While President Obama‘s vacation at Martha’s Vineyard continues, the devastating floodwaters subsuming much of southern Louisiana have finally begun to subside. However and despite the tragedy’s forthcoming recovery period, the president’s apparent disregard for the natural disaster and its victims has drawn comparisons to George W. Bush’s oft-maligned neglect of the state during and after Hurricane Katrina’s onslaught in 2005. That’s why The Advocate, the newspaper of record in Baton Rouge, issued an editorial Thursday requesting Obama’s presence in a “hurting Louisiana.”
While “torrential rains brought death, destruction and misery to Louisiana, the president continued his vacation at Martha’s Vineyard, a playground for the posh and well-connected,” notes the editorial. “We’ve seen this story before in Louisiana, and we don’t deserve a sequel.”
The Advocate acknowledges Obama’s quickness at “officially declaring a disaster for the flooded part of the state, a key step in advancing federal aid.” (He’s also received regular briefings on the matter, according to the New York Times.) The paper also commends Federal Emergency Management Agency head Craig Fugate’s “active involvement” — as opposed to Katrina-era director Michael Brown’s “hapless” inefficiency — and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson’s forthcoming visit to the state. Still, they stress how the 13 reported deaths and 40,000 homes affected by the floods “[beg] for the personal presence of the president at ground zero.”
Not to mention the fact that, per the American Conservative, neither Donald Trump nor Hillary Clinton have referenced the Louisiana flooding all that much in the past week. Both the Republican and Democratic presidential nominees have neglected to address the tragedy in their public remarks, press releases, and social media posts. Clinton did tweet a link to the Red Cross on Tuesday, but aside from that, neither the former Secretary of State nor her campaign staff have said much else. (Trump, on the other hand, is now calling himself “MR. BREXIT.” So there’s that.)
The White House has yet to announce any change to Obama’s vacation plans, though if the president intends to visit Louisiana, it’d better happen soon. Especially since, as American Conservative writer Rod Dreher notes in an update to his piece, Obama went out of his way to visit areas affected by Hurricane Sandy in 2012, when the president was “running for [re-election].”
(Via The Advocate, New York Times and American Conservative)