[Mb-civic] The Gulf Between Rhetoric and Reality - Dan Froomkin - Washington Post

[William Swiggard]

The Gulf Between Rhetoric and Reality

By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Friday, September 2, 2005; 1:51 PM

On his tour of the devastated Gulf Coast today, President Bush runs 
smack into another kind of gulf -- one between what his administration 
says it is doing and what the American public is watching on television.

Will he show true compassion, comprehension and leadership today by 
wading -- literally and figuratively -- among those who are still 
suffering? Or will it be a series of hermetically sealed photo ops?

Bush is under intense pressure to refute the growing criticism that his 
reaction to the disaster has been lackadaisical and ineffective. What's 
not clear is whether that means his aides will abandon their typically 
meticulous approach to stage-managing every presidential appearance -- 
or whether, in fact, they will embrace it more than ever.

Stay tuned.

So Far Today

In his first public appearance today, on the White House lawn , Bush 
acknowledged for the first time: "The results are not acceptable."

He then headed off to Mobile, Ala., his first stop.

"I'm looking forward to my trip down there, and looking forward to 
thanking those on the ground, and looking forward to assure people that 
we'll get on top of this situation and we're going to help people that 
need help," he said in Washington.

But somewhere along the way Bush apparently decided to sound a little 
more glum about his outing.

"I'm not looking forward to this trip," he said in Mobile.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2005/09/02/BL2005090201324.html?nav=hcmodule
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