(MSNBC) The president will fly to Mobile, Ala., then survey the Alabama and Mississippi coast by helicopter before visiting some sites on the ground in Mississippi Friday. He then plans to go to New Orleans for an aerial tour, said White House press secretary Scott McClellan.
“Tomorrow’s visit is another way for the president to show the nation’s support and compassion for the victims and our appreciation for those who are helping with the ongoing rescue and recovery efforts,” McClellan said. “It is an opportunity for the president to get a firsthand, up close look at the response and recovery efforts and to hear from those on the ground.”
Bush got a higher-altitude view Wednesday when his plane, Air Force One, dropped several thousand feet to fly directly over the region during Bush’s flight from his Texas ranch back to Washington. McClellan said Bush wanted to get a closer look as soon as possible, but didn’t go sooner because he didn’t want to disrupt emergency response efforts on the ground.
WTF!?! He could fly back to Washington in the middle of the night to sign legislation to save a brain-dead Florida woman. He could rush to the Ground Zero of the fallen World Trade Center to get a photo-op with his arm around a firefighter. But he plays golf, plays guitar, and gives speeches stumping for Medicare and comparing Iraq to WWII, because he didn’t want to get in the way?
Holy Christ! This is a job for… the X-Presidents!
President Bush… has asked his father, former President George H.W. Bush, and former President Clinton to lead a private fund-raising campaign for victims.
Bush asked his father and Clinton to lead the fund-raising campaign after they helped raise more than $1 billion in private donations to victims of the Asian tsunami that hit last December. He made the request of them Wednesday and the three planned a Thursday afternoon meeting in the Oval Office. McClellan said they didn’t have a fund-raising goal this time, but want “to maximize the response from the American people.”
Bush brushed off criticism that he did not return to Washington from his monthlong stay at his Texas ranch on Tuesday, in the immediate aftermath of the hurricane. “I hope people don’t … play politics during this period of time,” he said.
You sniveling weasel! You’re out pimping your pharmaceutical company-friendly Medicare plan and using VJ Day commemorations to liken Iraq to WWII, while tens of thousands of people are facing flooding, starving, rioting, looting, and death, and you want to claim I’m playing politics? Screw you and the vote-stealing machines you rode in on!
