Policies or People?

Dave Milovich think Hurricane Katrina makes the case for making power less centralized in Washington, while others demand FEMA be removed from the Department of Homeland Security. This might come across as crass politics, but I don't think the catastrophes of the past week make any of those cases. Most of the failure we have witnessed came on the human level. Mayor Ray Nagin and Governor Kathleen Blanco could have found a way to get people out of the city who had no transportation on their own - commandeer a bus fleet or call out the national guard even before the storm if you have to. The worse failures, however, came from the Oval Office, as seen is stories like this one. Are bureaucrats in Washington fighting over responsibility? That's where we need a Chief Executive to be on the scene issuing orders to the people who work for him. You get the idea. The pathetic incompotence of the Bush administration, first clearly displayed in Iraq, has now had a price on our own soil, and should be of concern to everyone regardless of ideology.

UPDATE: Dave Milovich notes that Kevin has corrected his original post, and adds further to his own argument.