Imagine you are the most powerful person in the world; the President of The United States. You have enormous and powerful resources at your disposal. A superpower military can be mobilized at your command.

Then you are briefed on the worst hurricane in recent history heading towards New Orleans, which is known to be a disaster waiting to happen. You don't just read this in the newspaper, you are personally briefed by the federal agency that tracks these things.

It is predicted that many Americans will die, the area will be devastated for years, and there is a strong liklihood of catastrophic flooding, the nightmare scenario everyone has feared.

What does W do? He delegates it, to Chertoff and Brown.

Do you think W's response would have been different if the hurricane was heading towards Texas, Maine, Washington DC or Florida?

How could this happen? I see three possible scenarios:

1. Incompetence (or maybe, dereliction of duty).
2. Apathy towards impoverished people and people of color. How can anyone argue with Kayne West's statements?
3. An educated choice to do nothing, perhaps for political gain.

Granted, the local and state goverments weren't any better. How could the Mayor of New Orleans not take decisive (and planned) actions to evacuate the city, with or without federal help (and when did he ask for federal help)? I am sure the state government of Louisiana could have done a better job too.

But, we need to find out how the federal government could have bungled such an important job. This isn't just another political scandal that will end when someone is fired. This screw-up cost thousands of lives and is one reason why we have the impeachment process.

Update: Best mainstream media observation made regarding W's response: