American Politics

I've been finding American politics to be particularly fascinating lately. Part of it may be that my course load has a couple of classes on the US this semester, but I don't think that that's all there is to it.

On of the stories I found to be of interest was Bush's reaction to the hurricanes that hit the gulf coast. When the first one hit he was on vacation and seemed a little reluctant to cut that short. He eventually did, and then kept such a close eye on the events that he believed that FEMA's Michael Brown was doing "a heck of a job".

Bush's approval rating rather predictably took a hit over his handling of Katrina and its aftermath.

The really interesting part is what happened when Rita started heading towards the gulf coast. Clearly Bush and his staff had learned that people expected him to actually do something when a natural disaster strikes. The problem looks to have been that neither Bush nor his staff seemed to have a clear grasp on what precisely that something should be. The solution was simple enough and is something I've been guilty of trying now and then myself. Bush simply had to look busy. Now, my preferred strategy while trying to look busy is walk quickly while frowning and holding a piece of paper. Bush was going to need something a little more creative, so his staff arranged for a few photo ops. He was photographed looking at maps, photographed being briefed, he even wanted to be photographed overseeing hurricane preparations. (Because that wouldn't have been disruptive at all. The Whitehouse press corps and the United States Secret Service are both well known across the world for being subtle and unobtrusive. Thankfully that photo op was cancelled).

The other fascinating and slightly more recent event are the two indictments brought down against House Majority Leader Tom Delay. The charges themselves are not surprising and frankly, from what I've heard it sounds like there's more than enough to convict him. The interesting thing to me was something that was just mentioned in passing in the coverage I was listening to. Apparently Mr. Delay's lawyer is a little worried about his client's ability to get a fair trial. Seems he thinks the jury pool might be tainted because citizens of Texas are a little angry at Mr. Delay because he spearheaded an extremely partisan redistricting of the state that gained the GOP several more house seats and the majority in the House.

Now, that kind of partisan redistricting is technically known as "gerrymandering" and is one of the more unethical things one can do as an elected official. If Mr. Delay suffers at the hands of the people he willfully attempted to disenfranchise, then I believe that that is what is technically known as "poetic justice".