Structure of the government and relief

Here's this article. [BTW, the article is a bit . . . overly partisan for my tastes. I doubt Nagin and Blanco tried to exploit the tragedy for political effect. Failure does not equal malice. I would say they are victims of the over-hatred of Bush and the right, but that's just a guess.] [Via Ace of Spades.]

One could argue that if the New Deal and Great Society style centralization of government had continued, the responsibilities of Nagin and Blanco would have been less; one could also argue that a TR, an FDR, or a Clinton probably would have been less likely to go through the process to mobilize relief. One could also argue that Blanco and Nagin would have been more likely to yield power to Clinton.

I would argue that hypotheticals don't matter; Bush probably did as good a job as he was constitutionally allowed to do. Nagin bears responsibility for not taking the disaster as seriously as he possibly could have; the media bears responsibility for crying wolf far too often; Bush can be blamed for concentrating on Homeland Security to the detriment of FEMA, and for, in this case, respecting the rule of law too much - but at the end of the day, even the most powerful President can't do a goddamn hell of a lot against a hurricane.

Well, except for Arnold.

Schwartzeneggar in '08 - he'll kick that hurricane's sorry ass!

EDIT: Here is a quote from another Ace article:

Without doubt, Bush deserves some blame for this. He could have gone on national tv and addressed the country about the coming severity of the storm-- a presidential address underscores the gravity of the situation.

Still, many would have remained behind voluntarily. But some might have fled.

The Bush Administration also might have stepped in and removed authority from a clearly lackadaisical and incomptent state and local government. Sure, they would have caught heat for doing so ("Are you implying the black mayor of New Orleans is incompetent? Are you a racist?"), but people's lives have to be put ahead of politics. The mayor of New Orleans is an incompetent.