National Review Defends the Katrina President

"Revisionist historians, is what I like to call them"

Shorter Goldberg: Sure, Bush was fiddling while New Orleans drowned, but the press reported some things incorrectly about how much it was drowning and how many people were drowning with it, and isn't that just as bad, nay, worse?:

None of this is to say that the federal government and the Bush administration didn’t make mistakes. But, if we’re looking for poster children for arrogant incompetence in response to Katrina, there are better candidates than George W. Bush.

Really? Interesting argument.

Louisiana State of Emergency: August 26

Louisiana requests Bush declare Federal State of Emergency: August 27

Category 5 Storm Confirmed, Evacuation of New Orleans, Bush and Brown Warned of Potential Levee Failure, National Weather Service Issues Special Hurricane Warning, Topped Levees Reported: August 28

Landfall, Bush Administration notified of levee breach, Mayor Nagin reports water flowing over levees, Brown warns Bush of potential devastation, Director National Hurricane Center warns Bush of "grave concern" about levees, Levees breached by late morning, Louisiana requests "everything you’ve got," Bush goes to sleep: August 29

Chertoff finally becomes aware of levee failure, Pentagon claims there are enough troops, Mass looting reported, President Bush plays guitar with country singer Mark Willis and then returns to Crawford, Texas for final night of his vacation: August 30.

And that's not close to documenting everything arrogant and incompetent about Bush's Katrina non-response. It went on for days after the guitar session and played out on cable TV across the country. This is way too close in time to events most Americans likely have not yet forgetten for Goldberg to already be attempting to engage in this kind of historical revisionism.