put a cap on the cost of gasoline for the American people? Prices are going up but no raises are being given. My daughter called today wanting to borrow one of my handguns. She was franticly crying and worried gas shortages would create a crime spree large enough for her to need a gun to protect her family. Can President Bush force his buddies to do the right thing and stop the increased gas prices or is he going to continue to make the poor of America suffer even more to break our backs once and for all?
Beth Ann Smith
Gas prices have gotten so high that Congress is now talking about an "excess profits" tax on the oil producers. That probably won't happen, but you can bet that the White House understands the damage the high prices are doing to the President's approval rating. In the latest CBS poll, three quarters of those questioned think gas will continue to go up and almost two-thirds say it's something the President could do a lot about. That may not be as easy as people seem to think — but you can bet the politicians will try to do something. After all, there's an election a year from November.
Keep your questions coming ...
Bill Plante