Bush: "Do Not Call Me A Racist"

It is quite clear that the President is starting a PR blitz with the aim of improving his poll numbers and disproving the perception that he resides in a bubble (as Newsweek reported this week). This is a must for the President. After declaring his intentions of spending the political capital that his reelection proved that he had, the President has been dogged by slow progress in Iraq and no significant legislative victories in the first year of his second term. If he hopes to achieve anything in his second term, he must improve his image now. Several polls have shown marginal improvement in Bush's approval ratings (except for Zogby, which has him down a few points in the last month); however, these numbers are soft and as the temperature drops and Americans begin paying the heating bills, these numbers will drop again.

This PR campaign has involved a series of pre-election speeches about Iraq and the first of probably a few prime time interviews. In his series of interviews with NBC Nightly News' Brian Williams, President Bush was asked a series of questions about Hurricane Katrina and the government response to it. While I applaud his willingness to come out of the West Wing and talk directly to the American people, I must take issue with his answer to this question:

WILLIAMS: After the tragedy, I heard someone ask rhetorically, `What if this had been Nantucket, Massachusetts, or Inner Harbor, Baltimore, or Chicago, or Houston?' Are you convinced the response would have been the same? Was there any social or class or race aspect to the response?

Pres. BUSH: I--somebody--I heard, you know, a couple of people say--you now, said, `Bush didn't respond because of race'--or `He is a racist.' Or alleged that. That is absolutely wrong, and I reject that. Frankly, that's the kind of thing that--you can call me anything you want, but do not call me a racist. Secondly, this storm hit all up and down. It hit New Orleans, but it hit down in Mississippi, too, and people should not forget the damage done in Mississippi.

First of all, nobody of any actual importance has publicly called President Bush a racist. (To respond directly to Kanye "George Bush doesn't care about black people" West is ludicrous.) Williams asked him a legitimate question about the class and race dimension to Hurricane Katrina, and the President immediately went on the defensive. He had a great opportunity to address a real problem in American society, and the President completely botched it. It is in candid moments like this that Presidents can speak directly to the public and change perceptions; however, this president has made it clear that he has no interest in acknowledging, let alone addressing, some of the most pressing issues facing this country. He is more interested in remaining a champion of the conservative Right, not the American people.