Over at The Moderate Voice I've been advocating getting all of the facts before pronouncing any edicts about disaster relief efforts....and enduring a round of name calling for my efforts. (*sigh* And on my birthday no less. How uncouth!)
Real Clear Politics hasn't felt the need to hold back on their evaluations, and I think its wrong. I don't believe they, or anyone else, have enough information to make informed overarching verdicts on federal, state or local officials. For example, what could you say about FEMA efforts in Mississippi or Alabama? I could say almost nothing about them because they haven't been covered by the press. For the same reason I couldn't tell you how state or local officials did either. Now we have all seen New Orleans, but again I don't feel like I have a depth of knowledge to make an informed opinion on how the city or state performed. I can say that FEMA's response in New Orleans (and in New Orleans alone) seemed lacking.
But here is the point: Everyone can see that FEMA's response was lacking in terms of the need of the people requiring assistance. What I do not know, and what no one has (or can?) tell me is if FEMA's response was short of its own capabilities. Unfortunately, there do not seem to be many who think that is an important question.
QandO has a great post looking at the RCP report card as well. I disagree with them, but it is good reading.
No comments:
Post a Comment